local loser

Joseph Trinidad joins the local loser family as he visits Tāmaki Makaurau for the Auckland Writers Festival. Damien Levi chats with him about his debut essay collection, Lucky Creatures , shared connections to place, the power of memory, and Joseph does a reading from his book. Some links you may be interested in from this episode include ⁠one to purchase Lucky Creatures , Mikee Sto Domingo's...

Damien Levi and local loser are back for a second season! Is the audio still unreliable? Yes! Should you still listen anyway? Please! For the first episode of season two, Damien chats with playwright/zinemaker/artiste Nuanzhi Zheng about receiving Creative New Zealand money for something unexpected, the role of Head Girls in society, art schools, eating disrespectfully, and more. As always, we can...

Damien is solo in the local loser studio today, recording a round-up/recap of reading in 2025, thanks to voice notes from past guests. Alongside favourite reads from Nathan Joe, Sherry Zhang, Saraid de Silva, Josiah Morgan, Laura Vincent and Gabi Lardies, Damien adds in a running commentary and some of his own favourites from the year. local loser will be back in 2026, but for now, some links you...

It's a surprise Friday episode from Damien Levi to coincide with the official publication date of Hoods Landing , the debut novel from his guest, Laura Vincent. There's lots to learn about Hoods Landing, but Laura and Damien also get into what it means to let go of your book, ask why there are so many vape shops, decide they both actually like Auckland and lament bad writing. Some links yo...

Damien Levi is on uncle duties this week as he records with writer, editor and publisher Faith Wilson (and her baby boy, Mo.) While Mo is distracted by peanut butter toast and the flashing lights of the audio software, Damien and Faith chat about grief, motherhood, Twitter cringe, phone games and arts criticism. Damien forgot to ask Faith what she might want to plug, but you can find Saufo'i Press...

Damien is back in the local loser seat and is beaming down to Ōtautahi Christchurch to chat online with Josiah Morgan, who was definitely called precocious as a child. They go 'refined artist vibes' and get into the literary, not limited to Laura Borrowdale's collection Dead Ends from Tender Press, literary (and other pursuits) from power couple Claudia and Nathaniel Herz Jardine, and what it take...

Damien Levi brings local loser 's biggest fan, Saraid de Silva, onto the pod while he's visiting Wellington. Together they get right into it—what's being read, what's being kept for the archive, and what do you learn about yourself when you move to Wellington? They also touch on trying to shake off the shackles of the digital age, rediscover discovering music and interrogate their...

In this EXCLUSIVE interview with recent Aotearoa departee, Nathan Joe, Damien Levi is primed to find out what convinced him to finally 'pull the leaver'. From Austin, Texas, Nathan speaks to his next adventure as an MFA student, his first impressions of Austin, being a real adult and leaning into being pretentious. Helpful links from this episode might include Nathan's Instagram , Kier...

Damien gets soon-to-be former NZ Poet Laureate Chris Tse in the hotseat (a Danske Mobler chair in his apartment) to reflect on his three years in the role, the travel, the poems and the experience. There are also some reflections on diversity and the publishing industry, reckons on why there's a literary gap between NZ and AUS, and two glowing recommendations for Lorde's Virgin . Helpful l...

local loser goes online to record an episode with poet, librarian and Āporo Press author of Overseas Experience , Nicola Andrews (Ngāti Paoa, Pākehā). Thanks to the internet, Damien (in Tāmaki Makaurau) chats to Nicola (in San Francisco) about her new book, being a librarian in the USA and the 'Oasis Summer'. Links you may wanna check out from this episode include Nicola's Instagram ,...

Reporting live* from Tāmaki Makaurau, Damien chats with Gabi Lardies at her house and together they come up with a really great idea for dead CD stock and discuss book design! They also touch on the Objectspace Book Fair, why everything in publishing is called the same thing, coptic stitching, and a beautiful ring by Cindy Tan. Some helpful links you might like after the episode include the online...

It's a meeting of indie presses! Damien Levi is joined by the Tender Press team, Ash Davida Jane and Stacey Teague while the duo is on a visit to Tāmaki Makaurau. They really get into the world of independent publishing and chat about upcoming work from both writers. You can get Stacey's 2024 collection, Plastic , as well as Ash's 2021 collection, How to Live With Mammals, from Te Here...

After a little break for the Auckland Writers Festival, Damien Levi is back to being a loser, and he's invited painter Tony Guo to chat. Using Tony's artistic practice as a jumping off point, this kōrero darts around the cultural realms, from Jorges Luis Borges and Lady Gaga, to Hanya Yanagihara, Brokeback Mountain , Michelle Rahurahu and Xin Ji's Body Story . As podcasting is an audio medium, you...

Damien Levi is in Naarm for the Melbourne Writers Festival and seizes the rare chance to sit down and chat with essayist and sewist Maddie Ballard (because he's staying at her house). Their conversation touches on topics such as the festival itself, unpopular literary opinions, reading—or not reading—Australian literature, moving to Melbourne, and a small disagreement about novellas. You can r...

Cheers! This is local loser 's first nighttime episode, and so Damien has cracked open a drink to sit down and chat with illustrator and comic artist Sloane Hong. Together, they talk about what Sloane's been up to, her comic Marrow & Other Stories and trying to get back into reading when you have ADHD. Damien pulls an ASMR segment and reads a meme from his phone. Find some of Sloane's work on...

local loser is a work in progress and we promise the audio will get better as we go! In this episode of local loser, Damien is joined by the hottest, gayest candlemaker in Aotearoa, Cam Yates aka sybs. Their conversation jumps from Ocean Vuong to gay rugby, doing a Master's thesis on The Great Gatsby, and to Damien spiralling from learning a new skill (podcasting) and being bad at it. Visit sy...

For the first episode of local loser, Damien Levi is joined by Sherry Zhang to record under a sheet in his apartment. They chat about local and international reading, arts practice and writing, recent gigs in Tāmaki Makaurau and Damien almost dies choking on water. *This episode was reuploaded with remastered audio on 25 April 2025*