Holly Walker

Holly Walker lives in Wellington and is deputy director of The Helen Clark Foundation. She served in parliament as a Green MP, and her first book, The Whole Intimate Mess, was published by Bridget Williams in 2017. Holly was born in Lower Hutt in 1982.

Society
Nov 11, 2020

Driving less saves lives, but low-traffic areas aren't on NZ's road safety agenda

Lockdown gave us a taste of a low-traffic future, but it shouldn't take a pandemic to reduce cars on our roads.

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Society
May 1, 2020

How our leaders can minimise the negative effects of loneliness after Covid-19

Politicians can't make us feel less lonely, but they can adopt policies that create conditions for meaningful social interaction to flourish. 

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Society
Apr 14, 2020

The perils of loneliness in the time of Covid-19

Physical isolation may be the way to eliminate Covid-19, but it could come at a high cost to mental health.

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Books
Feb 12, 2020

An awkward, expensive, perplexing night with Margaret Atwood and Kim Hill

Other than the fact that it's a tidy earner, why is famed Handmaid's Tale author Margaret Atwood doing this tour at all, wonders Holly Walker.

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Books
Apr 9, 2019

The memoir that asks: Can I be a mother, and still be myself?

“The obliteration of self. The prioritising of others. The yearning for escape”: Holly Walker on a motherhood memoir that rings in the bones.

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Books
Dec 17, 2018

The fifth best book of 2018: My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh

All week this week we name and review the five very best books of 2018. Today: Holly Walker reviews the fifth best book, My Year of Rest and Relaxation, a novel about the desperate joys of sleep.

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Parents
Aug 14, 2018

‘I was so angry that it was so difficult!’ Poet Hollie McNish talks motherhood with Holly Walker

Poet and spoken word artist Hollie McNish is coming to New Zealand to speak at Word Christchurch in September. Holly Walker caught up with McNish to discuss motherhood and writing.

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Politics
Nov 9, 2017

I left parliament because I couldn’t be an MP and a mother. This week has given me hope

Holly Walker, former Green MP and author of a memoir of being a mother in parliament, says this week's images of babies in the debating chamber indicate a new attitude to working mothers in politics. But there's still a long way to go.

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Books
Sep 7, 2017

Book of the Week: Holly Walker reviews a compelling gothic Kiwi novel

Holly Walker reviews a moody, gothic novel set in the brooding countryside of the Wairarapa.

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Books
Jul 11, 2017

Oh great, a novel that risks glamourising youth suicide

What the hell is Sarah Quigley playing at in her novel about three mentally ill young people on the brink of suicide, wonders Holly Walker.

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Books
Jun 12, 2017

‘There is nothing normal about crawling up the hallway, screaming and hitting yourself in the head’: former Green MP Holly Walker shares her story

All this week the Spinoff Review of Books is devoted to a candid, sometimes shocking new memoir by ex-Green MP Holly Walker about her experience as a working mother in parliament. Today: an excerpt.

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Books
May 9, 2017

Auckland Writers Festival: Holly Walker interviews I Love Dick author Chris Kraus

The best coverage of the Auckland Writers Festival continues right here, as the Spinoff Review of Books devotes the entire week to long, intelligent encounters with guest writers. Today: Holly Walker talks with Chris Kraus, an American writer who worked for newspapers in Wellington before creating the belated smash-hit feminist novel, I Love Dick.

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Books
Apr 27, 2017

Book of the Week: Holly Walker reviews Roxane Gay’s short stories about sex, violence, and sexual violence

Feminist writer Roxane Gay explores the female condition in her new collection of short stories. Some critics have loathed the depiction of women characters who welcome violence; reviewer Holly Walker takes another approach.

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Books
Dec 5, 2016

Best books for Xmas: Commonwealth, by Ann Patchett

All week this week we recommend the very best, A-grade quality, guaranteed good books for Christmas. Today: Holly Walker reviews Commonwealth, a stunning novel by Ann Patchett.

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Parents
Nov 29, 2016

A whole good day: When parenting finally feels like you thought it would

Being a parent means a never-ending series of problems, big and small, and often it can feel like a struggle just to make it through the day without collapsing in …

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Books
Sep 15, 2016

The Mervyn Thompson Affair: What a 32 year old controversy might tell us about the Chiefs scandal

All week we revisit the Mervyn Thompson Affair - the strange, powerful 1984 incident when six women abducted an Auckland university lecturer, chained him to a tree in Western Springs, and labelled him a rapist. Today: a modern take on the incident, and its wider implications, by former MP Holly Walker.

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Books
Aug 4, 2016

Book of the Week: Holly Walker on a powerful new novel about victims of sexual abuse

Holly Walker reviews The Natural Way of Things, the award-winning novel by Australian writer Charlotte Wood

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Books
Jun 30, 2016

Book of the Week: Lionel Shriver’s nightmare vision of what happens when America goes bust

“Lionel Shriver has written a gripping novel about fiscal and monetary policy,” says reviewer Holly Walker, “and the punchline is this: America is fucked. “

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Books
May 19, 2016

Book of the Week: the fuck-ups and bogans in short stories by the insanely brilliant Tracey Slaughter

Tracey Slaughter has quietly gone about these past few years writing electrifying short stories unlike anything else published in New Zealand. Her new fiction is collected in a powerful, sometimes harrowing book.

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Books
May 3, 2016

Ockham national book awards: Holly Walker interviews Patricia Grace

All week this week we feature a book or author nominated in next week's Ockham national book awards. Today: Holly Walker is given a rare interview with fiction finalist Patricia Grace.

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Media
May 1, 2016

For the love of pod: how podcasts saved my life, then nearly destroyed it

Intimate, informative and idiosyncratic, podcasts are the media format that everyone seems to love. But beware, says Holly Walker: podcast puppy love can quickly spiral into aural obsession.

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Books
Mar 16, 2016

Holly Walker on the “debauched” stories of Helen Ellis

Helen Ellis writes short stories like the one about scientologist A-listers competing with a frightened Playboy bunny on a reality TV show. What's not to like, asks Holly Walker.

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Books
Dec 10, 2015

Week-Long New Zealand Kids’ Books Special: An Appreciation of the 1987 classic, Alex

Tessa Duder's 1997 novel for teenagers, Alex, has rightly become a classic. Former Green MP Holly Walker remembers the profound impact it made on her when she first read it.

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