Radio NZ to broadcast reading of ‘The Life and Loves of Lena Gaunt’

17 October 2014 Books+Publishing

Tracy Farr’s novel The Life and Loves of Lena Gaunt (Fremantle Press) will be broadcast as a 12-part reading on Radio New Zealand (RNZ), beginning on 29 October.

Farr, who was born in Australia but has lived in Wellington, New Zealand, since 1996, has previously had short stories broadcast by the station’s drama department. Farr told Books+Publishing ‘most of those have been a result of me submitting stories to them’.

RNZ drama and readings producer Prue Langbein told Books+Publishing that unpublished short stories broadcast on the program are usually unsolicited, while a team of producers select published short stories and at least a dozen books for broadcast readings each year.

Langbein said her neighbour—a friend of Farr’s—first recommended the book to her. ‘I don’t know if we’d have picked it up so soon, as most of the material that comes in to us in the drama department of RNZ is from NZ-based publishers,’ said Langbein, adding that the radio station has ‘produced some work from Text in Australia but nothing from Fremantle before’.

Each 14-minute episode will be posted on the Radio NZ website on the day of broadcast and will stay online for two weeks. To learn more about the Radio New Zealand drama program, click here.

Category: Local news