On Monday night we settle in at Tautoru TSB Space inside Tūranga, WORD Christchurch Programme Directory Kiran Dass takes to the platform thanking the ‘OG die-hard WORD fans for coming out on such a cold night’! Kiran thanks Creative New Zealand, Christchurch City Council, the Rātā Foundation, Otago University Press, and to Tūranga for hosting the event. This event is supported by Otago University Press, Auckland Writers Festival and Scottish Books International
The author Kirsty Gunn takes a seat with Kiran. The introduction gives us insight to Kirsty's wonderful literary work and achievements:
- She is a Professor at the University of Dundee in Scotland
- Her novel The Big Music won the Book of the Year in the 2013 New Zealand Post Book Awards
- Her most recent work Pretty Ugly was a finalist for the Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction at the 2025 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards.
As her stories journey out into the world they have taken on a life of their own, some being transformed into plays, films and ballet.
Kiran opens the conversation by welcoming Kirsty home, acknowledging how the writer left Aotearoa at nineteen years old to live between Scotland and London. I like Kirsty's dash of Scottish charm as she speaks, saying ‘this time of year Christchurch is looking very bonnie!’
She explains how each return to New Zealand is to visit a place that is ‘complicated by memory’, bringing a feeling that is ‘hugely psychic’ and coloured by one’s past. Now her time in New Zealand also brings an exciting newness as the country ‘reinvents itself as a Pacific Island, realigning with its precolonial roots’. She compares these two experiences to her novel Pretty Ugly - life’s an ‘oxymoron’ with overlapping experiences happing all the time.
Pretty Ugly is a short fiction collection of thirteen stories, thirteen being chosen intentionally for its, ‘jiggly and upsetting’ nature. Kiran congratulates her on the book shortlisting for the Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize, commenting on how this genre seems to be having a resurgence. Kirsty muses that ‘late phase capitalism wants to kill off short stories.’ For her, short stories have the potential ‘to do something novels can't - much like poetry they can change us’. For those who have a love of reading and literature, the appreciation for this kind of writing will always be there.
She’s fond of short stories as they can bypass the demand a novel has to ‘entertain the reader, to be successful in the marketplace, to sell and to be relevant’. She believes in the idea of creating something provoking that has the power to change us and our ‘psychic temperature’ expanding the way we see our lives.
Kirsty read an excerpt from King Country, a vivid story in a rural setting about a father, his three boys, a young girl’s relationship to them and how this brings out her boyish nature in ways that she finds both troubling and empowering. Her storytelling is rich and quickly transports me back to my childhood with three brothers, we lived on a farm and spent countless hours outdoors. It was a time that revealed my siblings and I to the magical and brutal realities that inherently exist within nature. Kiran later comments on Kirsty's brilliant ability to create such an evocative experience for her readers. I agree!
Speaking about inspiration for Pretty Ugly, Kirsty described the presence of toxic political environments, that suffocating feeling they bring, and how it gave her the urge to write about “awful, ugly things”. As if it was a like a kind of ‘inoculation’ where a small dose of the same thing brought protection. It’s not all heavy though, Kirsty promises, she assures the audience there are some themes that speak to the pretty essence of the book's title: roses, night scented stock, and kittens.
I'm sure some of us are keen to hear about Kirsty's writing process, and she shares a few insights with us. Proclaiming herself to be an ‘obsessive drafter’ something that seems to be increasing with age. Only once has she written a full draft from start to finish, usually her writing is done in increments and pieces, woven together as the story unfolds, the endings often a surprise – which she loves!
The audience ask questions. One listener asks if Kirsty had any advice for aspiring writers? In her response she urges ‘please don't wait for time’ as it might not come, or if it does, we may not take it! Just write without overthinking, start that practice daily even just for five minutes, getting anything down on paper.
She gives an example of a writing exercise: choose an existing line as a prompt (check) return to it later in the day. Do this every day for a week and then compile the pieces. I enjoyed the playfulness of this prompt and felt it highlighted the author's writing style of amalgamating pieces and excerpts.
Another asks about achieving rhythm in their writing, Kirsty describes herself as ‘sonically minded’, likening her writing to a musical score sheet. She suggests reading what you've written aloud, finding even just a few words that create a tempo, again this doesn't always appear instantly in the first draft and can take time to emerge.
Our final question is someone’s curiosity about when Kirsty decided to commit to literature. This year, the author's personal motto is ‘living writing’ where life becomes enriched by experiencing it as if you were writing a text, as if life itself were a short story. She believes this can encourage us to live a life that’s more exciting. The love of literature has been with her since her mother encouraged her to read as a little girl. She encapsulates her answer with a final word… ‘forever’.
The evening finishes with a lucky winner being announced for a book bundle raffle; it was neatly tied with WORD blue ribbon (we were given the chance to buy tickets in support of WORD at the beginning of the night). Kirsty stayed on and took the time to sign copies of her book for anyone who wanted to take a precious copy home.
More Kirsty Gunn
Katrina
Matatiki Hornby Centre
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