Two years and counting

The Hope Fault on the floor with cat

Two years ago The Hope Fault – my second novel – was published in Australia and New Zealand by Fremantle Press. I want to offer this quiet book a little noise and celebration and pride, to mark its path in the world, and to thank those who’ve helped it on its way. Catherine Robertson gave … Read more…

The Hope Fault at WAAPA for ArtsHub

WAAPA Performance Program 2019

I talked with Richard Watts recently for a piece he wrote for ArtsHub on Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA) at Edith Cowan University. WAAPA’s adaptation of my novel The Hope Fault was featured as one of the highlights of the 2019 performance season, and Richard also talked with writer/director Andrew Hale, who’s adapting the … Read more…

Flash fiction: Beer goggles

Bonsai (CUP, 2018)

It’s a long walk up between streets, a Wellington short cut, past cabbage trees and damp, tightly-planted agapanthus. […] Stopping to catch their beery breath, turning, they see the city below them. Closer, lights glow in scattered windows of the university buildings, patterning the sky. In ‘Beer goggles’, Warren and Lola take “a Wellington short … Read more…

Bad Diaries Salon LitCrawl Wellington

Bad Diaries Salon #FIVE at LitCrawl Wellington 2018

After our wildly successful winter season back in July (taking in Port Fairy, Melbourne, Geelong and Christchurch), Bad Diaries Salon is back with an early summer cluster of salons, on both sides of the ditch. First up is Bad Diaries Salon #FIVE, as part of Phase Two of LitCrawl 2018. We’re thrilled to partner with … Read more…

New York Times reviews The Hope Fault

Cover of the New York Times Book Review, 4 November 2018

On its US release, Abigail Meisel reviewed The Hope Fault for the New York Times Book Review, 4 November 2018 (in print 4 November, online 2 November). … fault lines, including the Hope Fault, [are] a handy metaphor for the ever-shifting and sometimes dangerous terrain of family life. —New York Times Book Review The Hope Fault is one … Read more…

The Hope Fault: Q&A for Deborah Kalb

The Hope Fault (Aardvark Bureau, 2018)

Ahead of the US release of The Hope Fault, writer, editor, book blogger and ex-journalist Deborah Kalb asked if I’d answer some questions about the novel. Deborah asked me about my writing process, long-lost manuscripts, where characters come from, endings, and why my next novel is about triplets! You can read my responses in ‘Q&A with … Read more…

Captain Panic and The Hope Fault: on being anxious in an uncertain landscape

The Belgravia Books / Aardvark Bureau / Gallic Books team asked me to write something for their blog, on anxiety as a preoccupation of my novel The Hope Fault. I wrote about extreme campervanning, family nicknames, and being anxious (and writing) in an uncertain landscape. Like the Worst Campervan in New Zealand, my novel The … Read more…

The Hope Fault makes its way to the stage

The Hope Fault (Fremantle Press, 2017)

A few months ago the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA) acquired the stage rights to my novel The Hope Fault from my Australian publisher Fremantle Press (there was a quiet announcement in Books+Publishing’s rights round-up in early July). I’m thrilled that The Hope Fault is being adapted for the stage by writer, director and … Read more…