Josie Shapiro follows her hit novel Everything is Beautiful and Everything Hurts with Good Things Come and Go, an ode to taking risks.

Gina Butson’s novel The Stars are a Million Glittering Worlds traverses complicated relationships, guilt and grief from Aotearoa to Guatemala.

These two observers of contemporary life discuss their works with novelist Bridget van der Zijpp, co-curator of HamLit.

Presented as part of HamLit26, Hamilton Arts Festival Toi Ora ki Kirikiriroa, with special thanks to: Hamilton City Council, Creative Communities Scheme and Poppies Book Store.

Seating provided.

Josie Shapiro

Josie Shapiro won the inaugural Allen & Unwin Fiction Prize for her debut novel Everything is Beautiful and Everything Hurts. She was a Sargeson Fellow in 2024, and her second novel, Good Things Come and Go, was published in November 2025.

Gina Butson

Gina Butson has worked as a lawyer and an advisor in the public sector. She completed her MA in Creative Writing at the International Institute of Modern Letters in 2023, and her short fiction has been published in Newsroom, Salient and Turbine / Kapohau. Gina won the Salient Creative Writing competition and was Highly Commended in the Sargeson Prize in 2024. She has been awarded residencies at the Robert Lord Writers Cottage and at the Michael Writers Centre to be undertaken in 2026.

Bridget van der Zijpp

Bridget van der Zijpp is the author of three novels – Misconduct (shortlisted for the Commonwealth Prize), In the Neighbourhood of Fame and I Laugh Me Broken. She is a Co-Curator of HamLit26, the Curator of the podcast Writers Write: Actors Read, and has been
awarded the 2026 Ireland, Wilson, Sargeson Fellowship.