Verb Festival 2023

Drawings from four book talks at Verb: Indigenous-led Publishing, Behrouz’s Book Club, Our Golden Pasts and First But Only

Below are drawings made at Verb Festival on Saturday November 2023 at Meow Bar.

Indigenous-led Publishing: Pāore Tibble interviewed Eboni Waitere (Huia) and Bebe Backhouse-Oliver (Magabala Books) about publishing. (Correction: Initially my notes below had Pāora saying “He aha koe?” but I heard it wrong - mō taku hē - it is now corrected to “Kei te aha koe?”).

Behrouz’s Book Club: Behrouz Boochani, Sasha Francis and Abdul Samad Haidari in conversation about the meaning of literature. Book recommendations include (sorry, I didn’t catch most of the authors): A Wrinkle in Time, Then the Fish Swallowed Him, The Beach Beneath the Street, The Xeno-Feminist Manifesto, Still Alive (graphic novel by Safdar Ahmed), The Yield, On Doubt, The Power of Gentleness, and the poetry of Rumi and Hafiz.

Our Golden Pasts: Emma Ng interviewed Grace Yee (Chinese Fish) and Emma Ling Sidnam (Back Waters) about their books. Both Emma and Grace mentioned reading Home Away From Home by Manying Ip for research.

First But Only: Anahera Gildea and Emma Espiner talk about the problematic term “the first”, capitalism-colonialism and racism. Shout outs were made to Tīhema Baker’s book Turncoat and Nuku.