Tracy Farr
LightNews LightNews
banner
hissingswan.bsky.social
Tracy Farr
@hissingswan.bsky.social
450 followers 670 following 150 posts
she/her pākehā writer
in Aotearoa NZ; of Australia

novels THE HOPE FAULT (family/anxiety/geology), THE LIFE+LOVES OF LENA GAUNT (love/loss/theremin)

May 2025: 3rd novel, WONDERLAND

Bad Diaries Salon + Podcast

tracyfarrauthor.com
baddiariessalon.com
Posts Replies Media Videos
hissingswan.bsky.social
Mōrena

Beautiful morning at Careys Bay, Ōtākou
View over still water, low morning light, boats in Careys Bay, and out beyond towards the heads of Otago Harbour
May 3, 2025 at 10:42 PM
hissingswan.bsky.social
The eve of publication for this beauty, WONDERLAND

Turns out the text on the cover matches my 1st + last notebooks for this novel 📕 📒

From 1st notebook:
“1.1.16 Where to start?…It may be that there are *3* sisters…3 is a good fairytale number, a prime”

Been a long ride getting here

#pukapuka
A novel with WONDERLAND in red text and Tracy Farr in yellow text. There are two notebooks underneath it, one red (Wonderland the 1st), the other yellow (Wonderland 15). A book, Wonderland, angled so you can see the front cover and spine. It’s being held in front of a pile of other books. The image on the front cover is of an old-fashioned amusement park, highlighted with overlaid colour pops in read and yellow and blue. The back cover of the novel, with blurb that reads: Te Motu Kairangi Miramar Peninsula, Wellington 1912 Doctor Matti Loverock spends her days and nights bringing babies into the world, which means her daughters-seven-year-old triplets Ada, Oona and Hanna—have grown up at Wonderland, the once-thriving amusement park owned by their father, Charlie. Then a grieving woman arrives to stay from the other side of the world, in pain and incognito, fleeing scandal. She ignites the triplets' curiosity and brings work for Matti, diverting them all from what is really happening at Wonderland. In a bold reimagining, Marie Curie-famous for her work on radioactivity-comes to Aotearoa and discovers both solace and wonder. Passionate, beautifully constructed, sorrowful and yet immensely hopeful. -Fiona Kidman 'Mesmerising. A book that leaves you filled with wonder, and deeply moved. I loved it. —Gigi Fenster
April 30, 2025 at 7:40 AM
hissingswan.bsky.social
Beginning week 2 (of 6!) of my residency at Robert Lord Writers Cottage in Ōtepoti Dunedin. What a treat to have such a chunk of writing time in this house, this city. In my down-time I’m immersed in Robert Lord Diaries – delighting in reading it here, in his place.

Now, back to work…

#pukapuka
A hand holds a book, ROBERT LORD DIARIES, in front of an open door, a brick wall, a green-framed window. Through the door, a fireplace mantel and hearth, a hallway. Reflected in the window, the outhouse laundry, a clouded blue sky. The flat front of a small brick house, with two metal plaques. One, rectangular, reads, ‘THE ROBERT LORD WRITERS’ COTTAGE 1992’. The other, below it, oval, reads, ‘HISTORIC PLACE / NEW ZEALAND HERITAGE LIST / 9274 / RĀRANGI KŌRERO / HERITAGE NEW ZEALAND POUHERE TAONGA’
April 13, 2025 at 10:34 PM
hissingswan.bsky.social
Today is a Wonderland day

Here’s the beautiful cover of my new novel, WONDERLAND, published next month by The Cuba Press

I’ve spent a fab summer editing with @drsian.bsky.social, working with TCP to bring it to the page. Can’t wait for it to be released into the wild

@nzsa.bsky.social
#pukapuka
Book cover, WONDERLAND by Tracy Farr. A view of Wonderland amusement park from 1907 is tinted green, with colours highlighting a string of lights in yellow, the boat lake in the foreground blue, a boat on the lake in red, a fence line snaking down the hillside in yellow.
April 11, 2025 at 3:20 AM
hissingswan.bsky.social
La di dah, I’m going to try to ease gently back in to social media. My gleanings from the beach yesterday make a face that shows you how this makes me feel 🙀
Four beachcast objects arranged on a white background mimic a terrified face. Two fragments of shell are the eyes, a coil of copper wire the nose, an O of a limpet (missing its middle) the mouth.
September 24, 2024 at 10:45 PM
hissingswan.bsky.social
Awwww, our old tabby boy (RIP Pepper) used to do the same. Stick his head so far down the glass there’d be condensation from his breath. Miss that lil guy and the adorkable antics we let him get away with.
A tabby cat with white bib has his head jammed into a tall glass of water. Cat and glass are on a wooden table. The glass is less than half full, and the cat’s tongue is extended to reach the water. My cartoon-y drawing of cat, tongue out, with head in glass of water
June 15, 2024 at 9:16 PM
hissingswan.bsky.social
Manawatū sky
Suburban skyscape. A winter-bare tree silhouetted against an early evening sky, light cloud cover, fiery sunset colours towards the horizon. Low in the picture, close to the camera, are a few dark rooftops, trees.
June 7, 2024 at 5:06 AM
hissingswan.bsky.social
Healthpoint says no need to order. I phoned first but no answer so I just rocked up – door was locked (boo), but a big box of RATs at the door with a sign “we’re out in the community – if you’re here to pick up masks or RATs, pls help yourself from the trolley” (yay)

Exp date 2027 (yay)
4 boxes of 5 each Covid RAT tests. The boxes are mostly blue, and they’re on a brick-red corrugated cotton placemat
June 6, 2024 at 8:38 PM
hissingswan.bsky.social
A weird old Xmas. My dad died on Saturday (peacefully, suddenly, he was frail, it was time), so here I am in Australia, looking through photos and feeling the heat and not quite sure what to do with myself.

Vale Davo, 1937–2023
Xmas 1962, Melbourne. A stylish young couple – a man, a woman – on lawn outside a suburban brick-and-tile house. The woman holds a baby (reader, that baby is me). They’re all squinting into the December sun.
December 26, 2023 at 6:33 AM
hissingswan.bsky.social
🎄🎧 New (Xmas) ep on the pod! 🎧🎄

Pickle your beets, sniff your jars, wrap the Christmas ham in a teatowel! Jenny + I are bringing (or at least name-checking) the A-list celebs for A Very Diary Xmas
A grid of 6 black-and-white photos, arranged in two rows of three. Across the top, John and Yoko, Paulina Picasso, Bianca and Mick; across the lower row, Bad Diaries Podcast hosts Jenny Ackland and Tracy Farr flank Andy Warhol (with a camera). Across the top of the image is handwritten text “A Very Diary Xmas”, and at the bottom is the Bad Diaries Podcast logo.
December 18, 2023 at 5:03 AM
hissingswan.bsky.social
PSA: Xmas has begun – today’s the first day the cherry car is on Broadway 😍
#miramar #strathmore #poneke #temotukairangi #ifuckenlovecherries
A box full of perfect cherries
December 5, 2023 at 1:25 AM
hissingswan.bsky.social
A magical Bad Diaries Salon at LitCrawl in Pōneke last night. Thanks to absolute legends Kate Camp, Emily Writes, @catherinechidgey.bsky.social + Fiona Kelly McGregor for sharing so generously from their diaries, teen + recent (but what’s said in salon stays in salon, so my lips are sealed)
Kate Camp, Emily Writes, Catherine Chidgey and Fiona Kelly McGregor backstage at Meow, each holding their diaries Emily Writes on stage at Meow. Photo is taken from back and side of stage, looking out past Emily, out at the audience Catherine Chidgey on stage at Meow, standing at the microphone, reading to a rapt audience Kate Camp on stage at Meow, standing at the microphone, reading to a laughing audience
November 12, 2023 at 6:28 AM
hissingswan.bsky.social
Join us tonight for our 6th LitCrawl X Bad Diaries Salon collab, w Kate Camp, Emily Writes, Catherine Chidgey + Fiona Kelly McGregor

Theme: EX = X = 10 (for 10th LitCrawl), former lover or bandmate, a kiss, marks the spot …

7.15pm at Meow, entry by donation

www.verbwellington.nz/litcrawl-202...
Poster text overlaying photo of Jack White and Meg White. Verb Readers and Writers Festival 2023 Saturday 11 November 7.15pm at Meow LitCrawl / Entry by donation BAD DIARIES SALON EX Kate Camp Emily Writes Catherine Chidgey Fiona Kelly McGregor Hosted by Tracy Farr
November 10, 2023 at 10:11 PM
hissingswan.bsky.social
Don’t buy new books until you’ve read the books you have; don’t buy new books until you’ve read the books you have; don’t bu—

Oops

Bookhaul from @goodbookshopnz.bsky.social #pukapuka
4 books: Don Binney: Flight Path by Gregory O’Brien (AUP); Stone Yard Devotional by Charlotte Wood (A&U); The Conversion by Amanda Lohrey (Text); Remember Me: Poems to Learn by Heart from Aotearoa New Zealand, edited by Anne Kennedy (AUP)
November 6, 2023 at 11:49 PM
hissingswan.bsky.social
Voted!!

Steady stream of voters at Miramar polling place just now …

… and I passed 🔴 doorknockers on the way, waved and wished them heartfelt good luck, told them I’m ✅✅ this time and hoping for 🔴🟢⚫️ result and we were all smiles in the spring sunshine and I felt a moment of hope

#nzpol
A sign on grass points to the voting place – black text VOTING with black arrow on orange background
October 11, 2023 at 10:59 PM
hissingswan.bsky.social
Last time we were on a painting picnic was in Perth hills in 1964 (my aunt was 24, my mum was 22, I was 2. My grandmother was 55 – 6 yrs younger than I am now.)
Painting picnic, camera set (1964?) (Mum and me, my aunt with Eddie the poodle, my grandmother Joan) My aunt, 24, looks over her shoulder at the camera. Edmond the black poodle is next to 2yr old me. My young mother is tending the picnic (there’s a big brown bottle of beer, that’ll be for my grandmother who’s taking the photo) A painting of Norfolk pines on an easel, an old car seat, Mum helping me help myself to paintbrushes, paint Edmond the black poodle and 2-yr-old me sitting on the picnic blanket. There’s a glass bottle of Fanta in front of me, and a picnic basket nearly as big as me
September 28, 2023 at 3:25 AM
hissingswan.bsky.social
My aunt and I are on a painting picnic at Meelup beach
A beach scene – flat turquoise and blue ocean, white sand, rocks in the distance – with, in the foreground, an older woman at a picnic table on the grass in the shade, sketching
September 28, 2023 at 3:13 AM
hissingswan.bsky.social
Love this list, not least for the JOLT of remembering a book I’d forgotten meant so much to me as a kid – A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle – with pic of the edition I remember reading back then (from school or local library). Time for a re-read (before I *finally* get to Pip Adam’s Audition).
Cover (and spine) of the book A WRINKLE IN TIME by Madeleine L’Engle. It’s the cover design I remember so strongly from childhood – lime green, creamy white, soft grey, with text and three (child protagonist) figures in black Screenshot from article reads: “It was the book I thought of most when reading Pip Adam’s astonishing new novel Audition, and the idea that the physical state of a world can be beyond human comprehension and language.”
September 24, 2023 at 10:31 PM
hissingswan.bsky.social
Things you don’t see on beaches (or anywhere) in Aotearoa
A beautiful spring beach scene, blue skies, light cloud, coastal vegetation, sand with a line of beachcast seagrass, frolickers in the shallows, and a sign in the foreground. Close up of sign: Beach Area Pictogram: put rubbish in bin Pictogram: snake Pictogram: no dogs Pictogram: snake
September 22, 2023 at 7:39 AM
hissingswan.bsky.social
Anyway, happy birthday Lena Gaunt. You went on to have a good book-life (shouts out to publishers not here in the Bluesky – Fremantle Press, Gallic Books).

Here’s the end of Fiona’s launch speech.
Text that reads: I love the sensuous ebb and flow of this work. The language is beautiful, the sense of music a powerful onward movement throughout the story. Tracy dares to go where many a writer might retreat, Lena’s story full of raw power. This is writing that is not afraid. Fremantle Press have made a lovely production job of this book. As one would expect, for it’s a prestigious Australian publisher, that only publishes the best. Some of their writers include Joan London, Elizabeth Jolley and Tim Winton. Tracy Farr is a fine name to add to such a list. I began by saying that this is a book I’d love to have written. What more can one writer say to another? Tracy, it’s been a long road…I hope it feels worth the journey, because I certainly believe it has. I declare The Life and Loves of Lena Gaunt, and your mysterious gorgeous character, well and truly launched.
September 21, 2023 at 8:56 AM
hissingswan.bsky.social
The launch was at Mighty Mighty, not long before it closed forever (RIP). Fiona Kidman launched with her usual generosity. Unity Books was there, Nell Thomas played theremin, Erika Grant played cello.
A velvet sofa, a black and white sideboard, a red-shaded standard lamp against a wood-panelled wall. On the wall MIGHTY is spelled out in large mirror-mosaic letters. Photo: Matt Evans A woman (silver hair, red cardie, black skirt) — Fiona Kidman — at the microphone. Photo: Matt Evans A woman (Nell Thomas), standing, plays theremin. A woman (Erika Grant), seated, plays cello. Photo: Matt Evans
September 21, 2023 at 8:51 AM
hissingswan.bsky.social
Ten years ago today was the Aotearoa launch of my debut novel, so forgive me (+ join me in) some nostalgia.

#pukapuka #kikorangi
Woman (red hair, glasses, silver and black dress) at the microphone, reading from novel (The Life and Loves of Lena Gaunt). A red curtain is the backdrop. There’s the rod of a theremin visible at right. Photo: Matt Evans Hands playing a theremin. Out of focus in the background, a woman plays cello against the backdrop of a red curtain. Photo: Matt Evans
September 21, 2023 at 8:45 AM