On Wednesday 15 July and Thursday 16 July, two of my short stories will be broadcast (again) on Radio New Zealand. The programme is Nine to Noon and the story slot is 10:45 AM. On 15 July the story is ‘The City God’—set in Shanghai—and on 16 July the story is ‘The Argyle’. Both appear in my first story collection, Forbidden Cities.
On Friday 14 September I’m giving the opening night address at the fantastic Going West Festival in Auckland. You can buy tickets for that evening’s events (and for the whole weekend of talks and performances) here.
Two recent short pieces are up online. My tribute to the late artist Peter Gossage is up on The Spin Off. A review of the latest books in the Hogarth Shakespeare series is now available on the Listener‘s site.
On July 12, as part of the Iowa Summer Writing Festival’s The Eleventh Hour series, I’ll be giving a talk called ‘Against Ideas’. I’ll be in Iowa City from July 9-15, teaching a weekend and week-long course, both on writing novels. The latter is fully subscribed, but I think there are are still places on the weekend course (July 9-10).
On August 16, back in Auckland, I’ll be giving a talk on Laura Ingalls Wilder, Rose Wilder Lane and Helen Dore Boylston at the University. I did a lot of Wilder research back in the 90s, visiting all the home sites – in Missouri, Iowa, Kansas, Wisconsin, Minnesota, South Dakota and upstate New York – and spending time researching at the Hoover Presidential Library in West Branch, where the Wilder papers are held. (Little-known fact: I was a Hoover Scholar.)
A new poem of mine is up online on Jacket 2, in a commentary piece by Vaughan Rapatahana about Maori women poets. It’s called ‘St James Theatre.’
Come and hear me read tomorrow night in Iowa City with the brilliant Michelle Falkoff – we’ll be at Prairie Lights.
I’ve recently done two interviews about The Eternal City – one is up on the excellent Australian blog Pop.Edit.Lit, and the other is on the US site New in Books.
My new essay book, On Coming Home, was reviewed today in the Sunday Star-Times in New Zealand, and the review is posted online here.
I’ll be returning to Iowa City next month to teach at the Iowa Summer Writing Festival: I’m teaching two week-long workshops and one weekend workshop. More details here. Also, my good friend Michelle Falkoff and I will be giving a reading in the famous Prairie Lights Bookstore on the evening of Tuesday, July 7th. We’re both reading from new YA novels.
On Thursday April 23rd, my story ‘False River’ – shortlisted for the Sunday Times EFG Short Story Award – will be read at an event at Foyles Book Shop in London. You can buy a ticket from the Foyles web site. The actor reading the story is Gary Dourdan, of CSI fame. I’ll be in London all that week, to attend the two nights of readings at Foyles, as well as the awards ceremony itself.
I’m very excited to announce that my story ‘False River’ has been longlisted for this year’s Sunday Times EFG Short Story Award.