Kate Duignan
Kate Duignan's extraordinary novel The New Ships was shortlisted for the 2019 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards. Her first novel Breakwater (2001) received critical acclaim.
Kate's work has been widely published in journals and anthologies, and she held the Robert Burns Fellowship at Otago University in 2004.
Read more about Kate...
Festival sessions
A Friendly Cross Examination
- in conversation with Laurie Murdoch
4pm-5pm, Saturday 6 July, Spy Valley Wines, Waihopai Valley, $30
Author Kate Duignan and Blenheim barrister Laurie Murdoch met in Dunedin when Kate was a recipient of the prestigious Burns Fellowship and Laurie was studying law. Kate has since earned a PhD from Victoria University and published her second novel, The New Ships, whose main character is a Wellington lawyer. Come and hear Laurie's friendly cross examination of Kate's life and influences.
The New Ships
- in conversation with Kate De Goldi
2pm-3pm, Sunday 7 July, ASB Theatre Marlborough, 2 Hutcheson St, Blenheim, $20
Set in Wellington and traversing London, Europe and the Indian subcontinent, The New Ships is a mesmerising book about blood ties that stretch across borders. A novel of acute moral choices, it is a rich and compelling meditation on what it means to act, or to fail to act.