The Marlborough Book Festival

Hear a selection of guest authors take their work off the page and onto the stage in the gala opening of the 2023 Marlborough Book Festival. In order, the audience heard from Joanne Drayton, Eileen Merriman, Cristina Sanders, Michael Bennett and Joanna Preston. Their stories - whether true, imagined or a blurring of both - certainly got to the heart of the matter.  They'll certainly make you want...

Paula Morris has become a vital voice in New Zealand literature, with highly acclaimed short stories, essays and novels, including 'Rangatira', fiction winner at the 2012 NZ Post Book Awards and Ngā Kupu Ora Māori Book Awards. But her work goes well beyond her own pen, as an advocate for New Zealand literature and Māori writers. Paula is the founder of the Academy of New Zealand Literature and Wha...

Kate Camp’s most recent collection of poetry, How To Be Happy Though Human, is strikingly apt for current times. In conversation with Cliff Fell at the 2022 Marlborough Book Festival, Kate discusses her influences and inspirations behind her highly acclaimed poetry, and reads selected poems.

Place and story go hand in hand. Landscape must first live on the page for it to blossom in the mind of the reader. But landscape in literature is both a reflection and an invention. Lloyd Jones and Kate De Goldi will discuss exploring the landscapes of their favourite books from childhood, and consider how they write 'place' into story. This session was recorded at the 2022 Marlborough Book Festi...

Three contemporary New Zealand novelists talk writing. Sue Orr, Kirsten McDougall and Rebecca K Reilly discuss their inspiration, processes and generational insights. They also discuss the place of women - as authors and protagonists - in modern literature. This session took place during the 2022 Marlborough Book Festival.

In From the Centre: A Writer's Life Patricia Grace takes us through her childhood, education, marriage and up to the present day, in this touching and self-deprecating story of her life – the life of a writer, of a Māori woman and of a teacher. It expresses the love for family and for ancestral land; shows the prejudices she's had to face and what made her stronger; and tracks her career as a writ...

From cooking for Prime Ministers and dignitaries in Europe, to being chosen as personal chef for Maestro Luciano Pavarotti, having her own television show and long running radio career and, of course, her award-winning cookbooks, Julie Biuso’s life has been full of the joy of food and sharing it with others. Listen to Julie in conversation with Charlotte Patterson about her illustrious and delicio...

Rebecca K Reilly (Ngāti Hine, Ngāti Wai) is the author of the smart and funny debut novel Greta & Valdin, which has topped the bestsellers list for weeks and won the Hubert Church Prize for best first book of fiction for the 2022 Ockham NZ Book Awards. Greta & Valdin was a Newsroom novel of the year and the Ockham Award judges described it as “gloriously queer, hilarious and relatable”. Ha...

Steve Braunias captivated festival audiences at Spy Valley in 2016, talking of the 12 true stories of crime and punishment behind his book Scene of the Crime. We were delighted to have him back at the cellar door for the 2022 Marlborough Book Festival with Missing Persons, his latest collection of true crime writing, exposing 12 extraordinary tales of disappearance in New Zealand.  

Kate Camp talks about her wonderful new memoir You Probably Think This Song is About You brimming with hard-won wisdom and generous humour.  In conversation with Naomi Barton, Kate shares experiences as diverse as bad relationships, misheard songs, the fallibility of memory and the wrong turns we take. In the words of author and reviewer Catherine Chidgey: “Kate’s essays shine with wit, intelligen...

Eddy, Eddy - in conversation with Tania Miller Kate De Goldi's new book Eddy, Eddy follows Eddy Smallbore, an orphan, who is grappling with identity, love, loss and religion. It's two years since he blew up his school life and the earthquakes felled his city. Home life is maddening. His pet-minding job is expanding in peculiar directions. And now the past and the future have come calling – in unex...

"Ruth Shaw's life has been crammed with incredible adventure, and at times damned by terrible tragedy," writes Mike White in Stuff. "There have been pirates, and prostitutes, and protests and pig farming; gold mining, gambling and grief." Speaking to Charlotte Patterson, Ruth talks about her uplifting story of survival, her tiny Fiordland bookshops and a memoir that's helping others address wounds...

- in conversation with Rachael King Climate change is no laughing matter, but Kirsten McDougall's fast-paced novel She's a Killer set in a foreseeable future Aotearoa is full of unexpected humour. Her apathetic protagonist Alice is content to observe society's disarray until a teenage genius with a fantastic backstory upends her life and emboldens her to act. At the 2022 Marlborough Book Festival,...

Susan Paris and Kate De Goldi are changing the landscape for young readers in New Zealand, as they curate fresh writing and illustration from some of New Zealand's top talent. The pair have followed on from the success of Annual and Annual 2 with Skinny Dip, an anthology of 36 school-inspired poems from 24 New Zealand poets, to reflect everyday experiences of Kiwi kids, from nits and crushes to ra...

Charlie, 15 and pregnant at a time abortion isn’t legally available in New Zealand, makes an impulsive choice with far reaching consequences in the opening chapters of Sue Orr’s latest novel. Loop Tracks tackles abortion, addiction, ageing, autism and euthanasia against a setting of Wellington’s first Covid-19 lockdown. They’re big topics tackled with sensitivity, elegance and humour in a work sho...

The last time Steve Braunias attended the Marlborough Book Festival, he trawled through our op-shops seeking record covers that might reveal insights into New Zealand’s popular culture from 1957 to 1987, when the LP was king of recorded music. We like to think a few made their way to his latest book, Cover Story: 100 Beautiful, Strange and Frankly Incredible New Zealand LP Covers. Speaking to Tani...

Lloyd Jones is one of New Zealand’s most significant and successful contemporary authors, whose works include The Book of Fame, based on the All Blacks’ 1905 international tour, and Mr Pip, set amid the civil war on Bougainville Island in the early 1990s, which won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize.  Lloyd talks with friend and fellow writer Kate De Goldi about his life and work, including the alleg...

Wrens Under the Radar by Marlborough librarian Colleen Shipley is inspired by the true story of eight women posted to a top-secret mission in Blenheim from November 1942 to May 1944.  The story of loss, healing and friendship provides a vivid snapshot of life in New Zealand during World War II. Colleen discusses her inspiration, fascinating research discoveries and road to publication. Colleen Shi...

Kirsten McDougall is the author of an eco-thriller novel set in a climate-changed future, Dave Lowe is a scientist who has been raising the alarm about atmospheric changes for decades. Both authors say their work was borne of anger and frustration at the lack of action to mitigate a looming disaster. This conversation with Bev Doole was recorded during the 2022 Marlborough Book Festival.

Award-winning writer Paula Morris delivers a lecture on the fascinating, chaotic and ground-breaking life of the New Zealand journalist, poet, fiction writer and war correspondent Iris Wilkinson, aka Robin Hyde. Paula and distinguished photographer Haru Sameshima went off the beaten track to produce 'Shining Land: Looking for Robin Hyde', a "picture book" made for grown-ups which explores Robin Hy...

Two women who love books talk books at a book festival. Ruth Shaw, much-loved Manapōuri writer who has found happiness running three tiny bookshops in her garden, and Tessa Nicholson, a much-loved Marlborough writer and festival chair who has been known to read a book a day, come together to discuss Ruth's wonderful book of stories about her extraordinary life and quirky bookshops, The Bookseller...

There’s never been a better time to self-publish, says Barbara DeLeo. Her workshop at the 2022 Marlborough Book Festival canvasses every step of the process, from writing and editing, formatting and publishing, to getting your book into e-readers, audio and libraries, and perhaps on the shelves of little bookshops on the opposite side of the world. Barbara also talks about marketing, getting paid...

We were thrilled to have Abbas Nazari as our guest for the opening event of the 2022 Marlborough Book Festival.  Abbas was seven years old when his family fled the Taliban in Afghanistan, hoping to find a new home in Australia. The journey that followed, including a sinking fishing boat, heroic rescue by the Tampa container ship, and doors closed by the Australian Government, caught the world’s at...

Nicolas Dillon discusses his very personal and heartfelt tribute to the birds of New Zealand, 'Drawn to the Wild'. This session looks back over the author’s life in Marlborough and delves into the birds he has painted and also the more intangible aspects of nature which fascinate him. Nicolas was speaking to Mike White at the 2021 Marlborough Book Festival.

From Parisian model to bestselling author, Christine Leunens talks about her extraordinary life and work. What was it like to have her novel 'Caging Skies' so successfully adapted into the Academy Award-winning 'Jojo Rabbit'? Plus, we get a sneak peek into her next novel. Christine was talking to Nikki MacDonald at the 2021 Marlborough Book Festival.