Meet Steph Walker and Kiran Dass from WORD Christchurch
STEPH WALKER, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, WORD CHRISTCHURCH
As told to Joshua Brosnahan
I’m a producer, programmer, and an arts and events manager with a penchant for festivals and projects that cross artforms and defy what you might think about when you think about “the arts”. I started programming theatre, dance, comedy and music at BATS Theatre in Wellington, moving to Christchurch to work on the Christchurch Arts Festival in 2010. Our 2011 Festival was one of the first major events in the city post-quakes, which taught me a lot about what’s important. I scarpered off to Australia, wanting more experience on bigger-scale projects.
It was great, but I had a hankering for home and a more long-term role. I moved back to Aotearoa to the Auckland Arts Festival and now to WORD Christchurch.
WORD is all about creating moments for our community to come together to celebrate words in all their forms. At our heart, we’re a literary festival, but actually, we’re a whole lot more. This year will be live and in the flesh, and we are so excited to host that space.
For those wondering the answer to that very Christchurch question, I went to St Margaret’s College, trying very hard to be the next sportsperson in the family, but actually, at my best in music, drama, debating, and art. I made the ultimate theatre geek move when you’re a teenager and was part of the NZ Young Shakespeare Company that went to the Globe in London, had a brief career as a Court Jester, that sort of thing. I really wanted to be a Black Fern, though. Ah well.
I’ve lived away from Christchurch a lot in the past while, but I’ve come back as much as I can and watched the city fall to the ground and build itself back up again. I can feel the energy growing, and I am so excited to come back and help build that buzz up again. I’m looking forward to making a home in Ōtautahi once more. It’s really feeling like I’m going full circle. I’m even moving in with one of my first flatmates in Christchurch!
Kiran Dass, Programme and Engagement Manager
You’re both coming on board with WORD and are about to relocate - tell me about your background and experience:
I’ve been immersed in books for a long time now. I was a bookseller for independent bookshops for fifteen years, and I’ve long worked as a book reviewer and author interviewer for print and radio. I love books; it’s almost a kind of madness! I’m constantly reading and keeping an eye on what is being published here and internationally, and I love spreading the word and championing books that people might not get to hear about otherwise. I’m a big fan of small presses, local publishing and translated fiction.
My interests and background have led me down multiple paths - and often at the same time! But I feel like they have all intersected in complementary and interesting ways. For my first degree, I majored in moving image and then stayed on at the Waikato Institute of Technology in Hamilton as a tutor. But at the same time, I also worked the evening shift and weekends at the most gorgeous Hamilton secondhand bookshop, Browsers, where I loved being immersed in the world of books and surrounded by the people who love them. It had the most amazing smell - a warm lemony, piney old books smell that everyone would comment on as soon as they stepped in the door. I’d tell them it was the smell of knowledge! I then studied journalism in Auckland. Afterwards, I worked at the Sunday Star-Times and then went freelance full-time, covering film and music. But I always return to books.
After a couple of years, I wanted a change, so I packed up and moved to Wellington, where I lucked into a bookseller role at one of the best independent bookshops in Aotearoa - Unity Books. Treading the shop floor there was a revelation, and I felt like I really came into my own. I met so many incredible people - book lovers, writers, and publishers, and I learned so much about the book trade from multiple angles. I think if you’ve worked as a bookseller, you can sort of do anything. You learn so much about publishing and books but also hospitality, inclusivity and people, and the thrill and nuanced art of recommending the right book for the right person never diminishes. It’s actually quite an intimate exchange. One of my favourite queries, though, was being asked to help a woman pick a book for her friend. The brief? “She doesn’t read much, she lives in Tasmania, she doesn’t really have a sense of humour. And she’s racist.” Booksellers can do anything!
I went on to work at Unity in Auckland and then as the buyer at Time Out Bookstore. At the same time, I maintained a freelance career as a writer and reviewer, writing about books for pretty much every outlet in Aotearoa, including NZ Herald and NZ Listener, as well as reviewing books monthly on RNZ’s Nine to Noon. I regularly contribute to the Guardian and write about music and books for UK magazine The Wire. So I’ve always been super busy juggling multiple jobs, but I think everything I do has a symbiotic relationship and informs each aspect. I’ll be bringing all of that experience with me to WORD.
I’ve chaired sessions with local and international authors at WORD Christchurch, Auckland Writers Festival, Verb Wellington, Litcrawl, Aotearoa NZ Festival of the Arts and in 2020, I was the convening judge for the Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction at the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards.
And what about your connections to Ōtautahi? I love your Lyttelton obsession (which I wholeheartedly share).
I’d never even been to Te Waipounamu before 2011, when I was offered an opportunity to house sit for a friend in Lyttelton not long after the devastating earthquake. Because I’d never been to Ōtautahi before, I didn’t have a before and after comparison. When I arrived in Lyttelton, it was pretty much rubble, nothing was open, and there were frequent aftershocks. I was there on my own and didn’t know anybody, but I was so struck by how warmly I was welcomed into the community where I made firm friends. The space, the big sky, the port, the light and landscape - it just felt like home.
Happily, each time I have returned since then, there has been a strong sense of renewal and a constantly growing vibrancy and energy in the city. It will be such a privilege to be able to contribute to that through our work with WORD.
I vowed that it would be my mission to move to Lyttelton, and happily, my exciting new role at WORD has not only secured me a dream job working alongside the dream team of Steph, Nic Low and Magda Lorenzo, but it has facilitated me moving to my dream town. I’m so looking forward to immersing myself in the literary, music and arts communities in beautiful Ōtautahi.
In 2018 the then Director of WORD, Rachael King, invited me to chair a session at WORD. As soon as I arrived for that session, it was a revelation. The atmosphere was so fresh and alive and buzzing. The energy and warmth were really palpable; I was so impressed. So it’s such an honour to be invited into the WORD whānau.
Tell me about the next couple of years for WORD- what do you envisage in terms of growth and engagement with the local community?
We are so excited about incorporating more music, sound and performance into our programming and thinking about words from new angles. There is so much talent and creativity emerging from many different pockets around Ōtautahi, and we want to embrace that. Watch this space!
Is there anything you’d like to leave Avenues readers with?
I’m always happy to chat to anyone about books and music anytime, and I love to hear about what people are reading, so feel free to come up and say hello at WORD this year! Save the dates - 31 August - 4 September. And always support your local independent booksellers!