Better off Read

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.

Action: Mana Whenua Health Providers



Rather than highlighting a particular organisation, in discussion with Tīhema, we wanted to do a more generic shout-out to Mana Whenua Health Services around the motu who are doing an amazing job of providing services and advocacy for their communities during a time when there is a need to fill the gap left by cuts to public health funding. There was a false narrative that gained legs during the disestablishment of Te Aka Whai Ora that Māori were creating a separate health system. In reality, these Mana Whenua Health Services provide for their entire communities which include services to Māori, Pākeha, Pasifika and all people. So we wanted to say a massive thank you to these organisations and the many people who work and support them.

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



Music in Better off Read was made by Brent McIntyre.

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 books@timeout.co.nz***



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.

i'm really grateful to Asher for taking the time out of a really busy month to chat with me about writing The Valley: Crime and Punishment in a New Zealand City published by Bridget Williams Books (BWB)



There are quite a few places to see Asher talk about the content of The Valley. Most recently Asher appeared on Q & A with Jack Tame



In this conversation i was keen to talk to Asher about how he wrote the book. i was particularly interested in the journalism as a form.

As someone who has spent a bit of time with people who live in prisons, i am always a bit anxious about a work of journalism that investigates justice and specific people in the justice systems. i started The Valley by reading the 'About the Research' section at the back of the book and felt a degree of hope. i think this is why i wanted to talk to Asher about process. Asher has made decisions around narrative, voice, citation and other elements of writing that mean this book is a compelling work of long-form journalism and one that de-centers the author and lets the people of the work speak for themselves. Obviously, as Asher says, the idea of complete objectivity is a myth. However this book does a great job of resisting dominant journalistic and literary solutions in a way that produces something unlike a lot of other 'true crime' i've read. i've found it hard to work out how to talk about this book. At first i thought it was a work that offered the reader an opportunity for compassion. But i think now, what it offers through it's literary choices is something far more profound - information. i think in the absence of editorializing the book gives us a clear picture of the way things are, making it very hard to say every again, 'I didn't know.' We can disagree on the causes and solutions but The Valley makes it very hard to disagree on what is happening in our neighborhoods, on our streets, in our courts and prisons.

i also just want to say thanks so much to Te Matapihi Ki Te Ao Nui | Central Library where i've recorded the last three episodes. i can't say loudly enough how great it is to have you back and how wonderful it is to be able to record in one of your awesome meeting room spaces!

Action: Citizens Advice Bureau | Ngā Pou Whakawhirinaki o Aotearoa and Community Law



i wanted to highlight the work of two organisations that support people in finding information and advice. Asher suggested these two.



Citizens Advice Bureau | Ngā Pou Whakawhirinaki o Aotearoa say:



We are a nationwide, but locally based, community organisation. We help people to know and understand their rights and obligations, and how to use this information to get the best outcomes. We provide people with the confidence and support they need to take action. We use insights from our clients’ experiences to work for positive social change.



Citizens Advice Bureau | Ngā Pou Whakawhirinaki o Aotearoa website



Citizens Advice Bureau Petitions Wellington Council To Restore CAB Funding



Community Law says:



Legal problems can be serious and frightening, and for many people lawyers are completely unaffordable. But everyone has the right to high-quality legal help – that’s where Community Law comes in.



Community Law New Zealand website



Community Law Wellington and Hutt Valley says:



We provide initial legal advice only at our drop-in sessions and community outreach clinics. If you require ongoing legal assistance with your legal issue we will help you find an appropriate lawyer.



Community Law Wellington website



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



Music in Better off Read was made by Brent McIntyre.

It was so great to catch up and chat with Joseph Trinidad about his new book Lucky Creatures (Te Herenga Waka University Press, 2026)



Reading Joseph's work makes me so excited about reading and speaking with Joe about his practice has made me excited about writing. Thank you Joseph.

Joseph's book of essays is one of the best reading experiences i've had this year. It's an incredibly beautifully crafted work which demonstrates Joseph's immense narrative talent. The book as a whole is so satisfying in its journey - one of those the whole being greater than the sum of its parts works. And then, as well, on a sentence-level the essays in Lucky Creatures evoke strong emotions through perfectly rendered sensory details. Lucky Creatures is also a work that stretches the genre of non-fiction and maybe even helps us question the dominance of realism as a form in non-fiction and the essay. i just can't recommend it strongly enough.

In our conversation i make particular mention of Joseph's essay 'No eggs in the Nest' which is about having children. i mentioned (with the help of Joseph) Ocean Vuong's book Time is a Mother. What i love about Vuong's book and maybe also Joe's essay is the way both ungender the activity or role of 'mother'. It prompted me to re-read this amazing conversation: On Death, Music and Motherhood: Björk & Ocean Vuong in Conversation that you can read in AnOther magazine.



In this conversation Vuong says to Björk:



'What I realised with your music – and this album [Fossora] especially – is that we all have a mother, but we also have people, friends, family who mother us. Mothering is also an act without gender as well as a biological reality – it’s both.'



i've put together a sample of some of the writers and writing Joe talks about in this conversation:



* Maxine Hong Kingston * Chris Tse * Lana Lopesi * Rose Lu * Ashleigh Young * Wellington Film Society *



Carly Rae Jepsen * Chris Price * SZA * Chris Schultz * Kieran McLean * Jess McAllen * Flora Feltham *



The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother by James McBride



Secondhand Time: The Last of the Soviets by Svetlana Alexandrovna Alexievich



'Grist for the mill: the slow death of New Zealand’s industry towns' by Anna Rankin



i also just want to say thanks so much to Te Matapihi Ki Te Ao Nui | Central Library. i can't say loudly enough how great it is to have you back and how wonderful it is to be able to record in one of your awesome meeting room spaces!



Action: songs of solidarity (sos)



Joseph recommended we highlight the work of songs of solidarity (sos)



It's a great idea to stay in touch with songs of solidarity through their website or Instagram account. Last week songs of solidarity hosted a kōrero with Joseph and, friend and fellow writer, Shariff Burke about Lucky Creatures, writing, friendship, and everything in between.



songs of solidarity say:



“we imagine songs of solidarity (SOS) as the space for resistance, resilience, imagination, and coalition building. it is the collaborative space for dreamers – poets, writers, artists, activists, community healers, organisers, and children – who believe in learning/unlearning and collective transformation toward an alternative world – for all.”



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



Music in Better off Read was made by Brent McIntyre.

On 22 April, at Unity Books Te Whanganui-a-Tara i spoke with Shana Chandra about her accomplished and beautiful novel Banjara (Moa Press | Hachette, 2026)

i'm so grateful to Unity Books for hosting these lunchtime author talks. This event took place the day after some devestating weather and under burgeoning blue skies. It was such a great crowd and people were so excited to hear Shana and read Banjara.



Banjara is an astonishingly good book which can be enjoyed on so many levels. It's a really compelling story that also offers insight into events that i think some readers may not have read about before. Shana's prose is compelling and evocatively summons both physical and emotional landscapes. It's a book that holds both darkness and light to tell an affecting story that has stayed with me.

Te Whanganui-a-Tara

At the beginning of this conversation i mention a person who was missing after the storms. Sadly, the day after this event it was discovered the person had died. i just want to acknowledge the family and friends of this person and offer love in this difficult time. 

Action: Al-Rifaq

Shana suggested we highlight the work of Al-Rifaq an Aotearoa New Zealand-based affinity group that has formed in the context of the US-Israeli onslaught against the people of Gaza, Lebanon, and the wider Middle East. Members of Al-Rifaq are Arabic and non-Arabic speakers from the Middle East and elsewhere, whose common ground is unequivocal support for Palestinian and Third World liberation.

Al-Rifaq say about their work:



The purpose of this collective is to make Arabic political commentary, analysis, and theory accessible to Western and English-speaking readership. Our work with Arabic texts focuses on contemporary or recent analysis produced by the radical left and revolutionary currents of Palestine and the Arab world.



This focus is based on our belief that the ongoing and unfolding war on the region is of world historical significance, and that the time is ripe for a renewed internationalist ethos and orientation in political organising, as evidenced by the worldwide Palestine solidarity movement.



There is a gap between the political discourses of the radical left in the Arab and Western worlds. Our work here aims to bridge this gap and challenge the solidarity movements of the West, which must, we believe, come to understand Al-Qadhiyyah Al-Falastiniyah (القضية الفلسطينية)—the Palestinian question—on terms that are consistent with that of the Palestinian and Arab masses and their historic mission of liberation.



It is our privilege therefore to share the words of writers, scholars, journalists and organic intellectuals who continue, undeterred and with extraordinary rigour, to illuminate these dark times with an abundance of theoretical, historical, and strategic insight and clarity.



A note on process:
All our translations have been approved by the original publisher and, where possible, by the authors.



We are proudly a human-made platform. Thanks to your support, we can use funds gained through subscriptions to commission translators on the ground in the region.

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



Music in Better off Read was made by Brent McIntyre.