It was so great to catch up with Isabelle before Christmas and talk about her work.

Isabelle writes writes LGBT Romance, Paranormal and Horror Young Adult books.

The best place to find out about Isabelle's work is on her website

A Horse Walks into a Bar - Free Workshop

Thanks so much to everyone who attended and has watched the video of this workshop.

If you haven't watched the workshop yet you can learn more about it and get a link to it at my website

Action: Submission to evidence brief and position statement into the use of puberty blockers

At the end of November, Manatū Hauora the Ministry of Health released their long-awaited evidence brief and position statement into the use of puberty blockers for trans children. Along with this, the Government has asked them to open up public consultation on whether additional restrictions need to be put in place for trans children accessing puberty blockers. Which is odd. It’s highly unusual and totally inappropriate to open up public consultation for a medical matter that – by the Ministry’s own press release – affects a little over 100 children per year.

InsideOUT have put together a very useful guide to putting a submission to this consultation

Submissions close on 20 January 2025.

While your on the InsideOUT website you might like to read about the things they do and consider donating to their amazing work.

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

Very grateful to Damien Levi for programming this live recording of Better off Read with the amazing Olive Nuttall at Verb Wellington 2024

Thanks also to Alistair from Alistair’s Music who hosted this event.

Olive and I talked about swords and Olive's book kitten published by Te Herenga Waka University Press

Content Note: This conversation includes mentions of CSA.

Action: New Zealand Ministry of Health - Impact of Puberty Blockers in Gender-Dysphoric Adolescents: An evidence brief

I know there is a lot going on but I'd love it if you took some time to read about the Ministry of Health's evidence brief and position paper on puberty blockers.

In particular this article which reports on leading transgender health professionals' concern that the government is directing the Ministry of Health to consult the public over gender affirming healthcare. These health professionals say, Public consultation on a medical matter is inappropriate. You can read the article here:

Transgender health professionals worried about public consultation over gender affirming healthcare

I also found this statement on the paper from Gender Minorities Aotearoa extremely useful.

Trans-only restrictions

Unfortunately, I fear we are in for some dark times for transgender rights. The government's reaction and direction concerning this paper, released the day after Transgender Day of Remembrance, feels like it may be a sign of things to come.

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

Better off Read Website:

https://better-read.com/

Una and I spoke on the day her amazing book The Chthonic Cycle (Te Herenga Waka University Press, 2024) was released into book shops.

I have been incredibly moved by Una's book. It has shifted my mind and my world. It offers such an exciting opportunity to explore a new perspective of our current moment.

Action: Hikoi mō Te Tiriti

As I type this the Hīkoi mō Te Tiriti is moving over the Auckland Harbour Bridge.

Member in the hīkoi are walking from all over Aotearoa to Parliament in opposition to the Government’s assault on tangata whenua and Te Tiriti o Waitangi. The Hīkoi is organised by Toitū Te Tiriti.

Toitū Te Tiriti is tupuna inspired, tiriti led, mana motuhake driven and mokopuna focused. Our intent is to demonstrate the beginning of a unified Aotearoa response to the Government’s assault on tangata whenua and Te Tiriti o Waitangi.

Click this link to find out what you can do to support Hīkoi mō Te Tiriti

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

It was so great to talk with Claudia. I am a huge fan of Claudia's book Biter published by Auckland University Press. It is an amazing, amazing poetry collection that I can't recommend enough.

Claudia and I chatted about Biter but also her other work including her music and new band Goodbye Starlet.

You'll hear us talk about Claudia's amazing Ōtautahi Christchurch Lit Scene Zine. Click this link for this incredible guide to all the literary events happening in Ōtautahi this month.

Thank you for listening

Action: Implement all recommendations from the Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquiry

There is a new petition on Action Station calling for the Government to implement all recommendations from the Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquiry.

Survivors of abuse in State and Faith-based care, and their supporters call on the Lead Coordination Minister for the Government's Response to the Royal Commission's Report into Historical Abuse in State Care and in the Care of Faith-based Institutions, to implement all of the 138 Recommendations of Whanaketia Through pain and trauma, from darkness to light and the 95 Holistic Recommendations of the Inquiry's Interim Report, He Purapura Ora, he Māra Tipu from Redress to Puretumu Torowhānui.

Click this link to sign this petition

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

My novel I'm Working on a Building has been out of print for a long time. In November it is being reissued in a really stuning B-Format edition by Te Herenga Waka University Press

For this episode I've recorded a short reading from the first chapter.

It feels quite emotional being in Ōtautahi for the re-release of this book. The book centres around a structural engineer and includes a fictional earthquake in Te Whanganui-A-Tara. I will always remember the day Lawrence Patchett, Lynn Jenner and I stood around a radio listening to the devastating events unfolding in Ōtautahi following the massive earthquake on September 4, 2010. It chills me now that we didn't realise how much worse was in store on February 22, 2011 at 12.51 pm.

It was so great to chat with Kerry Donovan Brown. Kerry and I have been friends for a long time and I always love talking to them. In this conversation we talk quite a bit about work - the work of writing and the other work Kerry has been doing.

Kerry's first novel Lamplighter is an amazing read. You can get a copy at the Te Herenga Waka University Press website

You may notice a slight change in acoustics for the last two questions of this conversation. For years people have been telling me to get a bigger SD card and I have not. When Kerry and I were recording at Tūranga my SD card ran out of room. I'm really grateful to Kerry for coming up to the office at Te Whare te Wānanga o Waitaha which is where we took the photo at the top of this post.

Thanks for listening.

Action: Nothing about us without us

Since this government came into power the assault on the rights of disabled people and their support networks has been continuous and cruel.

I wanted to highlight a couple of ways to stay informed about what is happening if you are pre-disabled and also maybe find community if you are disabled or whanau of disabled people.

Awhi Ngā Mātua - a community for parents of disabled, neurodivergent and medically fragile tamariki. They have a substack you can subscribe to here

The D*List is the home of disability culture in Aotearoa. Their website is an online culture magazine that creates space for disabled people to tell our own stories through features, columns and news reporting. Here is the website for The D*List

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

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

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

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

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/