WORD literary festival

The world’s biggest-selling author walks into a bar with New Zealand’s most-loved author

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Spinoff Review of Books literary editor Steve Braunias reports from the Christchurch WORD literary festival. Everyone who is anyone in New Zealand literature was at the Christchurch WORD festival this weekend, apart from Eleanor Catton, CK Stead, Fiona Kidman, Witi Ihimaera, Kelly Ana Morey, Max Harris, Jess Berentson-Shaw, Damien Wilkins, Linda Burgess, Vincent O’Sullivan, Emily … Read more

Book of the year, apparently: Owen Marshall contemplates the Stephen Daisley novel

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Stephen Daisley will speak in Christchurch and Dunedin this weekend about his novel Coming Rain, which won the 2016 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards book of the year. But is it actually any good? Owen Marshall slips on his gown and his powdered wig, and passes judgment. The strongest and best expressed relationships in Stephen Daisley’s award-winning … Read more