GR OnlineCRATES OF SUPER-RIPE tomatoes are stacked high, softening in the sunshine. The red fruits are passed through timeworn contraptions, a crew of hands circling their levers over and over to crush them into a juicy pulp. It’s funnelled into...

GR OnlineCRATES OF SUPER-RIPE tomatoes are stacked high, softening in the sunshine. The red fruits are passed through timeworn contraptions, a crew of hands circling their levers over and over to crush them into a juicy pulp. It’s funnelled into...

InterviewWas there a reason you looked to Greensburg and New Orleans as post-disaster case studies for your piece above other locations?There are other examples around the world [of sustainability-focused renewal projects] on a smaller scale, but I think the...

InterviewHow long had you been working in Pakistan before the 2005 earthquake struck?Six months. I was there beforehand, during and after, so I saw the earthquake response right from the beginning through to the end. Then, the way I...

InterviewIs this the first piece you've done for the Griffith REVIEW?Yes, I've been principally writing for newspapers for the last three years, but increasingly I've been writing magazine-length articles. I've been doing a lot of writing for The Monthly....

InterviewYour poem offers an honest, sensory recreation of the Christchurch earthquake. Were you in the city when it struck?I wasn't in the city. I live in Wellington half an hour's flight north, but within minutes of the February earthquake...

InterviewYou've written many academic books in the past. How was it to take on a subject that was very emotional and personal?It took the courage to build [to write it] over more than a decade. I have wanted to...

InterviewThis is a really lengthy, epic piece of writing. How do you go about collecting the information and choosing what to include?It could have been longer. From the outset, I understood intuitively there's an entire book – a non-fiction...

InterviewYour story offers a vivid portrayal of Japan in the wake of the 2011 tsunami. Were you in the country at the time?The story is totally fictionalised. I grew up in Brisbane and later moved to Japan and lived...

InterviewYou lived on Pitcairn Island while reporting on the 2004 child abuse trials. What was it like to be so close to the subject you were writing about?KM: It was incredibly intense. I spent six weeks living in this...

InterviewYou begin your piece with your personal experience of writing two stories that may have compromised their subjects. Did you feel you needed to reflect on those articles you'd written so long ago?Yes I did. Those stories [about a...