Max Olijnyk

Every year RNZ Drama produces a collection of short stories from the graduating MA writers at the International Institute of Modern Letters, Victoria University Wellington. Here is a recording of me reading ‘A Skate in Town’, an excerpt from the novel I worked on during the MA, which was broadcast on RNZ on August 5…

Read more

I was very chuffed to be asked to write something for the ABC. It felt like I was contributing to the great canon of Play School, The Late Show, and Rage. Now I stand among these giants, with my silly article about kids parties.

I spoke to Harry Culy of Bad News Books about the ups and downs of being an independent publisher in New Zealand, and I also hassled him for one of those cool hoodies. Link here

Read more

I had a lovely chat with the legendary David Astle on ABC Radio Melbourne about my piece about liking Bruce Springsteen in the latest Smith Journal. Here’s a link to the recording – it kicks around 2:05.

Read more

In this issue, I wrote about how I never liked Bruce Springsteen but I like him now. More broadly, the piece is about why we like or don’t like things, and how those preferences and tastes can change. The magazine is available here.

Read more

Like all of you, I love Keegan. I’m so sorry he died. He was amazing.

I’ve been living in New Zealand for the past few years, so the main way I’ve interacted with Keegan is online—I was loving the snack reports. His messages were usually responses to my own Instagram stories: ‘Yer Max’…

Read more

Ahead of my appearance at Featherston Booktown, I was invited onto Radio NZ’s Saturday Morning show to talk skateboarding and writing about skateboarding with legendary interviewer Kim Hill. Here’s a link to the segment.

The second annual WSA Treetops skate jam was a big success. We resurfaced and created some obstacles, had some weird challenges and gave away heaps of prizes.

In this issue, I was very fortunate to speak to comedian Maria Bamford about the meaning of (her) life.

You can buy a copy here

Read more

In this issue, I wrote a feature about the weird and delicious wines Garage Project have been making lately, along with a wider discussion about the contentious term ‘natural wine’. I also wrote some contentious product reviews.

Buy a copy here

Read more

I wrote an afterword for my friend Matt’s great new book. ‘Looking through this book searching for inspiration on what to write about it, I’m rendered mute. It’s not because the images aren’t saying anything to me – they’re saying plenty. And it’s not as if they don’t remind me of anything – they remind me…

This is a companion piece to My mum went to EMB – written by my mum, Sarah.

I was just a few months into being forty. In those days, that was middle age—when we felt that time was slipping away and it was time to have a go. My three children were aged…

Read more