Author Interview

New Zealand's leading poet of this generation, Bill Manhire, talks to John Campbell in this highlight of the 2020 Word Christchurch Writers Spring Festival. Audio

The fictional New Zealand seaside town of Gabriel's Bay is the setting for a third novel by Hawkes Bay based author Catherine Robertson. The central theme explored in Spellbound is power, from family… Audio

Poet Johanna Emeney says that Felt, her new collection of poems, explores teaching, animals and how emotions and "the things that have hit me hard over the past decade" are felt in the body. Audio

The hunt for a wine collection believed to have been hidden in a remote Georgian winery during the Second World War is at the centre of a new book, Stalin's Wine Cellar. First owned by Nicholas II… Audio

Turid Revfeim has spent her career on and around the stage. She joined the Royal New Zealand Ballet in 1980, leaving to spend four years with a company in Germany before rejoining in 1986. She rose to… Audio

Fiona Murphy is an award winning poet and essayist whose new memoir The Shape of Sound explores her experience of being deaf. She was in her first year of school when a hearing test confirmed she was… Audio

Wendyl Nissen and her mum had a difficult relationship. That all changed when her mother got Alzheimer's and she starting spilling out family secrets. Audio

When writing a message of condolence, the most important thing is to keep at the front of your mind who you're writing to and who you're writing about, says funeral celebrant and podcaster Timothy… Audio

There isn't much E Street Band guitarist, activist and actor Stevie Van Zandt hasn't done in the world of entertainment. The man formerly known as 'Miami Steve' is in the throes of completing his… Audio

Philip Armstrong's poetry and Laura Jean McKay's award-winning novel The Animals in That Country feature animals as significant characters. The authors talk at 2020 Word Christchurch. Audio

Hella Pick was just 10 years old when she arrived in Britain from Vienna in 1939 as part of a kindertransport for Jewish children following Hitlers annexation of Austria. Her mother managed to get a… Audio

M.I.T Professor Sherry Turkle is that angel on the shoulders of the people who create new technology, whispering reminders about the human consequences of what we create. She explains this all to… Audio

Headquartered in Seattle, Amazon is the second-biggest private workplace in the United States behind Walmart, employing more than 800 thousand people. It's CEO, Jeff Bezos, is the richest person… Audio

The Barbizon Hotel in New York City opened its doors in 1928, and over more than five decades was home to a slew of famous women including Rita Hayworth, Grace Kelly, Sylvia Plath, Joan Didion, Ali… Audio

Three historical novels that address the impact of colonisation in Aotearoa, told from the perspective of nine generations of a Maori whanau... That's a pretty big challenge that respected historian… Audio

In 1853, wealthy widow Jane Digby found herself crossing the Syrian desert - not only because she had a healthy sense of adventure and love for the Arabian people, but to escape scandal back in… Audio

If you're going to read one book on human origins, Oxford professor and former Dunedinite Tom Higham's new book, The World Before Us: How Science is Revealing a New Story of Our Human Origins should… Audio

 In her new book, This Book Could Fix Your Life: The Science of Self Help, science journalist Helen Thomson debunks the fads and explores the real science of self-help to discover how we can… Audio