The Writer’s Life as a Juggling Act

Kirsty Gunn talks to The NZ Herald’s Siobhan Harvey. Saturday May 09, 2009

It’s 10 pm in London and New Zealand-born novelist Kirsty Gunn has had a difficult day. “I’ve only just got the girls to bed,” she says, guiltily.

The girls in question are Gunn’s daughters, Millie, 11, and Katherine, 8.

“School’s out over here, so the girls wanted to spend the day with me. Ordinarily, I wouldn’t have a problem with this, but I’ve just returned from a teaching and reading tour of the Gironde district in Bordeaux, so a few academic deadlines for Dundee [where Gunn is professor of creative writing] have piled up. More