Swim Chats

Kate Camp on her Matariki swim series, sea poetry, and how swimming can be the destination


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Kate Camp is a poet, author, and ocean swimmer. She's also the organiser of the annual '9 Bays of Matariki' winter swims and the '12 Bays of Christmas' summer swims.

In this episode Kate talks about when and how she started sea swimming, the art of quickly changing out of wet togs into warm clothes, and the importance of the swim community. She also reads a poem called 'Freyberg Carpark' – featuring Graham from episode 10! – from her new book, 'Makeshift Seasons' (Te Herenga Waka University Press, 2025).

Follow the Matariki swims (or come if you're in Wellington) via the Facebook event page

Buy a copy of Makeshift Seasons from Unity Books

Read Kate's article 'Why I won't write about swimming' on The Spinoff

Author photo by Ebony Lamb

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This month you can sponsor Shona for The Big Swim (Coastguard NZ fundraiser) : bigswim.org.nz/s-riddell

Send any thoughts, suggestions, praise, feedback etc. to swimchatswithshona at gmail dot com or leave a comment. Remember to follow or subscribe to the podcast (it's free) so you don't miss an episode. Thanks for listening!

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Swim ChatsBy Shona Riddell