Fact and Fiction Event: Writing History 14 November
Author event with bestselling novelist Kate Mahony and acclaimed nonfiction author Clare Gleeson.
Thursday the 14th November, 6pm
Te Whare Pukapuka o Te Māhanga | Karori Library
Have you ever wondered what it takes to write a bestselling page turning book about Aotearoa’s past? Or maybe you are curious about whether the research for a novel differs from the research for a non-fiction book? Or even more fundamentally, how does writing a novel differ from writing a non-fiction book?
Well, all those questions and many more will be answered when we talk to bestselling novelist Kate Mahony and acclaimed nonfiction writer Clare Gleeson.
Non-fiction and fiction both require great storytelling, in this unmissable event we will focus on what drew these two authors to their subjects, how they researched them and how they went about writing their books.
Meet our esteemed authors and our host:
Kate Mahony
Kate Mahony
Kate Mahony is a long-time writer of short stories with an MA in Creative Writing from the International Institute of Modern Letters at Victoria University of Wellington. Her work has been published in anthologies and literary journals internationally and in New Zealand.
Secrets of the Land her debut novel is a time hoping, page turning, haunting novel which grips from the start and has ridden high in the Aotearoa best-selling charts since its release. With strong factual historical elements.
Clare Gleeson author photo by Chris Coad
Clare Gleeson
Clare Gleeson is a Wellington historian and author. Her first book was Meet me at Begg’s: the story of Charles Begg & Co, and she has published a range of articles on music-making and music retailing in New Zealand, including on the Audioculture website. Recently, Clare’s research has focused on Aotearoa’s horticultural history, and this has led to articles in a range of New Zealand and overseas publications, including New Zealand Gardener.
The result of this research has been her new book, The Fairer Side of Buxton. This is a gripping history book about this country's first landscape designer Alfred Buxton, who was the father of landscape design in New Zealand. Working in the early twentieth century, he was one of the first in the country to create expansive and sophisticated gardens that transformed people’s properties and ways of life.
Mary McCallum
Meet our host, Mary McCallum
Mary McCallum will be our host at this event. Mary is a poet and novelist, the director of The Cuba Press, and publishing director and editor of the award winning
Mākaro Press.
Browse Books
You can borrow the books from various panel members by following the links below.