local loser

Joseph Trinidad joins the local loser family as he visits Tāmaki Makaurau for the Auckland Writers Festival.

Damien Levi chats with him about his debut essay collection, Lucky Creatures, shared connections to place, the power of memory, and Joseph does a reading from his book.

Some links you may be interested in from this episode include ⁠one to purchase Lucky Creatures, Mikee Sto Domingo's short story 'The Duende' and Joseph on Instagram.

Books mentioned:
Lucky Creatures by Joseph Trinidad
The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley
This Watery Place: Four Essays on Gestation by Emma Heaney
Matrescence: On Pregnancy, Childbirth, and Motherhood by Lucy Jones
My Dog Tulip by J. R. Ackerley

Damien can be found on ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠.

The local loser theme song is composed by Karen Hu.

Damien Levi and local loser are back for a second season! Is the audio still unreliable? Yes! Should you still listen anyway? Please!
For the first episode of season two, Damien chats with playwright/zinemaker/artiste Nuanzhi Zheng about receiving Creative New Zealand money for something unexpected, the role of Head Girls in society, art schools, eating disrespectfully, and more.
As always, we can only hope the guest's audio improves across the season, but we thank you nonetheless for listening.
You may want to find Nuanzhi on Instagram or Substack, by a copy of her play Yang/Young/杨 (cowritten with Sherry Zhang) in Traces, or look at her website.
Damien can be found on Instagram or at his website.
The local loser theme song is composed by Karen Hu.

Damien is solo in the local loser studio today, recording a round-up/recap of reading in 2025, thanks to voice notes from past guests.

Alongside favourite reads from Nathan Joe, Sherry Zhang, Saraid de Silva, Josiah Morgan, Laura Vincent and Gabi Lardies, Damien adds in a running commentary and some of his own favourites from the year.

local loser will be back in 2026, but for now, some links you may be interested in are: the preorder link for Childish Palate by Shariff Burke, Damien's The Big Idea article, Torrey Peters and Andrea Long Chu in conversation on Stag Dance, and Josiah's review of Brandon Taylor's The Late Americans.

Damien can be found on ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠.

The local loser theme song is composed by Karen Hu.

It's a surprise Friday episode from Damien Levi to coincide with the official publication date of Hoods Landing, the debut novel from his guest, Laura Vincent.

There's lots to learn about Hoods Landing, but Laura and Damien also get into what it means to let go of your book, ask why there are so many vape shops, decide they both actually like Auckland and lament bad writing.

Some links you may be interested in from this episode include ⁠a link to purchase Hoods Landing⁠, Laura's food blog hungryandfrozen.com, Jean Teng's Cringe, Emma Gleason's Crust, folu's unsackable and Laura's Instagram.

Damien can be found on ⁠Instagram⁠.

The local loser theme song is composed by Karen Hu.

Damien Levi is on uncle duties this week as he records with writer, editor and publisher Faith Wilson (and her baby boy, Mo.)

While Mo is distracted by peanut butter toast and the flashing lights of the audio software, Damien and Faith chat about grief, motherhood, Twitter cringe, phone games and arts criticism.

Damien forgot to ask Faith what she might want to plug, but you can find Saufo'i Press books on their website, check out the Pohewa Pāhewa: Te Rūma exhibition at Objectspace and get your own copy of The Bomb by Sacha Cotter and illustrated by Josh Morgan.

Damien can be found over on Instagram.

The local loser theme song is composed by Karen Hu.