Show Notes
My new novel kluge is released in Aotearoa this week. Read about kluge
Thanks to the amazing work of Te Herenga Waka University Press and Todd Atticus it has a beautiful cover which comes in four colours.
To celebrate this, i'm doing four events over the next few weeks. One for each of the four covers. Info on all events
kluge launch
Friday 14 August, 6.00pm. Aro Community Centre Hall, Te Whanganui-a-Tara
Join us to launch kluge, a new novel from pip adam! The event will include readings from Kerry Donovan Brown, Always Becominging and Brannavan Gnanalingam.
pip adam and Frances Libeau in conversation
Tuesday 25 August, 6.00pm. Time Out, Mt Eden, Tāmaki Makaurau
***rsvp to [email protected]***
The work of interdisciplinary artist and writer Frances Libeau is a touchstone and inspiration for pip adam’s new novel kluge - a story about the end days of a tech company and its all-powerful owner, told in the style of a stand-up comedy special.
In this new novel pip ‘kluges’ together the bi-products of our surveillance society. Frances’ work often explores the hauntological potentialities of found materials.
Come and hear Frances and pip in conversation about their work and practice to celebrate the release of kluge. More information and RSVP
i can't write without reading
Thursday 27 August, 5.30pm. Lamplight Books, Parnell, Tāmaki Makaurau
Hear pip adam talk about the books that feed kluge, her new novel. pip will help us build a list of quality reading reckons.
This is your chance to meet one of Aotearoa's most acclaimed writers and talk books! Think of it as a live, human recommendation algorithm: tell pip what you love, and discover what she thinks you should read next. pip will also read from her brand new novel.
kluge me
Sunday 30 August, 3.00pm. The Open Book, Ponsonby, Tāmaki Makaurau
pip adam presents readings from some of her favourite writers in a special event for kluge. Come and hear Laura Vincent, Cello Forrester, Rebecca K Reilly and Elliot McKenzie read at The Open Book.
You can support Better off Read financially at Buy Better off Read a Coffee
Music in Better off Read was made by Brent McIntyre.
More from Better off Read
On the 5th of September this year, i was lucky enough to be in an event at Word Festival called I Wish I Wrote That with an incredibly talented line-up of writers including Jon Toogood. Jon had an event before ours and i watched him perform 'Home Again' on acoustic guitar from the Green Room. Even backstage and through a screen i found myself moved to tears - it's an incredible piece of songwriting that just seems to hit me more and more profoundly. About five minutes into Jon's book signing i needed to go to the foyer and it was wild. One thing became really clear - people love Jon and Jon's book and Shihad. During our event, Jon read a really beautiful piece about Aldous Harding's song 'Treasure'. One of the really great things about Jon's memoir Home Again is the way he writes about music, not just the music he makes but the music he loves.
Helen and i have been friends for a long time. Over the years her work has been incredibly inspiring to me. When i say 'Helen's work' i mean her writing, her activism, her visual art, her journaling, her essays, her thinking, her teaching, her friendship, her family-ship, her gardening and all the other amazing things she does. i also admire the way it is quite hard to separate these 'works' out from each other. If there is such a thing as an artist's life i think Helen is a really great example of that. When we met a few weeks ago, Helen brought along her journal as the object to act as a starting place for this conversation.
September is such an exciting month because it sees the launch of The Valley of Unlikely Acquaintances an amazing novel written by Terri Te Tau and published by Spoor Books
i loved talking to Molly Crighton over Zoom earlier this month about her new novel The Body and the Blood out with Hachette New Zealand
i'm really grateful to Tīhema Baker for speaking with me about his new novel One Day a Taniwha (Hachette) i was a massive fan of Tīhema's last novel Turncoat and i've enjoyed hearing Tīhema talk over the last few years. i was lucky enough to read Tīhema's book last year and i loved it. i reread it for this podcast and i still love it. Maybe even more. It's an incredibly compelling story set in several planes of experience - centrally the waking and sleeping lives. It's an incredibly intelligent and beautiful novel. Through this deft craft i think it makes possible new ways of thinking about fatherhood, work, mental health and how these are effected by colonisation and colonialism. In our discussion i touch on how fresh and cutting edge Tīhema's depiction of fatherhood is. i just can't recommend it enough. This podcast was recorded over Zoom.