The Marlborough Book Festival: Recent Episodes
The Marlborough Book Festival
The Marlborough Book Festival is an annual readers and writers festival held in July in Marlborough, New Zealand. Listen to our podcasts to hear discussions with our featured writers, as they explain the challenges and the highlights of creating their various works and their lives as writers.
Nici Wickes in conversation with Belinda Jackson
Nici's career reads like a dream come true and she admits to sometimes having to pinch herself. Restaurant reviewer, food writer, presenter for a TV food and travel show, and now cookbook author. Sharing her enthusiasm for cooking, eating, and travel, Nici lets us in on how she creates new recipes, how she got to star in her own TV cooking show, World Kitchen, and what it was like to get her dream job as food editor for the esteemed New Zealand Woman’s Weekly, only to see it fall away during Covid.
If you've ever wondered what goes on behind the scenes of making a food and travel show or how food writers and cookbook authors come up with new recipes all the time, then come along to hear Nici's tales of all. Her various roles have paved the way to her latest cookbooks, which feature delicious recipes, most serving one to two people households, alongside personal stories for living well alone. Nici talks about a career of food writing, the fun times she has experienced and the happy place she finds herself in today with Belinda Jackson during the 2024 Marlborough Book Festival.
Emily Perkins and Sue McCauley in conversation with Jane Forrest Waghorn
What would Briar Howland and Therese Thorne talk about if they shared a table in a Wellington cafe? The protagonists of Sue McCauley and Emily Perkins’ latest books have little in common on the surface, but both are tired of being manipulated and shoehorned into roles. Both are seeking freedom and belonging around genuine people. They are making decisions about how to go forward in their lives and relationships, choosing what to keep and what to let go. Sue and Emily talk with Jane about challenges, choices and consequences facing the two characters and, by extension, many other women of a certain age in contemporary New Zealand. This session was recorded during the 2024 Marlborough Book Festival.
Emily Perkins in conversation with Nikki Macdonald
Emily talks about her novel Lioness which won the big fiction prize of 2024, The Acorn Fiction Prize at the Ockham NZ Book Awards. Judges described the novel as “an incisive exploration of wealth, power, class, female rage, and the search for authenticity”. The main character, Therese, is in her early 50s and her life is unravelling; her wealthy husband is being investigated for fraud and she is fascinated by a new friend Claire who has cast aside family and societal expectations. Warmth and humour - including a chaotic party scene at a flash Marlborough Sounds holiday home - are used to explore questions we might have hoped feminism would have solved years ago and to examine tensions of class and wealth. Emily talks to Nikki about Therese's coming of (middle) age.
Fletcher McKenzie in conversation with Des Ashton
Fletcher McKenzie is an accomplished author and aviator, known for his engaging books on aviation, including From the Pilot’s Seat. He is a passionate entrepreneur and holds two national flying titles. Fletcher created the global television show FlightpathTV and operates an international aircraft sales and parts supply business. He has served on various aviation trusts and executive committees and has published seven books aimed at pilots, earning him recognition in aviation circles worldwide.
Join Fletcher as he delves into his latest book, From the Pilot’s Seat, featuring enthralling stories from New Zealand pilots. These tales span a range of flying situations, from every day flights to heart-stopping adventures. The book covers various flying eras and aircraft, from World War II to the present day, including accounts from one of the original Dambusters and a pilot who flew Sir Richard Branson's private jet. Stories involve gliders, fighter jets, private aircraft, top-dressing planes, helicopters, and military aircraft, including the iconic F-18 from Top Gun.
Rachael King in conversation with Jane Forrest Waghorn
What magic lies behind the crafting of spellbinding adventure stories with enduring appeal? Rachael’s new book is infused with her love of horses and long-lost words, with ancient Scottish myths, and Te Waipounamu landscapes. Join Rachael as she discusses The Grimmelings and reflects on other children's stories that are still great reads in adulthood. This session has been planned with an adult audience in mind, but young readers are welcome, accompanied by an adult.
Lauren Keenan in conversation with Tania Miller
How can adults help spark children’s interest in Aotearoa New Zealand history? Lauren often gets asked this question and it is a subject close to her heart. Lauren talks to Tania about making history accessible and interesting to young readers and the special nature of writing for the middle reader audience.
The conversation is pitched at an adult festival audience, but the middle reader in your life is also welcome, accompanied by an adult. Lauren's middle reader books are Amorangi and Millie’s Trip Through Time and its sequel Rimu: The Tree of Time.
They follow two siblings who time travel back through their family tree and witness events in New Zealand history, including the invasion of Parihaka, the Great Depression, World War Two, the Musket Wars, and the eruption of Mount Taranaki. The siblings also experience changes in their town and landscape, the attitudes of people, and the way people live their lives.
Chris Tse in conversation with Sally McLennan
At the 2024 Marlborough Book Festival, the Poet Laureate talks about and reads from his poetry collections in which he explores questions of identity, including his Chinese heritage and queer identity, and addresses Aotearoa history. He also reflects on his time as Poet Laureate and his hopes for the power of poetry.
Chris Tse is the New Zealand Poet Laureate 2022-2025. His first collection, How to be Dead in a Year of Snakes (2014), won the Jessie Mackay Award for Best First Book of Poetry. The collection revisits the 1905 murder of Joe Kum Yung at the hands of the racist Lionel Terry. His second book, HE’S SO MASC, explores themes of identity, sexuality and pop culture. It received critical acclaim and was included in the New Zealand Herald‘s Best Books of 2018 and The Spinoff’s 20 Best Poetry Books of 2018.
His most recent collection of poetry, Super Model Minority (2022), was longlisted for the Mary and Peter Biggs Award for Poetry at the 2023 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards and was a finalist for the Gay Poetry Award at the 35th Lambda Literary Awards. With Emma Barnes, Chris co-edited Out Here: An Anthology of Takatāpui and LGBTQIA+ writers from Aotearoa (Auckland University Press, 2021). Chris is the editor of The Spinoff’s Friday Poem. Te Pouhuaki National Librarian Rachel Esson described Chris’s appointment as Poet Laureate as recognition of “a poet leading a generational and cultural shift in the reach and appreciation of poetry in Aotearoa”.
Nic Low is a writer, editor, arts organiser, te reo student, and dad with whakapapa links to Ōraka-Aparima in Southland. His writing on wilderness, technology, and race has been widely published and anthologised. His first book Arms Race, a collection of speculative fictions was shortlisted for the Readings and Steele Rudd prizes and named New Zealand Listener and Australian Book Review book of the year. He is a contributing editor at New Zealand Geographic magazine with a focus on Māori perspectives and former Programme Director of the WORD Christchurch Festival.
Uprising, Walking the Southern Alps of New ZealandNic Low in conversation with Dr Peter Meihana
Armed with Ngāi Tahu’s traditional oral maps and modern satellite atlas, Nic crossed the Southern Alps more than a dozen times, trying to understand how his Ngāi Tahu forebears saw the land. He discusses his book with Dr Peter Meihana (Rangitāne, Ngāti Kuia, Ngāti Apa ki te Rā Tō, Ngāi Tahu). Part gripping adventure story and part meditation on history and place, Uprising recounts Nic’s alpine expeditions to unlock stories living in the land.
Sue McCauley QSM, is a novelist, short story writer, playwright, journalist, and screenwriter. Her first novel, Other Halves (1982), won the Wattie Book of the Year Award and the New Zealand Book Award for Fiction. It was reprinted numerous times, in New Zealand and overseas, and was made into a film. In subsequent years Sue wrote five more novels, two short story collections and a biography. She has also written drama for stage and TV and adapted her own novel for the film Other Halves. Sue’s first book was loosely based on the early — and unconventional — relationship between Sue and her husband, Pat.
Sue discusses her latest novel, Landed, and reflects on her writing life in conversation with Tessa Nicholson. Landed is a wry, pensive, character-driven novel that is a close examination of what matters most in life. It’s about reconciling familial obligation with a sense of purpose and relevance, it’s about the inevitability of growing old, the importance of connection, and the need to find ‘home’.
Nici Wickes was the Instagram foodie we all needed during lockdown - down to earth, great fun, and cooking up a storm with mostly pantry ingredients. Her gorgeous cookbooks A Quiet Kitchen and the just-released More from a Quiet Kitchen include many of those recipes along with her honest reflections on her struggle to find contentment in mid-age, how she finds happiness in living alone in a quiet coastal community, and where she draws inspiration from.
Most of her recipes serve one or two and serve to inspire those who also live alone, though many are easily scaled up if you have friends over. Nici says: “I want this book to be a cookbook but also a guide to becoming accomplished at living alone, healthily, joyfully, quietly, whilst still feeling engaged and connected to the world and staying open to the mystery of it all.”
Hear Nici talking with Tania Miller at the 2024 Marlborough Book Festival about her cookbooks, her mid-life sea change, and how choosing to eat well goes hand in hand with choosing to live well.
Anna Smaill in conversation with Jane Forrest Waghorn
Anna’s latest novel moves between reality and magical realism, as two women navigate intense personal loss in a wonderfully hyperrealist, slightly eerie, Tokyo. Dinah is a New Zealander, teaching English in Japan, grieving her twin brother who was a gifted, but troubled, musician. Yasuko, who has talked to the natural world since her teens, is grieving her adult son’s move to independence.
In this exquisitely written novel, Anna explores the feelings that come with losing a loved one and teases out the tension between our internal and external lives. Don’t miss hearing Anna in conversation with Jane Forrest Waghorn at the 2024 Marlborough Book Festival.
Marlborough-based historian Ron Crosby has tramped the Urewera forests to retrace the steps of Te Kooti and his pursuers. That legwork deeply informs his latest book Te Kooti’s Last Foray. He discusses his findings and the adventures he had along the way.
Ron was in conversation with Pete Anderson at the 2023 Marlborough Book Festival.
Marlborough-based Wine journalist Tessa Nicholson has interviewed industry players and been witness to challenges overcome and enterprise rewarded.
Speaking to journalist Mike White at the 2023 Marlborough Book Festival, Tessa discusses her book Fifty Years, Fifty Stories, Marlborough the Region That Turned The Wine World Upside Down.
Joanne Drayton is an art historian, biographer and nonfiction writer. Her personal memoir The Queen’s Wife was published in January this year. Her book Hudson & Halls: The Food of Love won the non-fiction award at the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards in 2019. The Search for Anne Perry was a top-10 non-fiction on the New York Times bestseller list.
Joanne discusses the art of biography writing and shares stories about researching her acclaimed biographies of Ngaio Marsh, Frances Hodgkins, Anne Perry, Hudson and Halls, Rhona Hazard and Edith Collier. How does one unlock the secrets of other people’s lives and turn them into such great reads?
Joanne was in conversation with Nikki Macdonald at the 2023 Marlborough Book Festival.
W J Moloney discusses Invincible, a novel based on the incredible story of one man’s journey through a world war and onto worldwide sporting glory.
The novel follows Son White, a Southland man who went to WWI with his horse Ben and returned a mentally scarred man who found redemption on the rugby field. After joining a local club in 1919 he managed to be selected for the All Blacks by 1921 and captained the team that was famously undefeated on their 1924 tour of the British Isles and France. W J discusses his five years of research on the book and reflects on his family’s experience of the intergenerational effects that the Great War had on families.
He was in conversation with Tessa Nicholson at the 2023 Marlborough Book Festival.
Luke Elworthy discusses The Last Letter of Godfrey Cheathem, a satire that explores being the average sibling in a family of creative geniuses and pokes fun at Kiwi life. Luke reflects on his teen years at a conservative boarding school and a commune, his publishing work, and life in Marlborough.
Luke Elworthy was in conversation with Jason Henry at the 2023 Marlborough Book Festival.
Please note that Luke's readings from the book contain some strong language. If you're around kids or would rather avoid swearing, you might want to listen later or grab some headphones.
Growing up, Dr Peter Meihana often heard that Māori received special treatment and had advantages that other New Zealanders did not. However, this idea didn’t match with his life experience as Māori nor did it match with what he learned when he became hooked on studying history.
He blew the myth apart in his doctorate thesis and has kindly encapsulated his argument for the lay reader in his important new book, Privilege in Perpetuity, Exploding a Pākehā Myth.
Peter was in conversation with Emma Tucker at the 2023 Marlborough Book Festival.
Soraya Lane has followed her heart creating historical fiction and romance novels. Her series, The Lost Daughters, has been an international success, and her WWII novels are enormously popular with lovers of the historical genre.
At the 2023 Marlborough Book Festival she explains to Courtney Clark Michaels about her writing life and how she weaves empowerment of women in the #MeToo era into her fiction.
Robbie Burton discusses his memoir, Bushline, which tells of life, love and adventures in the outdoors, as well as his long career in publishing.
The natural world played a central part in developing his youthful obsession with tramping, skiing and mountaineering, first in Nelson Lakes National Park, then throughout the Southern Alps.
Robbie was in conversation with Nikki Macdonald at the 2023 Marlborough Book Festival.
Joanne Drayton discusses her memoir, The Queen’s Wife, a modern love story featuring whakapapa, archaeology, art and heartbreak, with Jane Forrest Waghorn at the 2023 Marlborough Book Festival.
Joanne’s story is one of two married women who met in 1989 in Christchurch. Their love threatens to cost them their children, families and friends and forces them to reassess their sexuality, identity and heritage. Against the odds, the couple’s new life together is rich in laughter, travel, unusual encounters, investigations into Viking raids, the Kingitanga movement and much more.
Mrs Jewell and the Wreck of the General Grant is a vivid imagining of the story behind the southern hemisphere's most famous shipwreck. The gold-laden General Grant struck the Auckland Islands in 1866, with just 14 men and a single woman making it to shore.
The mystery of what happened to the ship has attracted treasure hunters and adventurers ever since, and fascinated author Cristina Sanders and interviewer, journalist Mike White. This session is from the 2023 Marlborough Book Festival.
Gavin Lang's book Seeking the Light is about climbing the country’s highest mountains that rise above 3000m, but it's about the importance of getting outdoors to improve health and wellbeing.
Inspiring and exhilarating, each story captures the tension and drama of mountaineering in Aotearoa, and is vividly brought to life with Gavin’s outstanding photography. Gavin’s work is a beautiful and original contribution to mountain lore and literature.
Gavin was talking with fellow outdoorsman Mike White at the 2023 Marlborough Book Festival.
Two consistencies throughout Eileen Merriman’s childhood were her fascination with the human body and a desire to be a doctor. She worked hard at science but excelled at English.
From doctor to fiction writer, the award-winning author delves into the science of blood and bone and the intricate depths of heart and soul during a conversation with Tessa Nicholson during the 2023 Marlborough Book Festival.
An utterly believable mimicking magpie narrates this extraordinary story set in the beautiful yet harsh landscape of Central Otago. Catherine Chidgey discusses her inspiration for the novel, with its exploration of themes encompassing domestic violence, the challenges of farming, the weird world of internet fame, and the vagaries of human relationships with animals, which she suggests can be at once closely bonded and exploitative.
Catherine was in conversation with Nikki Macdonald at the 2023 Marlborough Book Festival.
In his latest book, the Ockham illustrated non-fiction award-winning Jumping Sundays: The Rise and Fall of the Counterculture in Aotearoa New Zealand, Nick Bollinger tells the story of beards and bombs, freaks and firebrands, self-destruction and self-realisation, during the ‘60s and ‘70s, a turbulent and definitive period in New Zealand’s history and culture. ‘Bollinger puts a personal and personable stamp on this critical decade with words, sights and sounds that surprise and delight,’ writes cultural historian Bronwyn Labrum.
Nick was in conversation with Robbie Burton at the 2023 Marlborough Book Festival.
Hear a selection of guest authors take their work off the page and onto the stage in the gala opening of the 2023 Marlborough Book Festival.
In order, the audience heard from Joanne Drayton, Eileen Merriman, Cristina Sanders, Michael Bennett and Joanna Preston.
Their stories - whether true, imagined or a blurring of both - certainly got to the heart of the matter. They'll certainly make you want to hear more. This was a special event to launch the festival, providing a taste of the treats ahead over the weekend to come.
Paula Morris has become a vital voice in New Zealand literature, with highly acclaimed short stories, essays and novels, including 'Rangatira', fiction winner at the 2012 NZ Post Book Awards and Ngā Kupu Ora Māori Book Awards. But her work goes well beyond her own pen, as an advocate for New Zealand literature and Māori writers.
Paula is the founder of the Academy of New Zealand Literature and Wharerangi, the Māori literature hub, and co-editor of 'Ko Aotearoa Tātou', an anthology of fiction, nonfiction, poetry and visual art created in response to the 2019 Christchurch mosque attacks.
Paula speaks to fellow novelist Rachael King at the 2022 Marlborough Book Festival about a literary life, as writer, teacher, mentor and advocate.
Kate Camp’s most recent collection of poetry, How To Be Happy Though Human, is strikingly apt for current times.
In conversation with Cliff Fell at the 2022 Marlborough Book Festival, Kate discusses her influences and inspirations behind her highly acclaimed poetry, and reads selected poems.
Place and story go hand in hand. Landscape must first live on the page for it to blossom in the mind of the reader. But landscape in literature is both a reflection and an invention. Lloyd Jones and Kate De Goldi will discuss exploring the landscapes of their favourite books from childhood, and consider how they write 'place' into story.
This session was recorded at the 2022 Marlborough Book Festival,
Three contemporary New Zealand novelists talk writing. Sue Orr, Kirsten McDougall and Rebecca K Reilly discuss their inspiration, processes and generational insights. They also discuss the place of women - as authors and protagonists - in modern literature.
This session took place during the 2022 Marlborough Book Festival.
In From the Centre: A Writer's Life Patricia Grace takes us through her childhood, education, marriage and up to the present day, in this touching and self-deprecating story of her life – the life of a writer, of a Māori woman and of a teacher. It expresses the love for family and for ancestral land; shows the prejudices she's had to face and what made her stronger; and tracks her career as a writer.
We were thrilled to welcome back Patricia Grace to the Marlborough Book Festival in 2022 where she was in conversation with Paula Morris.
From cooking for Prime Ministers and dignitaries in Europe, to being chosen as personal chef for Maestro Luciano Pavarotti, having her own television show and long running radio career and, of course, her award-winning cookbooks, Julie Biuso’s life has been full of the joy of food and sharing it with others.
Listen to Julie in conversation with Charlotte Patterson about her illustrious and delicious career (make sure to eat first)!
Rebecca K Reilly (Ngāti Hine, Ngāti Wai) is the author of the smart and funny debut novel Greta & Valdin, which has topped the bestsellers list for weeks and won the Hubert Church Prize for best first book of fiction for the 2022 Ockham NZ Book Awards.
Greta & Valdin was a Newsroom novel of the year and the Ockham Award judges described it as “gloriously queer, hilarious and relatable”. Hannah Tunnicliffe writes in her review for Kete: “It's an Auckland barely seen in New Zealand fiction – young, diverse, told from the inside.
Racism, sexism and homophobia are all examined here in ways that make you think, sometimes cringe but mostly laugh, due to Reilly’s dry, acerbic tone which manages to also be warm and generous.”
Rebecca discusses her extraordinary modern classic with Tania Miller at the 2022 Marlborough Book Festival.
Steve Braunias captivated festival audiences at Spy Valley in 2016, talking of the 12 true stories of crime and punishment behind his book Scene of the Crime.
We were delighted to have him back at the cellar door for the 2022 Marlborough Book Festival with Missing Persons, his latest collection of true crime writing, exposing 12 extraordinary tales of disappearance in New Zealand.
Kate Camp talks about her wonderful new memoir You Probably Think This Song is About You brimming with hard-won wisdom and generous humour.
In conversation with Naomi Barton, Kate shares experiences as diverse as bad relationships, misheard songs, the fallibility of memory and the wrong turns we take.
In the words of author and reviewer Catherine Chidgey: “Kate’s essays shine with wit, intelligence, and a humanity that is both intimate and universal.”
Eddy, Eddy - in conversation with Tania Miller
Kate De Goldi's new book Eddy, Eddy follows Eddy Smallbore, an orphan, who is grappling with identity, love, loss and religion. It's two years since he blew up his school life and the earthquakes felled his city. Home life is maddening. His pet-minding job is expanding in peculiar directions. And now the past and the future have come calling – in unexpected ways.
"Ruth Shaw's life has been crammed with incredible adventure, and at times damned by terrible tragedy," writes Mike White in Stuff. "There have been pirates, and prostitutes, and protests and pig farming; gold mining, gambling and grief."
Speaking to Charlotte Patterson, Ruth talks about her uplifting story of survival, her tiny Fiordland bookshops and a memoir that's helping others address wounds from their past.
- in conversation with Rachael King
Climate change is no laughing matter, but Kirsten McDougall's fast-paced novel She's a Killer set in a foreseeable future Aotearoa is full of unexpected humour. Her apathetic protagonist Alice is content to observe society's disarray until a teenage genius with a fantastic backstory upends her life and emboldens her to act.
At the 2022 Marlborough Book Festival, Kirsten discusses her masterful plot, fresh characters and the power of fiction to help us face up to climate forecasts.
Susan Paris and Kate De Goldi are changing the landscape for young readers in New Zealand, as they curate fresh writing and illustration from some of New Zealand's top talent. The pair have followed on from the success of Annual and Annual 2 with Skinny Dip, an anthology of 36 school-inspired poems from 24 New Zealand poets, to reflect everyday experiences of Kiwi kids, from nits and crushes to rainy-day lunchtimes, through a range of poetic forms.
Learn what inspires these champions of young readers, and how they push boundaries to create bespoke books for a new generation. A session for teachers, writers, artists, parents, grandparents and poetry lovers.
Charlie, 15 and pregnant at a time abortion isn’t legally available in New Zealand, makes an impulsive choice with far reaching consequences in the opening chapters of Sue Orr’s latest novel.
Loop Tracks tackles abortion, addiction, ageing, autism and euthanasia against a setting of Wellington’s first Covid-19 lockdown. They’re big topics tackled with sensitivity, elegance and humour in a work shortlisted for the 2022 NZ Ockham awards.
Sue was in conversation with Tessa Nicholson at the 2022 Marlborough Book Festival.
The last time Steve Braunias attended the Marlborough Book Festival, he trawled through our op-shops seeking record covers that might reveal insights into New Zealand’s popular culture from 1957 to 1987, when the LP was king of recorded music.
We like to think a few made their way to his latest book, Cover Story: 100 Beautiful, Strange and Frankly Incredible New Zealand LP Covers.
Speaking to Tania Miller at the 2022 Marlborough Book Festival, Steve discusses the interviews behind the book and his own experience collecting more than 800 albums.
Lloyd Jones is one of New Zealand’s most significant and successful contemporary authors, whose works include The Book of Fame, based on the All Blacks’ 1905 international tour, and Mr Pip, set amid the civil war on Bougainville Island in the early 1990s, which won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize.
Lloyd talks with friend and fellow writer Kate De Goldi about his life and work, including the allegory The Cage, and his latest novel, The Fish.
Wrens Under the Radar by Marlborough librarian Colleen Shipley is inspired by the true story of eight women posted to a top-secret mission in Blenheim from November 1942 to May 1944.
The story of loss, healing and friendship provides a vivid snapshot of life in New Zealand during World War II. Colleen discusses her inspiration, fascinating research discoveries and road to publication.
Colleen Shipley speaks with Barbara DeLeo during the 2022 Marlborough Book Festival.
Kirsten McDougall is the author of an eco-thriller novel set in a climate-changed future, Dave Lowe is a scientist who has been raising the alarm about atmospheric changes for decades.
Both authors say their work was borne of anger and frustration at the lack of action to mitigate a looming disaster.
This conversation with Bev Doole was recorded during the 2022 Marlborough Book Festival.
Award-winning writer Paula Morris delivers a lecture on the fascinating, chaotic and ground-breaking life of the New Zealand journalist, poet, fiction writer and war correspondent Iris Wilkinson, aka Robin Hyde.
Paula and distinguished photographer Haru Sameshima went off the beaten track to produce 'Shining Land: Looking for Robin Hyde', a "picture book" made for grown-ups which explores Robin Hyde by visiting three locations of her life.
Shining Land is the second in the kōrero series of picture books edited by Lloyd Jones, in which leading New Zealand writers and artists collaborate to 'stretch' the bounds of what a book can do.
Two women who love books talk books at a book festival.
Ruth Shaw, much-loved Manapōuri writer who has found happiness running three tiny bookshops in her garden, and Tessa Nicholson, a much-loved Marlborough writer and festival chair who has been known to read a book a day, come together to discuss Ruth's wonderful book of stories about her extraordinary life and quirky bookshops, The Bookseller at the End of the World.
This conversation was recorded at the 2022 Marlborough Book Festival.
There’s never been a better time to self-publish, says Barbara DeLeo.
Her workshop at the 2022 Marlborough Book Festival canvasses every step of the process, from writing and editing, formatting and publishing, to getting your book into e-readers, audio and libraries, and perhaps on the shelves of little bookshops on the opposite side of the world.
Barbara also talks about marketing, getting paid royalties for your work and the potential pitfalls of being your own gatekeeper.
We were thrilled to have Abbas Nazari as our guest for the opening event of the 2022 Marlborough Book Festival.
Abbas was seven years old when his family fled the Taliban in Afghanistan, hoping to find a new home in Australia. The journey that followed, including a sinking fishing boat, heroic rescue by the Tampa container ship, and doors closed by the Australian Government, caught the world’s attention.
More than 20 years after the Nazari family was resettled in New Zealand, Abbas is a prominent advocate for refugees, was a semi-finalist for the 2022 Young New Zealander of the Year, and author of the best-selling memoir 'After the Tampa'.
Abbas was speaking with Paula Morris.
We were thrilled to have Abbas Nazari as our guest for the opening event of the 2022 Marlborough Book Festival.
Abbas was seven years old when his family fled the Taliban in Afghanistan, hoping to find a new home in Australia. The journey that followed, including a sinking fishing boat, heroic rescue by the Tampa container ship, and doors closed by the Australian Government, caught the world’s attention.
More than 20 years after the Nazari family was resettled in New Zealand, Abbas is a prominent advocate for refugees, was a semi-finalist for the 2022 Young New Zealander of the Year, and author of the best-selling memoir 'After the Tampa'.
Abbas was speaking with Paula Morris.
Nicolas Dillon discusses his very personal and heartfelt tribute to the birds of New Zealand, 'Drawn to the Wild'.
This session looks back over the author’s life in Marlborough and delves into the birds he has painted and also the more intangible aspects of nature which fascinate him.
Nicolas was speaking to Mike White at the 2021 Marlborough Book Festival.
From Parisian model to bestselling author, Christine Leunens talks about her extraordinary life and work.
What was it like to have her novel 'Caging Skies' so successfully adapted into the Academy Award-winning 'Jojo Rabbit'? Plus, we get a sneak peek into her next novel.
Christine was talking to Nikki MacDonald at the 2021 Marlborough Book Festival.
John McCrystal gives us insight into his new book, 'Worse Things Happen at Sea: Tales of nautical mishap, misery and mystery from New Zealand and around the world'.
Covering the tragic, the heroic, and the inexplicable, John also discusses one of our greatest maritime mysteries, the sinking of the Mikhail Lermontov in the Marlborough Sounds.
John was speaking to Mike White at the 2021 Marlborough Book Festival.
Sharon Murdoch started cartooning in her 50s and in a few short years became the first woman to regularly draw political cartoons for a daily newspaper in New Zealand.
At the 2021 Marlborough Book Festival, Sharon discusses with Nikki MacDonald her life, her award-winning work and her drive to draw attention to social justice - and the joy of drawing cats and dogs.
John McCrystal tells the story of New Zealand through maps and the explorers who made them.
From early Maori and European voyagers, to settlers, surveyors and soldiers, John’s book, 'Singing the Trail', unearths little-known and fascinating histories of this country contained in beautiful and extraordinary maps.
John was speaking to Mike White at the 2021 Marlborough Book Festival.
Tickets for the Marlborough Book Festival 2022 are on sale now.
Should we be paralysed by fear or optimistic for the world future generations will inherit?
Rebecca Priestley experiences both emotions in her eco-memoir, 'Fifteen Million Years in Antarctica', reflecting on her three visits to Antarctica. The book was praised by reviewers and longlisted for the general non-fiction award at the 2020 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards.
Speaking to Nikki MacDonald at the 2021 Marlborough Festival, Rebecca discusses the science carried out in Antarctica; her awe for the landscape and wildlife; and her concerns and hope for the future.
Tickets for the Marlborough Book Festival 2022 are on sale now.
The Guardian praised 'The Absolute Book' as "everything a fantasy should be: original, politically engaged and teeming with literary allusion”.
Elizabeth Knox discusses her inspiration for the story, the references within to other fantasy traditions, and important messages the novel conveys about reality and the challenges of current times.
If you haven’t read the book before the session, we wager you won’t be able to resist after hearing all about it.
Elizabeth was speaking to Jane Forrest Waghorn at the 2021 Marlborough Book Festival.
Tickets for the 2022 Marlborough Book Festival are now on sale.
Elizabeth Knox has been imagining fantastic worlds and characters since she was a child. Some of those plots are still unfolding.
The writer shares stories from publishing rejections to publishing sensations starting with 'The Vintner’s Luck', and how she emerged from family loss to write her latest book, 'The Absolute Book', which she feels is her best yet.
Elizabeth was speaking to Kim Hill at the 2021 Marlborough Book Festival.
Dame Fiona marked her 80th birthday last year with the publication of 'All the Way to Summer', a beautiful volume of stories; all moving, insightful and written with love.
The final stories trace her own history of love, a memoir of significant people from childhood and beyond.
The collection is the perfect starting point for a conversation about her extraordinary life.
Dame Fiona was speaking to Tessa Nicholson at the 2021 Marlborough Book Festival.
What’s it like when your first published novel wins big awards and receives rave reviews?
'Auē', Becky Manawatu’s story of good kids and grim circumstances set just down the road in Kaikōura, has won a place in the hearts of her many readers.
Becky was speaking to Jane Forrest Waghorn at the 2021 Marlborough Book Festival.
Mike White discusses his delightful, funny and moving book 'How To Walk A Dog' with Tessa Nicholson at the 2021 Marlborough Book Festival.
Mike talks about his dog Cooper, the remarkable people and dogs he’s met while walking him, and life at a Wellington dog park.
The Ockham judges praised 'Sprigs' as “an unflinching novel which forces us to reckon with uncomfortable truths about power and privilege in Aotearoa”. The book comes with trigger warnings, but also nuanced storytelling and some comic relief.
Speaking at the 2021 Marlborough Book Festival, Brannavan discusses the book and the issues around masculinity it puts in the spotlight with Tessa Nicholson.
Dame Fiona Kidman has never shied away from the big topics both on and off the page. She has a deep interest in social justice and telling the story of “outsiders”.
Speaking to Jane Forrest Waghorn, Fiona reflects on the causes she has taken up over her career, from her feminist writings in the 70s and 80s, to telling the tragic tale of Albert Black, one of the last people to be executed in this country, in 'This Mortal Boy' (2018).
The conversation was recorded at the 2021 Marlborough Book Festival.
In 'The Secret of Strangers' (2020), a gunshot rings out in a London cafe and the lives of five strangers are forever changed.
Speaking to Tessa Nicholson at the 2021 Marlborough Book Festival, Charity discusses her involvement in the real-life event that inspired the book, as well as her recent novels, her inspiration, influence and writing process.
Charity Norman’s own life story is as fascinating as the lives she writes about in her gripping novels - minus meth addiction and cult membership. Born in Uganda and raised in UK vicarages, Charity pursued travel and a successful legal career as a barrister before moving to New Zealand.
Speaking to Barbara De Leo at the 2021 Marlborough Book Festival, Charity reflects on her road to rave reviews and bestseller status.
The Ice Shelf: Anne Kennedy in conversation with Naomi Arnold at Spy Valley Winery at the 2019 Marlborough Book Festival.
On the Marlborough Book Festival's signature Marlborough Sounds Cruise, guests enjoyed beautiful scenery and brunch including fresh New Zealand King Salmon and stunning Dog Point Vineyard wines.
Listen as eminent New Zealand historian Dr Vincent O'Malley discusses some of the lesser-known aspects of Aotearoa history, including the Wairau Affray, with Marlborough-based historian Ron Crosby.
The Art of Simple: Eleanor Ozich in conversation with Charlotte Patterson at The Treehouse at Cloudy Bay at the 2019 Marlborough Book Festival.
Emily Writes in conversation with Naomi Arnold at The Treehouse at Cloudy Bay at the 2019 Marlborough Book Festival.
In a Marlborough Book Festival first, some of our guest authors took their stories off the page and brought them to us live on stage, in a fun filled, exciting and moving evening of Kiwi oratory talent.
Tina Makereti writes novels, essays and short stories. When Tina came to investigate her Moriori heritage it led to her first novel, Where the Rēkohu Bone Sings.
In this session with journalist Nikki Macdonald, Tina discusses her novel that confronts the complexity of being Moriori, Māori and Pākehā and finding a place of belonging.
One of New Zealand's finest writers, Vincent O'Sullivan came to the 2018 Marlborough Book Festival in the wake of releasing his first novel in 20 years, All This By Chance.
In this session, Vincent chats with journalist Mike White about his novel - a moving, multi-generational saga, of a family spread across Italy, Greece, Africa and New Zealand.
Diana Wichtel is an award-winning journalist, well known for her media commentary for the New Zealand Listener.
Diana's family memoir Driving to Treblinka has been described as a "beautiful, profoundly moving search for her father and also for memory, in a story that clings to humour and love".
In this session from the 2018 Marlborough Book Festival, interviewer Tessa Nicholson adeptly draws out the humour and love in Diana's deeply moving personal stories.
Jenny Pattrick is one of New Zealand's best selling novelists. In this conversation with Tessa Nicholson at the 2018 Marlborough Book Festival, Jenny reflects on the art of historical fiction while sharing her personal story. The pair discuss why Jenny chooses to write historical fiction, how she picks her subject and the importance of developing a unique voice for each novel.
New Zealand Poet Laureate Selina Tusitala Marsh and doctor, award-winning poet and captivating orator Glenn Colquhoun shared the stage at the 2018 Marlborough Book Festival to discuss their shared love of poetry.
Tom Scott and Diana Wichtel, who both published books about their families in 2017, chat to journalist Nikki Macdonald about the possible perils of writing family memoirs, the insistence of memories, and the importance of family in determining who we become.
An eminent archaeologist and historian of Ngai Tahu descent, Atholl Anderson was one of three authors behind the multi award-winning Tangata Whenua: An Illustrated History.
Atholl joined us at the 2018 Marlborough Book Festival with Marlborough based historian, Ron Crosby to delve into what's known and what's yet to learn about our country's fascinating past.
In 2017, The Marlborough Readers and Writers Charitable Trust won the supreme Marlborough Trustpower Community Award. Trustee and founding Marlborough Book Festival committee member Sonia O'Regan spoke to Tash from MoreFM after our big win was announced.
Brian Turner is a New Zealand poet, essayist, biographer and editor, as well as an ardent and accomplished sportsman, conservationist and champion of our wild places.
In this conversation with Mike White, Brian, a previous New Zealand Poet Laureate, talks about growing up in one of New Zealand's most famous sporting families and representing New Zealand; ocean sailing, climbing, cycling, fishing and golf caddying; his love of the environment and his battles to preserve it; and how it's all played a part in a half century of extraordinary writing.
John Pickrell is an award-winning journalist, the former editor of Australian Geographic magazine and the author of Flying Dinosaurs, How Fearsome Reptiles Became Birds, and Weird Dinosaurs, The Strange New Fossils Challenging Everything we Thought we Knew.
John joined us at the 2017 Marlborough Book Festival for two sessions in conversation with Mike White, including this one at Spy Valley Wines, where he discussed his books on fascinating new dinosaur discoveries, fossil hunts from the Australian Outback to Antarctica, and his experiences digging for dinosaurs in Australia and Mongolia.
Is beer pong an Olympic sport? What does beer made with stag semen taste like? Author of How To Have A Beer Alice Galletly provides answers to such pressing questions and offers tips on how to get the most out of every glass of beer, in conversation with wine maker Ben Glover at the 2017 Marlborough Book Festival.
Dame Anne Salmond makes history intriguing, exciting and highly relevant. An eminent anthropologist, historian, writer and environmentalist, Anne shares her understanding of the Māori experience and how it shapes us all as New Zealanders.
As Marlborough prepares to celebrate 250 years since Cook first visited the region, local author Peter Jerram, a long-time Cook enthusiast, spoke with Anne about two of her incredibly detailed and gripping books, Two Worlds, Between Worlds, and The Trial of the Cannibal Dog, Captain Cook in the South Seas onboard the Marlborough Tour Company’s MV Odyssea in the Queen Charlotte Sound.
Four of New Zealand's leading journalists - Mike White, Nikki Macdonald, Naomi Arnold and Charles Anderson - discuss how they tell stories in depth in an age of clickbait, and the role of new story-telling techniques and the ressurgence of podcasts.