Amy McDaid's guest appearances

Amy McDaid

Auckland Writers Festival

Ngā Pātaka Kōrero - Auckland Libraries

Planet Audio

Book Bubble Podcast

Elizabeth Knox

David Eagleman

Chanel Miller

Andrew Patterson

George Saunders

Yasmin Khan

Mary Norris

Nigella Lawson

Anthony Horowitz

Ian Rankin

Amanda Palmer

Richard Ford

Alex Ross

Lawrence Krauss

Atul Gawande

OwlTail

Alison is joined in the studio by acclaimed author Amy McDaid. Amy has recently released her novel Fake baby, a deeply satirical and comic tragedy set in present-day Auckland.

Books and Beyond: Amy McDaid: Fake Baby

Auckland’s Amy McDaid is an exciting new talent on our literary scene. Her debut novel, Fake Baby, strikes an elegant balance between dark comedy and compassion. All three of its characters are in crisis. Stephen is mentally ill and believes his dead father is going to destroy the world. Jaanvi has lost her baby, and adopted an eerily lifelike baby doll. Lucas is a pharmacist who has bungled a prescription. The novel tells of nine dramatic days in their lives.   Juggling shift work in a neonatal unit and caring for her daughter, McDaid has needed resilience and passion to keep writing but it’s paid off - Fake Baby has spent five consecutive weeks in the bestseller charts so far since its release.

Auckland’s Amy McDaid is an exciting new talent on our literary scene. Her debut novel, Fake Baby, strikes an elegant balance between dark comedy and compassion. All three of its characters are in crisis. Stephen is mentally ill and believes his dead father is going to destroy the world. Jaanvi has lost her baby, and adopted an eerily lifelike baby doll. Lucas is a pharmacist who has bungled a prescription. The novel tells of nine dramatic days in their lives. Juggling shift work in a neonatal unit and caring for her daughter, McDaid has needed resilience and passion to keep writing but it’s paid off - Fake Baby has spent five consecutive weeks in the bestseller charts so far since its release.

Debut author Amy McDaid: In the Book Bubble

The Auckland Writers Festival 13-week WINTER SERIES streamed live and free every Sunday morning from 3 May - 26 July 2020.  Episode 5 features:RICHARD FORD (United States) Leading American novelist and short story writer Richard Ford is the author of seven novels and several collections, among them The Sportswriter, Let Me Be Frank With You and Independence Day, the winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the PEN Faulkner Award. In 2019 he was awarded the Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction – a lifetime achievement award. The Library described him as a “luminous storyteller – one of the most eloquent writers of his generation”. He is currently a professor in the Humanities at Columbia University and his latest collection is Sorry for your Trouble.AMY McDAID (Aotearoa New Zealand) The winner of the James Wallace Prize for the first draft of her debut novel Fake Baby, Amy McDaid has a master’s of creative writing from The University of Auckland and has had work published in The Spinoff and Three Lamps Journal. She works as a neonatal intensive care nurse.YASMIN KHAN (England) Food writer and broadcaster Yasmin Khan is the author of The Saffron Tales and Zaitoun: Recipes from the Palestinian Kitchen and counts Yotam Ottolenghi and Nigella Lawson as fans. Yasmin is passionate about sharing people's stories through food. Prior to her food career, she was a human rights campaigner for NGOs. HOST: PAULA MORRIS (Aotearoa New Zealand)Paula Morris (Ngāti Wai, Ngāti Whātua) is an award-winning fiction writer and essayist. The 2019 Katherine Mansfield Menton Fellow, she teaches creative writing at The University of Auckland, sits on the Māori Literature Trust and is the founder of the Academy of NZ Literature.This series provides an opportunity to champion New Zealand and international books that were to feature at our cancelled May Festival, we encourage you to support writers and NZ publishers and booksellers by purchasing featured books. Order via our Festival bookseller.#awfwinterseries

The Auckland Writers Festival 13-week WINTER SERIES streamed live and free every Sunday morning from 3 May - 26 July 2020. Episode 5 features: RICHARD FORD (United States) Leading American novelist and short story writer Richard Ford is the author of seven novels and several collections, among them The Sportswriter, Let Me Be Frank With You and Independence Day, the winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the PEN Faulkner Award. In 2019 he was awarded the Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction – a lifetime achievement award. The Library described him as a “luminous storyteller – one of the most eloquent writers of his generation”. He is currently a professor in the Humanities at Columbia University and his latest collection is Sorry for your Trouble. AMY McDAID (Aotearoa New Zealand) The winner of the James Wallace Prize for the first draft of her debut novel Fake Baby, Amy McDaid has a master’s of creative writing from The University of Auckland and has had work published in The Spinoff and Three Lamps Journal. She works as a neonatal intensive care nurse. YASMIN KHAN (England) Food writer and broadcaster Yasmin Khan is the author of The Saffron Tales and Zaitoun: Recipes from the Palestinian Kitchen and counts Yotam Ottolenghi and Nigella Lawson as fans. Yasmin is passionate about sharing people's stories through food. Prior to her food career, she was a human rights campaigner for NGOs. HOST: PAULA MORRIS (Aotearoa New Zealand)Paula Morris (Ngāti Wai, Ngāti Whātua) is an award-winning fiction writer and essayist. The 2019 Katherine Mansfield Menton Fellow, she teaches creative writing at The University of Auckland, sits on the Māori Literature Trust and is the founder of the Academy of NZ Literature. This series provides an opportunity to champion New Zealand and international books that were to feature at our cancelled May Festival, we encourage you to support writers and NZ publishers and booksellers by purchasing featured books. Order via our Festival bookseller. #awfwinterseries

2020 WINTER SERIES Ep 5: Richard Ford, Amy McDaid, Yasmin Khan