I really enjoyed talking with Sue about Lolita. A book which has always troubled me, largely because I find myself simultaneously mesmerised by it’s form and revolted by its content. Sue teased out some very interesting aspects of the book and language and fiction as a whole.

Sue Orr has published two short story collections – Etiquette for a Dinner Party (Vintage, 2008) and From Under the Overcoat (Vintage, 2011). From Under the Overcoat was shortlisted for the NZ Post Book Awards 2012, and won the People’s Choice Award. Her work has also been published in the NZ Listener, Sport, in various anthologies and has been broadcast on Radio New Zealand National. Sue also occasionally teaches creative writing at Manukau Institute of Technology in Auckland. In 2011 she was a Buddle Findlay Sargeson Fellow.

Sue’s creative component is a novel set in rural New Zealand in the 1970s. It has a working title of The Party Line, referring to the shared telephone lines of that era. Her research component will examine eavesdropping and voyeurism in New Zealand writing, with particular reference to the work of Maurice Gee and one or two other authors.

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Episode 13: Pip Adam talks with Sue Orr about Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

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Next episode I speak with Dougal Mc Neill about Writing the 1926 General Strike: Literature, Culture, Politics the book he’s written with Charles Ferrall.