Friends, we made a festival! WORD Christchurch kicks off next week. Have you booked your tickets? As ever, I’m here for you if you’d like recommendations for sessions I know you will love. This festival is for you! Please help us spread the good word. #WordChch wordchristchurch.co.nz/programme/

“A good festival is popular, a great festival is popular and meaningful, something that makes a valuable contribution to the culture and the times.” Grateful for this engaged WORD Christchurch festival scene report from Steve Braunias. Thanks to all who came! 💚 newsroom.co.nz/2024/09/02/the…

Coronation Street, Mike Leigh, and the people’s mug. I wrote about the universal panacea - tea. Thanks to ⁦The Spinoff⁩ for publishing it. thespinoff.co.nz/essay/07-09-20…

To know me is to know I am utterly obsessed with ‘Threads’. It’s even part of the origin story of me moving to Lyttelton. People in New Zealand often don’t know what I mean when I talk about what I call the ‘Threads Siren’. Well, here you go. theguardian.com/film/2024/sep/…

I’ve curated myself a birthday reading festival for one! One of the biggest publishing events of 2024, ‘Intermezzo’ by Sally Rooney is published 24 September and you can hear my thoughts about it that morning on RNZ - Nine To Noon 📚🩵

Happy Sally Rooney day to all who observe. Here is my RNZ - Nine To Noon review of 'Intermezzo' from this morning. rnz.co.nz/national/progr… Faber Books Josh Smith Allen & Unwin Allen & Unwin

David Keenan/Bruce Russell PERFORMS MONUMENT MAKER recorded live in Christchurch New Zealand as part of the WORD festival in August Releases 18 October 2023 glassmodern.bandcamp.com/album/performs…

CUSK CUSK CUSK! Some good news for the day. Rachel Cusk has just won one of my favourite literary prizes, the The Goldsmiths Prize for ‘Parade’. Though do make sure you also check out the other shortlisted novels because they are all brill.

dowse.org.nz/exhibitions-an… An honour to be chairing a panel inspired by Derek Jarman's extraordinary Prospect Cottage, about personal utopias, to tie in with the Delphinium Days exhibition at The Dowse Art Museum. A lovely excuse to re-read his book 'Modern Nature'. Dream topic, free event.

My final piece for the year. I wrote about New Zealanders who are embracing tiny home living, for the Guardian. theguardian.com/world/2024/dec…

New year, new TBR pile. In praise of non required summer holiday reading! Currently loving ‘The Bee Sting’ by Paul Murray. It’s got everything you could ask for: Irish, big hearted, funny, moving, ambitious. ‘Ex Wife’ is a rec from my favourite books pod Backlisted Podcast

Caught up with Sunday Star-Times to talk about what books I’ve been reading and recommending this summer. Feat. Aotearoa and international fiction, memoir, biography, essays, backlist and juicy frontlist. ⁦Te Herenga Waka University Press⁩ ⁦White Rabbit Books⁩ thepost.co.nz/culture/360533…

I wrote about the remarkable Central Otago sheep and cattle farmer Eden Hore and his amazing fashion collection for The Guardian. theguardian.com/world/2025/mar…

Had fun playing records at Civil & Naval in Lyttelton. A witches brew of Pakistani surf rock, Afghani tea house music, krautrock, freak jazz, Nigerien-Ghanaian synth, Ethiopian keyboard music, Trinidad panharmonic orchestra steel band music, deviant pop from Europe & other gems!

'a future classic from one of the most intriguing, inventive & compelling writers of our time. What a book. It is just jaw-droppingly breathtaking...She is such an attentive, exacting & careful writer & I think one of the best in the world today.' RNZ rnz.co.nz/national/progr…

“A future classic…what a book”. @steelydass enthuses for Catherine Chidgey’s Book of Guilt - all of us early readers have felt just the same! rnz.co.nz/national/progr…

Please watch this beautiful, important speech by Max Porter as he announces International The Booker Prizes winners Banu Mushtaq & translator Deepa Bhasthi for Heart Lamp, the first short story collection to win. “proudly walking into the abyss with a tote bag full of books.” 🤍

I'm gonna walk on up to the waterfront! Lovely to be included by Philip Matthews in his article for The Press about 'artists, dreamers and doers' who live in Ōhinehou Lyttelton. thepress.co.nz/nz-news/360704…

Popping by to play some records at Civil & Naval in Lyttelton on Sunday for a nice cosy 3-6pm moment. Will be spinning a dolly mix allsorts jumble of interesting records, do pull up for a quiet arvo pint and natter to round off the long Puanga weekend!