Kate Camp explores her teen musings in Leather & Chains: My 1986 Diary.

Catherine Chidgey’s latest novels Pet, The Axeman’s Carnival, and The Book of Guilt have been taking the world by storm.

The lauded writers discuss their creative evolution with Elisabeth Easther, author of Seed and co-curator of HamLit.

Warning: torturously funny teenage diary entries may be read out loud.

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.

Kate Camp

Poet and essayist Kate Camp is the author of several collections of poems, including The Mirror of Simple Annihilated Souls (winner of the 2011 NZ Post Book Award for Poetry), How to Be Happy Though Human, and Makeshift Seasons, as well as a collection of autobiographical essays You Probably Think This Song Is About You. Her latest work is Leather & Chains: My 1986 Diary.

Catherine Chidgey

Catherine Chidgey is an Associate Professor at Waikato University and her nine novels have been published to international acclaim. The Axeman’s Carnival won the Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction at the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards and along with Pet was longlisted for the 2024 International Dublin Literary Award. The Book of Guilt (2025) was recently rave-reviewed in the New York Times – “Epically imagined, intricately constructed, conceptually engaging and packed with perfectly timed revelations.."

Elisabeth Easther

Elisabeth Easther is a journalist who writes for a range of publications about everything from culture to conservation, people to places, and books. She is also a voice artist, playwright, a broadcaster, an actress and Co-Curator of HamLit26 . Elisabeth’s debut novel Seed is an adaption of her award-winning play of the same name and is published by Penguin Random House NZ.