Novelist Catherine Robertson explains why she and poet Jane Arthur will not be stocking [redacted] or [redacted] at their new store, Good Books, in Wellington. “You’re so brave” is the most irritating thing to say to someone who’s set up a new business. It implies you’ve taken a risk that no sane person would contemplate, … Read more
Right now the country’s booksellers are gasping, frantic, knackered – and still dealing politely with the rest of us at our worst. We at the Spinoff thank them for their service and invite booksellers and book-buyers alike to please enjoy this nostalgic hug of an essay by Catherine Robertson. From late 1985 to early 1987, … Read more
Four decades after holding a mirror up to Kiwi masculinity with the sensational play Foreskin’s Lament, Greg McGee is back with Necessary Secrets, a new novel that asks the same question: whaddarya? At a time when we might feel we’ve reached peak old privileged white bloke, it’s a brave writer who devotes the first 61 … Read more
Catherine Robertson’s latest novel What You Wish For has raced to the top of the best-seller charts – but what she really, really wants is to win a prize for being funny. There’s a writing prize I really want to win. When I say really, I mean reallyreallyreallyreally ad infinitum. It’s the Comedy Women in … Read more
“We rule the book-reading world”: Catherine Robertson reports from the Romance Writers of New Zealand annual conference. “Charlotte Stein writes the best cunnilingus scenes. And I’m a gay guy. Think about what I’m saying.” Damon Suede cannot shock his audience. This is the Romance Writers of New Zealand annual conference, held recently at the Novotel … Read more
An essay by Catherine Robertson, author of the wildly entertaining novel Gabriel’s Bay, on the problems some critics have with ‘women’s fiction’. Two years ago, I reviewed a truly terrible novel. I managed to find one positive thing to say about it, but the bulk of the review was not complimentary. The author wrote to … Read more