“For American alt rock icon Kristin Hersh, every note and word has to fascinate. Every song has to be alive, like a great person . . . full of colours and sweat and memories and potential.
A key figure in the alt rock movement and a prominent solo artist, Hersh visits Christchurch later this month for appearances at WORD Christchurch Writers & Readers Festival.” Read More
Diane Setterfield knew her mum would want to read her first try at a book, The Thirteenth Tale, so she chivvied herself along. It turned out more than 3 million other people wanted to read it, too. She talks to Diana Dekker.
“Zimbabwe-born NoViolet Bulawayo is promoted by her publishers as a “superstar author”, one whose first novel, We Need New Names, was shortlisted for the 2013 Man Booker Prize. She’s the first black African woman and first Zimbabwean to receive this accolade.
The book, set in a Zimbabwean shantytown and in the US, is told in the voice of a 10-year-old African child, Darling. She immigrates to America, but the adjustment is fraught.” Read More.
In case you missed it – Nic Low’s Arms Race reviewed by Paul Diamond on Radio New Zealand’s Nine-to-Noon today. Listen here.
“It’s July and ABC Radio National is celebrating 40 years since the moon landing. While Neil Armstrong’s first steps and words are auto-looped in a media frenzy — again — I open Nic Low’s Arms Race and join Armstrong and fellow astronauts on a trip to New Zealand in The Culler, a story set in an isolated mountain outpost. As with the other stories in this debut collection, the atmosphere is strangely alluring and desperate, layered with misinformation, and the dialogue teeters on a knife’s edge, threatening to disintegrate or explode.” Read More
The finalists for the 2014 Ngaio Marsh Award for Crime Novel are:
Paul Cleave – Joe Victim
Alan Duff – Frederick’s Coat
Donna Malane – My Brother’s Keeper
Liam McIlvanney – Where the Dead Men Go
Keep up to date on all things to do with the Ngaio Marsh Award at their Facebook page. The winner will be announced at the 2014 WORD Christchurch Writers & Readers Festival on 30 August.
“A man walks into a West Coast pub and sells half a million copies of a literary fiction novel constructed according to the astrological alignments of the planets. This year, for local book retailers, fact was stranger than fiction.
‘We deal with hard data,’ says Nevena Nikolic, sales and marketing manager with Nielsen BookScan. ‘I can’t comment, except to say it is unprecedented to see a New Zealand fiction title take out of the honour of the biggest-selling book in New Zealand.'”Read More
‘She was the cherished children’s author living in our own backyard. A resident of Governors Bay for half a century, Margaret Mahy wrote picture books, novels, short story collections and poems. Her unlimited imagination made her one of 12 “Christchurch heroes” immortalised as a bronze bust at the Arts Centre. She was an obsessive reader who became a librarian, writing children’s stories in her spare hours until she could afford to go fulltime. A mother of two, a grandmother of seven.’ Read More
In case you missed Kim Hill’s interview with Hinemoana Baker over the weekend, you can listen to it here.
Hinemoana will take part in two sessions at the 2014 WORD Christchurch Writers & Readers Festival. Te Karanga Me Te Wero: Sunday 31 August, 2.30pm and Poetry & More: Sunday 31 August, 4pm.
“American songwriter and guitarist Kristin Hersh founded indie art-punk group Throwing Muses at the age of 14. She has since released eleven albums with the band (most recently 2013’s Purgatory / Paradise), as well as nine solo records and a number of other collaborations. Here is Kristin, playing favourites with Kim Hill.”
