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. For more information, head to: https://www.marlboroughbookfest.co.nz/
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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…
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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 force…
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Cristina Sanders - Mrs Jewell and the Wreck of the General Grant
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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…
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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 p…
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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 Tes…
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Catherine Chidgey - The Axeman’s Carnival
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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 relations…
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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 …
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The Heart of the Matter - 2023 Festival Gala Opening
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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 hear…
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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 founde…
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Kate Camp - How To Be Happy Though Human
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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.By The Marlborough Book Festival
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Lloyd Jones & Kate De Goldi - Landscape & Literature
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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 sessi…
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Sue Orr, Kirsten McDougall & Rebecca K Reilly - Oh So Novel
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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.…
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Patricia Grace - From the Centre: A Writer’s Life
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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 …
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Julie Biuso - Shared Kitchen: Real Food From Scratch
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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 Cha…
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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 “glor…
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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…
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Kate Camp - You Probably Think This Song is About You
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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 C…
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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 t…
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Ruth Shaw - The Bookseller at the End of the World
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"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…
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- 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 …
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Kate De Goldi & Susan Paris - Skinny Dip Poetry
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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 exp…
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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 w…
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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 …
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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 G…
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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…
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Kirsten McDougall & Dave Lowe - Writing Climate Change
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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 du…
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Paula Morris - Shining Land: Looking for Robin Hyde
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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 "pictur…
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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 extrao…
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Barbara DeLeo - Sidestepping the Gatekeepers
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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.…
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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…
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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 …
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Christine Leunens - From Academia to the Academies
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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 Festiva…
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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 w…
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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 draw…
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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 t…
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Rebecca Priestley - Fifteen Million Years in Antarctica
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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 longlist…
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Elizabeth Knox Part 2 - The Absolute Book
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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 co…
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Elizabeth Knox Part 1 - A Fantastic Life
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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 wr…
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Dame Fiona Kidman - All the Way to Summer
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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 h…
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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.…
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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.By The Marlborough Book Festival
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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 masculin…
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Dame Fiona Kidman - Sense of Justice
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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 Blac…
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Charity Norman Part 2 - The Secrets of Strangers
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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 proces…
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Charity Norman Part 1 - Advocate to Author
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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 Festiv…
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The Ice Shelf: Anne Kennedy in conversation with Naomi Arnold at Spy Valley Winery at the 2019 Marlborough Book Festival.By marlboroughbookfestival
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Our heritage with Dr Vincent O'Malley
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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, wi…
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The Art of Simple: Eleanor Ozich in conversation with Charlotte Patterson at The Treehouse at Cloudy Bay at the 2019 Marlborough Book Festival.By marlboroughbookfestival
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Emily Writes in conversation with Naomi Arnold at The Treehouse at Cloudy Bay at the 2019 Marlborough Book Festival.By marlboroughbookfestival
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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.By The Marlborough Book Festival
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