Her plan took her back to his shop one afternoon – for the bookstore, she knew, was a time-honoured place for the acting out of romantic fancies – at a time when she knew he was most likely to be in attendance himself, reading at the counter, or perhaps arranging and rearranging the Bukowskis in … Read more…
About Tracy Farr
Portrait as a Tehuana, 1989
She rummages in a plastic shopping bag under the table, and pulls out something stiff and white. Lacy, like old-fashioned underwear. ‘It’s nearly finished,’ she says, holding it wide near her face, making a shape I can’t distinguish. ‘What is it Lou?’ Liz asks. ‘Frida’s undies?’ ‘One of her costumes, cara.’ Lou’s fake Mexican accent … Read more…
The Blind Astronomer
It was Aunt who taught me not just to look, but to really see. She taught me to look with an artist’s eye, and that’s what I’ve done in my work. I’ve seen the planets with an artist’s eye, charted their courses with a sense of the beauty their paths carve through space. Connecting memory, … Read more…
Surface Tension
The roads have changed, the houses of Helen’s childhood gone, and she is always shocked when she visits to come this way, to see the great walls of roadway where the little dark houses used to be. She turns the car into North Street, pointing straight at the sea. In ‘Surface Tension’, two long-ago lovers … Read more…
Trick the Light
At the western end of the bay, where the beach curved around, long shadows from Norfolk pines fell on the beach, formed strips of shade on the white sand. We fell in and out of darkness as we walked. ‘Trick the Light’, a chapter extracted from The Life and Loves of Lena Gaunt, appears … Read more…
Once Had Me
The car winds between steep fields that sweep down, green, to meet the road. The high sides of hills make corners you can’t see around. The sun’s out, but everything’s still soaking, the road steaming. Lucy presses the button and the window glass moves down, widens the gap, lets in damp fresh air. ‘Go right, … Read more…
‘Once had me’ wins short story award
Last week, I won the 2014 Sunday Star-Times Short Story Award for my story ‘Once had me’. The story was published in the Sunday Star-Times over the weekend. The SS-T Short Story Award, now in its 30th year, has been won by some of New Zealand’s best (and my favourite) writers — including Sarah Quigley, … Read more…
A six-month hunch: CreativeNZ Arts Grant funding
It’s taken me a week to post this, a week in which “t”s have been being crossed, and “i”s dotted (aka six months leave from the day job negotiated). I’ve been awarded an Arts Grant (Literature) by Creative New Zealand. The grant will fund me to write full-time for the first six months of 2015. What … Read more…
Awarded Varuna Second Book Fellowship for 2015
I’ve been awarded one of four two-week Varuna Second Book Fellowships to work on my second novel, The Hope Fault. I’ve been working on the first draft of the novel this year — there are some loose links and hints to it in my blog post from my residency at NZ Pacific Studio earlier this year, … Read more…
Lena on the wireless – The Life and Loves of Lena Gaunt broadcast on RNZ
Radio New Zealand’s drama department has, over the last six months, adapted and produced The Life and Loves of Lena Gaunt for radio broadcast, and Lena’s now got a start date: she hits the airwaves on 29 October 2014. Adapted by the wonderful Anna Rogers, and produced in twelve episodes,The Life and Loves of Lena … Read more…