Better off Read

I have been a fan of Shilo Kino's writing since reading her award winning book The Pōrangi Boy (Huia, 2020) a few years ago. What I love about The Pōrangi Boy is the way it really successfully finds a fictional form to explore the troubling things that are happening around and to us. I’m never sure if fiction can do anything. I still think we need to take direct political action in other areas - and Shilo is active in this work as well - but I think there is something quite radical and productive about experimenting with real-life scenarios in worlds that we have complete control over. I think this imaginative act can open doors that seem - in the day-to-day hard stuff of life - closed and impossible. I think Shilo’s deft craft makes this possible - I could probably talk for another few hours about the genius of the structure of the novel and the imaginative possibilities it makes space for.

So, yeah, I was very excited when a copy of Shilo's new novel All that We Own Know (Moa Press, 2024), I really like keeping in that struck out word in the title, arrived at my house. It is a stunning book. Shilo is an incredible writer and she's created a book that is at once readible and challenging. The energy of the book is profound and the way it moves with force against some of the toughest things facing Aotearoa at the moment makes it one of my favourite books of the year.

I'm really grateful to Shilo for taking the time to chat with me for this episode. Where we talk about All the We Own Know, writing and the communities and politics we write in.

Thanks for listening.

Action: Māori Wards

The racist and undemocratic Māori Ward Bill passed its third reading last night.

Action Station have information about this law, its implications and action you can take on their website - here is a link.

Action Station have also have a petition to Keep Our Māori Wards which you can sign and share at this link

You can support Better off Read financially at Buy Better off Read a Coffee

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I always find talking to Rose really inspiring. Rose's writing is so good and I love hearing about Rose's practice.

In this episode Rose uses Miranda July's new book All Fours as a starting point for this conversation about writing, the novel and how our day jobs can help us.

Rose's magnificent first book is All Who Live on Islands (Te Herenga Waka University Press, 2019)

Thanks for listening.

Just a reminder that Art for Palestine 2 is on 4-7 July at The Heads, 24 Canterbury Street, Lyttleton.

You can support Better off Read financially at Buy Better off Read a Coffee

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How to listen to Better off Read

Better off Read is available on Spotify and most podcasting apps.

Better off Read is also available on PodBean 

An RSS code is available here

Today is Budget Day in Aotearoa. I wanted to replay this episode because James talks so well about money and art. Specifically getting paid for art.

In this podcast James talks about his performance at the Verb After Hours event, imperialism and paying artists.

The first thing you'll hear is his performance the Verb After-Hours event: Beyond a Joke which took place on Thursday, 3 November 2022 at Meow. Thank you Verb Festival.

You can support Better off Read financially at Buy Better off Read a Coffee

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How to listen to Better off Read

Better off Read is available on Spotify and most podcasting apps.

Better off Read is also available on PodBean 

An RSS code is available here

In this episode I talk with romesh dissanayake.

romesh's amazing novel when I open the shop (Te Herenga Waka University Press) was launched about a month ago.

I was really grateful that romesh and I were able to have a chat. I asked romesh to bring along an object as a way into a conversation about his book and this stage of its publication. romesh suggested Água Viva by Clarice Lispector.

It was such a great conversation.

Here are some links about some of the things we talk about:

Trying to Keep it Sacred: A conversation with Olive Nuttall & romesh dissanayake in Starling

Louise Wallace – On poetic form in romesh dissanayake’s novel When I open the shop in The Poetry Shelf

You can support Better off Read financially at Buy Better off Read a Coffee

 

Better off Read is available on Spotify and most podcasting apps.

Better off Read is also available on PodBean 

An RSS code is available here

Here is a link to the Better off Read website: https://better-read.com/

 

 

In this episode I talk with Sylvan Spring about their incredible book Killer Rack.

https://teherengawakapress.co.nz/killer-rack/

In this episode we talk about a few things, so here are some links:

Sylvan spoke with kitten author Olive Nuttall in what is probably the best thing you'll read this year - thank you to The SpinOff:

‘So gay, thank you for noticing!’: Olive Nuttall and Sylvan Spring in conversation'

In the week leading up to our conversation Wellington-based singer-songwriter Vera Ellen and Georgia Gets By (Georgia Nott) announced they were pulling out of SXSW in protest at the festival's partnerships with tech companies RTX (formerly Raytheon), Collins Aerospace, and BAE Systems, which have been linked to manufacturing and supplying weapons to the Israeli Defense Force (IDF). You can read more here

You can also support both these artists through Bandcamp:

• Vera Ellen https://veraellen.bandcamp.com/
• Georgia Gets By https://georgiagetsby.bandcamp.com

We also talk about the terrible acts of censorship happening at State Library Victoria. You can read more about that at this link

Last night RNZ published this amazing essay by Henrietta Bollinger and I wanted to put a link to it here:

Why we cannot let the disability support changes happen

Thanks again for listening to the podcast.

 

In the most recent episodes I've been talking to people about where they are up to in their creative projects. I've asked these people to bring along an object they are 'using' for this stage of the project. 

This episode was recorded at Randall Cottage while Rachel O'Neill was resident there.

You can read more about Rachel at their website:

https://rachel-oneill.com/

I have set up a Buy Me a Coffee for Better off Read. If you are able and willing you can make a donation here to help support the podcast: 

https://www.buymeacoffee.com/betteroffread

 

Last Thursday, Whiti Hereaka was kind enough to come into Wellington Access Radio and have a chat with me on the occasion of the end of the year.

I love talking to Whiti and I always learn heaps from her.

Whiti has amazing recommendations. I thought I’d list them below along with the songs Whiti chose, which I can’t play in the podcast for copyright reasons.

Whiti has a great Instagram

Songs chosen by Whiti:

Short and Roung by The Bug Club

Passionflower, Paperbacks and Woodlice by The Bug Club

Read the Room (feat. Laetitia Sadier) by Pearl & the Oysters

Books Whiti talks about:

You Should Have Left by Daniel Kehlmann

Movies Whiti talks about:

Godzilla Minus One (2023)

The Boy and the Heron (2023)

Saltburn (2023)

TV Whiti Talks about:

After the Party (2023)

Deadloch (2023)

Homecoming (2018)

Pushing Daisies (2007)

 

Over the next couple of weeks, I’m going to be sharing some short chats I’m having with some of my favourite people. These are recorded at Wellington Access Radio and first appear on the Friday Drive show which I host with Amy Delahunty.

In this, the first of these chats, I talk to Kerry Donovan Brown. 

I asked Kerry about what they have been up to this year, what they have enjoyed and how they are feeling about 2024.

In this recording, Kerry talks about two songs. Due to copyright I can’t play these in the episode and I was thinking of taking out the reference to them but they are such great recommendations I thought I’d keep Kerry’s descriptions in the recording and include a link to the music here:

https://youtu.be/EDKcbW0XDk0

https://youtu.be/cmDeCKY9XFU

 

On 28 October 2023, City Gallery Wellington hosted an event to celebrate the opening of Angela Lane’s amazing exhibition Phosphene

As part of this event Joan Fleming and Aaron Lister wrote and read responses to these works. 

Joan wrote a beautiful description of their work:

I read a short, strange essay about awe and the beauty experience with its inevitable fringe of disgust, and about withness and terror and the sun. Aaron Lister read something about Mary Shelley, the year without summer, and Frankenstein as the first climate change novel.

In this episode Joan and Aaron generously recorded these essays at Massey University.

I hope you enjoy these readings.

I’m incredibly grateful to Jared Davidson and Verb Festival for letting me podcast this amazing event.

Jared’s book Blood & Dirt: Prison Labour & the Making of New Zealand (Bridget Williams Books, 2023) is an outstanding work of scholarship and creativity. I am a huge fan of this book and I feel very grateful to Jared who trusted me with this conversation.

At the end of this talk, we took questions from the audience. Unfortunately, my recording didn’t pick these up very clearly, so I’ve recorded and inserted summaries of the questions in my own words. I hope that is okay with the people who asked them. I was so excited by how many questions were asked - the event felt like a conversation and it was really great.

Thanks also to the amazing team at Verb. Every year they build this incredible ‘city’ made up of communities who are interested in ideas, writing and reading. It is an amazing thing to be involved with and I love it so much.