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 Zealand Nic 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.