Prompted by the publication of my novel The Life and Loves of Lena Gaunt in the UK this month, BBC Radio4’s Open Book programme asked me to deliver a Literary Postcard from New Zealand, as part of an occasional series they commission from writers based outside the UK. For my Literary Postcard, I decided to focus … Read more…
Writers
NZ Book Council adds writer profile for Tracy Farr
The Read NZ Te Pou Muramura (formerly New Zealand Book Council) Writers Files represent the most comprehensive collection of information about New Zealand writers on the Internet In addition to entries reprinted from the Oxford Companion to New Zealand Literature, Read NZ adds pages for authors not currently featured in the Companion, and supplements Companion entries with new information. Up … Read more…
Liz Byrski: In Love and War, and Lena
Liz Byrski was interviewed recently on WritingWA‘s Cover to Cover, about her most recent book, In Love and War: Nursing Heroes. Cover to Cover host Meri Fatin described the process of writing In Love and War as “as almost like a piece of plastic surgery in itself”. In this short excerpt from the 40-minute interview, Liz talks about what she learned from … Read more…
Midway in Mildura
My month as Writer in Residence in Mildura is already half over. How did that happen? Melbourne first The trip started with a 24-hour stopover in Melbourne. I spent much of the day working at the State Library of Victoria. What a treat to be able to waltz in, get a library card, request (and … Read more…
In praise of useless beauty
I’m not sure whether the 2000-odd-seat ASB Theatre was sold out for Tim Winton’s Auckland Writers Festival 2015 (AWF15) session last Sunday morning, but it was certainly close to packed, and there was a lot of love in the room for Winton. I was seated wa-a-aay up in the gods, which felt like an appropriate … Read more…
‘Loss and Love’ at 2015 Auckland Writers Festival
I’m looking forward to heading up to Auckland next month for Auckland Writers Festival. This’ll be my third time heading up to Auckland for the writers festival (I wrote about the 2014 festival here and here), but my first time on the programme. The festival has got bigger and better each year that I’ve been, … Read more…
The hissing swan in the manuscript drawer
I spent the first two weeks of March at Varuna, the Writers House in Katoomba in the Blue Mountains, a two-hour train ride from Sydney. I was lucky enough during my Second Book Residential Fellowship to work in Eleanor Dark’s garden studio, a short enough walk from the back door of the main house that … Read more…
The year that was – a whole lotta love
At this time of year it is, as we all know, traditional to sum up the best and worst of the year just gone, and/or make plans, resolutions or predictions for the year to come. I’m feeling a bit sandblasted by the thought of doing that (maybe it’s just the Wellington wind). But I’ll give … Read more…
‘Meet a kiwi author: Tracy Farr’ interview, ANZ LitLovers
I answered 10 questions for Lisa Hill, for the Meet an Aussie/Kiwi author feature on her excellent ANZ LitLovers blog. Read the interview online: ‘Meet a kiwi author: Tracy Farr’
ANZ LitLovers reviews The Life and Loves of Lena Gaunt
Lisa Hill has posted a lovely review of The Life and Loves of Lena Gaunt this week on the ANZ LitLovers blog. Here are a few lines from the review. This is an absorbing book that held my interest throughout. Farr captures rapture and tragedy with consummate skill to create so remarkable a portrait, that it’s hard to believe that … Read more…