Charlotte Graham-McLay

Guest writer

Charlotte Graham-McLay is a journalist and broadcaster who lives in Wellington. She won a Surrey Hotel Steve Braunias Memorial in Association with The Spinoff Writer's Residency Award in 2017, when she worked on a memoir about dance.

Book of the Week: the new JK Rowling is up there with Harry Potter

20th September, 2018

Book of the Week: the new JK Rowling is up there with Harry Potter

Charlotte Graham-McLay is dazzled by the new novel by JK Rowling (writing as Robert Galbraith), which arrived in shops this week.

By Charlotte Graham-McLay

The feminist manifesto that isn’t, thank God, a feminist manifesto

28th June, 2018

The feminist manifesto that isn’t, thank God, a feminist manifesto

"I am wary of reading any more feminist manifestos these days because they are very exhausting," writes Charlotte Graham-McLay, in her review of a new memoir hailed as a feminist manifesto but it isn't, really.

By Charlotte Graham-McLay

Inside the Surrey Hotel: less than 24 hours to meet the deadline for New Zealand’s finest writers residency award

20th June, 2018

Inside the Surrey Hotel: less than 24 hours to meet the deadline for New Zealand’s finest writers residency award

As the deadline looms for the 2018 Surrey Hotel writers residency award, 2017 winner Charlotte Graham-McLay files a report on her experience at the Surrey. She danced a lot.

By Charlotte Graham-McLay

Hillary Clinton poses with Te Kapa Haka o Whangara Mai Tawhiti ahead of An Evening with Hillary Rodham Clinton at Spark Arena. Photo by James D. Morgan/Getty Images

But where was the roar? Watching the Hillary Clinton show in Auckland

There was no sign of the promise she'd 'let her guard down', and flashes of Sarcastic Wine Mom aside, Hillary Clinton offered little more than platitudes at Spark Arena.

By Charlotte Graham-McLay

Book of the Week: Charlotte Grimshaw’s new masterly novel

12th April, 2018

Book of the Week: Charlotte Grimshaw’s new masterly novel

"Tyrants around the dinner table, fake news inside our heads": Charlotte Graham-McLay celebrates the new novel by Auckland writer Charlotte Grimshaw.

By Charlotte Graham-McLay

Novelist Charlotte Wood: ‘The female body seems to provoke this bizarre hatred’

7th March, 2018

Novelist Charlotte Wood: ‘The female body seems to provoke this bizarre hatred’

Charlotte Graham-McLay interviews acclaimed Australian author Charlotte Wood - who is appearing at the New Zealand Festival this weekend - about sexual harassment, sexual abuse, and 'angry women'.

By Charlotte Graham-McLay

‘Why do I have to put up with this shit?’ Women journalists in NZ share their stories of online abuse

6th September, 2017

‘Why do I have to put up with this shit?’ Women journalists in NZ share their stories of online abuse

As newsrooms push for their reporters and audiences to engage with each other on digital platforms, some women journalists say gendered harassment and abuse from media consumers has become an exhausting, and accepted, part of the job. Charlotte Graham investigates.

By Charlotte Graham-McLay

Review: a rare memoir about being fat that doesn’t end in weight loss

19th July, 2017

Review: a rare memoir about being fat that doesn’t end in weight loss

Charlotte Graham reviews the 'horrifying' new memoir by Roxane Gay.

By Charlotte Graham-McLay

Auckland Writers Festival: Charlotte Graham interviews feminist author Susan Faludi

Auckland Writers Festival: Charlotte Graham interviews feminist author Susan Faludi

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: Charlotte Graham talks with Susan Faludi, author of the classic 1991 book Backlash.

By Charlotte Graham-McLay

What Broadchurch got right (and then very wrong) about rape

30th April, 2017

What Broadchurch got right (and then very wrong) about rape

Charlotte Graham applauds how Broadchurch handled sexual violence with a nuance seldom seen on television. That is, of course, until it shat the bed.

By Charlotte Graham-McLay