At the 1997 Going West Festival, author Keri Hulme made a rare public appearance to discuss and read two excerpts from her unpublished novel BAIT, a story of “death and fishing”.

Having New Zealand’s first and notoriously media shy Booker Prize winner at New Zealand’s first literary festival was something our founder Murray Gray had been doggedly pursuing for a number of years.

Hulme eventually acquiesced, appearing on the festival stage for a reading from what was to be her second novel, BAIT. In two engaging excerpts, she carries the audience away to a remote part of the country that’s home to a shifting lagoon, larger than life characters, mystery and whitebait. 

BAIT was never published, but her reading is a tantalising taste of what might have been.

Thanks to Bowmore Islay Malt, who sponsored the original session back in 1997; to the executors of Hulme’s estate, who gave their generous permission for us to share this recording; and to Huia Press, Hulme’s  publisher, for their support in bringing her words to a new audience.