Author talk: Me and my Memoir

What happens when writers turn their own lives into stories? New Zealand memoirists Kate Camp and Charlotte Grimshaw discuss the joys, challenges and emotional complexities of writing about personal experience in a conversation chaired by award-winning journalist and filmmaker Amanda Robertshawe. Kate Camp’s Leather & Chains: My 1986 Diary revisits her teenage diary, reflecting on the person she was and the life she has lived since. Charlotte Grimshaw’s bestselling memoir The Mirror Book explores her family history and her experiences as a writer, offering a compelling look at the connections between memory, identity and storytelling. Together, Kate and Charlotte will tackle the difficult questions that arise when life becomes literature. What is the emotional cost of revisiting the past? How much of a personal story belongs to the people who shared it? Where should writers draw the line between honesty and privacy, and how reliably can we trust our memories? About the speakers Kate Camp is a Wellington-based poet and memoirist, born in 1972. She is the author of You Probably Think This Song Is About You (2022), Leather & Chains: My 1986 Diary and eight acclaimed poetry collections. Her collection The Mirror of Simple Annihilated Souls won the 2011 NZ Post Book Award for Poetry, while How to Be Happy Though Human: New and Selected Poems was published in 2020 and Makeshift Seasons in 2025. Charlotte Grimshaw is an acclaimed New Zealand author of novels, short stories and memoir, with 11 books to her name. Her work has earned numerous literary honours, including the Montana Award for Fiction for Opportunity, and her novel Soon became a New Zealand bestseller and was adapted for television as The Bad Seed. Her bestselling 2021 memoir, The Mirror Book, was shortlisted for the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards. She is also an award-winning literary reviewer and former Metro columnist. Amanda Robertshawe - Chair, is an experienced journalist, documentary filmmaker and producer who has worked across television news, regional broadcasting and programmes including Country Calendar, Kaleidoscope and the children's news programme The Video Dispatch. Her journalism and filmmaking have earned national and international awards, and her work has included producing communications and video resources for government organisations and public services. Join Kate Camp and Charlotte Grimshaw, with Amanda Robertshawe guiding the conversation, for an engaging exploration of the risks, rewards and responsibilities of telling your own story.