Writing Alex and Mickey: Josie Shapiro with Tessa Duder

In 1987 Tessa Duder’s young adult novel Alex was published and an iconic character stormed into Aotearoa’s literary canon. In 2023 Josie Shapiro’s Everything is Beautiful and Everything Hurts introduced readers to underdog distance runner Mickey Bloom. Off the page, New Zealand is still reverberating with the aftermath of hosting the FIFA Women’s World Cup and a joyously feverish 2022 Women’s Rugby World Cup. Duder and Shapiro join host Maggie Tweedie to discuss writing women in sport and how their fictional heroines are created in conversation with trials and tribulations of real live ones.

A discounted ‘Ticket + 2 x Books’ bundle is available for this event for copies of Tessa Duder's Alex: The Quartet, and Josie Shapiro’s Everything is Beautiful and Everything Hurts. If purchased, your books can be collected from Unity Books, 57 Willis Street, Wellington in advance of the festival, or at the event from Unity's book table.