How I write:
Dr Emma Espiner (Ngāti Tukorehe, Ngāti Porou) is an award-winning writer, podcaster and political commentator.
Her podcast on Māori health equity, Getting Better: A Year in the Life of a Māori Medical Student (RNZ/Bird of Paradise Productions), won the Voyager Best Narrative Podcast of the Year award in 2021.
In 2020 she won the Opinion Writer of the Year award at the Voyager Media Awards, and her work has featured in Newsroom, Stuff, The Spinoff, the Guardian, the New Zealand Herald, and in academic and literary journals and books.
Espiner lives in Auckland, where she works at Middlemore Hospital as a surgical registrar.
Her memoir, There’s a cure for this is, is her first book and is out now.
Which book do you wish you’d written and why?
The Butchering Art by Lindsey Fitzharris. It would mean that I had the discipline to go deep into source material and fashion it into something so readable, it’s like fiction. It’s a work of alchemical genius.
Which writer do you turn to when you have writer’s block?
Whenever I’m feeling uninspired about writing I visit my ‘good words’ file. It’s a Google doc filled with good quotes, categorised into themes and linked to articles that they’ve come from.
Which book had such an impact on you that you bought it for your friends?
Grand by Noelle McCarthy, Poor People with Money by Dominic Hoey and Coco Solid’s How to Loiter in a Turf War.
What book do you go back to time and time again to re-read?
A Trip to the Stars by Nicholas Christopher. I’ve been rereading it every few years since I was 16 years old and my friend Ari lent me her copy. It’s not something I would ordinarily read – it’s essentially a love story – but it’s so familiar now it feels like family, or an emotional support book that I can turn to when I need to feel grounded in something known and safe.
What book did you read as a child or teen that had a profound effect on you?
The Alana series by Tamora Pierce. It was very on brand for my mother to give me the first novel in a feminist fantasy series about a girl who disguises herself as a boy to become a knight for my 7th birthday. I’ve loved the genre ever since for its delicious world building, ability to subvert social norms and, of course, magic.
When it comes to a memorable book, what is more important: a great plot or great characters?
I read both types of books, but I
remember the character driven ones best.
What’s your writing routine? Do you have a certain time of day you like to write?
In the scraps of time between working and parenting. I work most effectively to a deadline, ideally multiple deadlines, otherwise I procrastinate in an appallingly effective manner.
And where do you write?
In bed, at the kitchen table, in the cafe before work, in the library, in the registrar room at 2am on the rare quiet night shift. Almost never at my desk. In fact, I think I’m going to get rid of the desk. It makes me anxious – reminds me of the last
exam I sat.
What ‘‘must read’’ book have you not read? Go on, fess up…
The Luminaries.
What’s on your reading list?
I’m reading the new Samantha Shannon A Day of Fallen Night and Rebecca Solnit’s The Faraway Nearby. My ‘‘to be read’’ pile is about 50 books high. Next in line to read is Colleen Maria Lenihan’s Kōhine and Salem’s Lot by Stephen King.
Emma Espiner will be at the Auckland Writers Festival this month. For all information and tickets visit www.writersfestival.co. nz.