Louise Wallace (Photo credit: Grant Maiden)

Wellington poet and co-editor of Starling Louise Wallace published a new collection of poetry last month. Bad Things is Louise’s third book and is published by Victoria University Press

Bad Things, is about the different ways in which we survive. Political and personal, the collection navigates celebrity encounters, women and work, the weight of expectation, and the pasts we try to escape and the people we try to hold on to. These poems are dreamlike, confronting, funny, and sometimes unashamedly weird.

When we first talked about getting together for a chat, Louise suggested we talk about some of the books that were  important to her while she was writing Bad Things.

So in this episode, as well as talking about Louise’s fantastic book we also talk about:

Claudia Rankine’s Citizen: An American Lyric

Rachel Zucker’s The Pedestrians

Kei Miller’s The Cartographer tries to map a way to Zion 

Zarah Butcher-McGunnigle’s Autobiography of Marguerite

We have a wide-ranging conversation which I think will be really interesting to readers and writers. During the discussion we also talk about:

Commonplace: Conversations with Poets which is Rachel Zucker’s podcast

And I mention that I believe Zarah Butcher-McGunnigle wins the internet with her Instagram account

Better off Read is available on iTunes where you can subscribe by clicking here

Better off Read is also available on PodBean where you can subscribe by clicking here

Or you can listen to it here:

Episode 50: Pip Adam talks to Louise Wallace about her new poetry collection BAD THINGS