Prize-winner poised for spin on literary circuit

It’s been quite a week for Bayswater author Josie Shapiro. Her first novel, Everything is Beautiful and Everything Hurts, has just hit book stores and is generating a buzz in literary circles; she is appearing at the Auckland Writers Festival; and a launch party is in the offing.

In a conversation fitted around the school run, the busy mother of two tells the Flagstaff she is just trying to enjoy the moment.

“You only get to have a debut novel once.”

Everything is Beautiful and Everything Hurts has attracted more early interest than most debut novels, given it gained Shapiro a publisher’s advance to finish it after she won a prize for unpublished first manuscripts.

When the $10,000 Allen & Unwin prize was awarded last year, the contemporary novel was provisionally titled Mickey Bloom, after its challenged young main character, who finds herself through running, an all-consuming obsession she returns to later in a difficult life.

Shapiro, who swam competitively in her younger years, has drawn somewhat on that experience, but also on reading about the trials and tribulations of other high-level sport.

“Telling Mickey’s story – even if it was fictional – felt very urgent and real.”

With publicity interviews scheduled on radio and reviews on book pages in the works, Shapiro admits to a few nerves about how the story will go down. It raises issues of the particular pressures female athletes compete under and also the pleasure of working through pain to meet personal performance goals and find self-worth.

When Shapiro was asked to join a panel discussion, ‘On Female Friendship’, at the writers festival, she initially wondered how the theme connected to her book. However, she realised Mickey’s female friendships were an essential element. She expects that she and fellow panellists Megan Nicol Reed and Caroline Barron will address the topic by “talking about our personal experiences of friendship and also how it relates to character”.

A launch party, primarily for family and friends, is planned next weekend at the Wakatere Boating Club.

Shapiro is developing her next novel. Working from home is more of a challenge than the welcome sojourn she enjoyed at the Michael King Writers Centre on Takarunga early this year, finishing off Everything is Beautiful and Everything Hurts

Knowing the book was about to go on sale was both exciting and humbling, she says. As a former publicist, she is aware how many books launch into the ether, but adds,

“It’s nice to know that it’s getting the best possible chance to find readers.”

• Everything is Beautiful and Everything Hurts by Allen & Unwin, $36.99, is in bookstores now, including Paradox in Devonport.

Belmont

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