Dunedin Writers and Readers Festival

History's Scent - Dunedin Writers and Readers Festival 2019

Dunedin Writers and Readers Festival

Show Notes

We’re gathering together four novelists who’ve attached their fictions to the scaffold of history: Morris Gleitzman is working on the final instalment of his Onceseries (about a Jewish boy’s experiences in Nazi-occupied Poland during the Second World War); Tina Makereti grew her latest novel, The Imaginary Lives of James Pōneke, from an 1846 article in the London Times; Majella Cullinane takes on New Zealand military involvement at the Western Front in The Life of De’Ath; and Maxine Alterio’s third historical novel, The Gulf Between, explores the legacies of occupation in post-Second World War Naples. History curator Seán Brosnahan will find out how they went about the business of marrying fact with fiction and how far they fell into the rabbit hole of history. This show was broadcast on OAR 105.4FM Dunedin www.oar.org.nz

More from Dunedin Writers and Readers Festival

Nov 13, 2025

Chaired by Kiringāua Cassidy and Nadia Wesley-Smith, writers and guests gathered at Ōtākou Marae to share stories about and around the home fire. Nourish your wairua by listening to acclaimed writers as they, in turn, stoke the long-burning fire of ahi kā.

Nov 13, 2025

Chaired by Kiringāua Cassidy and Nadia Wesley-Smith, writers and guests gathered at Ōtākou Marae to share stories about and around the home fire. Nourish your wairua by listening to acclaimed writers as they, in turn, stoke the long-burning fire of ahi kā.

Nov 13, 2025

Acclaimed novelist Catherine Chidgey and OAR FM's Jeff Harford explore fiction's power to illuminate the shadows of human nature. In The Book of Guilt, Chidgey crafts a spine-chilling vision of alternate 1979 England, where children are classified by their worth to society. This haunting yet oddly comforting novel asks the questions we'd rather avoid: who deserves to belong, and who gets to decide?

Nov 13, 2025

Award-winning food writer and TV presenter Peta Mathias serves up her most deliciously indiscreet stories yet in this razor-sharp memoir. In conversation with Harriet Moir — this is Mathias at her most irresistible.

Nov 13, 2025

Join celebrated poet Apirana Taylor as he lays siege to lips with every syllable. Echoing Hone Tuwhare’s legacy of language that stirs, seduces, and stands its ground, this is an event where words are performed! Hosted by acclaimed playwright and provocateur Victor Rodger, and presented by the Hone Tuwhare Trust.

See all episodes →