Writing Dangerously - Authors in Conversation: Louise Wallace and Claire Mabey

Louise Wallace and Claire Mabey talk about the stories behind their books; the challenges and opportunities that art-making while being working parents offers; and the wild nature that sits at the heart of their characters and the world that bears down around them.

Please join us for the evening, for what promises to be an illuminating, fun and moving conversation. Light refreshments provided.

RSVP essential events@unibooks.co.nz

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Louise Wallace is the author of four collections of poems, the latest of which is This Is a Story About Your Mother (2023). She is the founder and editor of Starling, an online journal publishing the work of young writers from Aotearoa, and the editor of Ōrongohau | Best New Zealand Poems 2022. She is a recipient of the Biggs Prize for Poetry and a Robert Burns fellow. She grew up in Gisborne and lives in Ōtepoti Dunedin. Ash, published earlier this year, is her first novel and was our Book of the Month for May 2024.

Browse Louise's books here

Claire Mabey is, amongst many other varied things, the founder of Verb Wellington, LitCrawl Wellington and Lōemis arts festival. She is also a books editor, book critic and co-curator of the writers' programme at the Aotearoa NZ Festival of the Arts. We are lucky to have her bring her brand-new children's fiction book, The Raven's Eye Runaways, to us. Out on 2 July! The Raven's Eye Runaways (unibooks.co.nz)

ABOUT ASH by Louise Wallace

Thea lives under a mountain – one that’s ready to blow.

A vet at a mid-sized rural practice, she has been called back during maternity leave and is coping – just – with the juggle of meetings, mealtimes, farm visits, her boss’s search for legal loopholes and the constant care of her much-loved children, Eli and Lucy.

But something is shifting in Thea – something is burning. Or is it that she is becoming aware, for the first time, of the bright, hot core at her centre?

Then comes an urgent call.

Ingeniously layered, Ash is a story about reckoning with one’s rage and finding marvels in the midst of chaos.

ABOUT THE RAVEN’S EYE RUNAWAYS by Claire Mabey

A gripping, beautifully told fantasy quest set in a parallel medieval world.

Three young people and a one-eyed raven join forces to fight against the oppressive regime that restricts the gift of reading to an elite few and aims to squash magic. Getwin is a bookbinder working from dawn till dusk with her mother at Raven's Eye Bookbindery. Lea is a scribe, living in a monastic-style castle, where she and other girls are forced to copy manuscripts until their fingers bleed. Buckle is Getwin's loyal and close friend. When Lea escapes her prison-like life and the soporific tea that drugs her, she is rescued by Getwin and Buckle. They go in search of Getwin's mother, who has been taken by the regime. They encounter many dangers and must travel through a fearful city and a magical forest. Will they find her safe? And what is the terrible truth behind everything they think they know about their world? For ages 10-14.