9 November 2011

Fiona Farrell is the 2011 Otago University Robert Burns Fellow. She has recently launched The Broken Book, a book that started off being a travel memoir about walking, but that developed into something quite different in the aftermath of the Christchurch earthquakes, which resulted in her city house being red stickered and changed life at her home on the Banks Peninsula. We’ll talk about The Broken Book, and also her experiences in being the Burns Fellow.

 


The New Zealand General Election is to be held on Saturday the 26th of November, and in conjunction there is the referendum on the voting system in New Zealand. Dr Philip Temple is a supporter of the existing system, MMP, and has recently formed Writers for MMP, a group of notable New Zealand writers who have also come out to show their support of MMP. We will talk about MMP, the referendum and what it all means.

12 October 2011

International guests day.

Today I am replaying interviews with two of the special international guests I've had the privilege to chat with, American writers Diana Gabaldon and Annie Proulx.

Diana Gabaldon is an American writer and Best-Selling author of the Outlander series of books which are a winning combination of historic fiction, modern day, science fiction, romance and adventure. Diana was in Dunedin promoting the seventh book in the series, An Echo in the Bone. We talked about the pleasures and challenges of writing such a sprawling saga that covers turbulent times in history from Culloden to the American Revolution.






American author Annie Proulx visited Dunedin in March to promote her new book Bird Cloud, a memoir. I had the opportunity to talk with Annie about Bird Cloud, as well as her other writing.

14 September 2011

Dunedin writer Paul Sorrell has teamed up once again with photographer Graham Warman ( Fleur’s Place) to produce Trail: Riding the Otago Central Rail Trail. We will talk about the research involved in producing a book like this, the highlights of the rail trail and some of the characters he met along the way.



 

Dr Poia Rewi is an associate professor in Te Tumu, the school of Maori, Pacific and Indigenous studies at the University of Otago. His book Whaikorero: The World of Maori Oratory won the Best First Book Award in the 2011 New Zealand Post Book Awards. We will talk about Whaikorero, and the story behind the book. 







 

10 August 2011

Sophie’s Legacy is the recently released book written by Leslie Elliott and William J O’Brien as a tribute to Sophie Elliott, the young Dunedin woman murdered by Clayton Weatherston in 2008. The book describes the events leading up to, and those that occurred on the day of Sophie’s death, and then the harrowing aftermath including the family’s experiences in the justice system. I will be talking with Bill O’Brien about the book and how he approached writing about such difficult and emotional events with the people most affected by them.








 

Laurence Fearnley has recently been announced as the winner of the 2011 NZ Post Book Award for Fiction for The Hut Builder. I talked with her several months ago about The Hut Builder and her writing, and will replay this interview with the always interesting to chat with Fearnley.