Avi Duckor-Jones trained as a lawyer before gaining his MA in creative writing from Victoria University's International Institute of Modern Letters in 2013. His travel writing has been published with BBC Travel, The NZ Listener and Lonely Planet, among others. Avi has worked as a writing instructor and trip leader for National Geographic, directed a school in Ghana, and is the winner of the reality television competition Survivor New Zealand. His first book, Swim, won the 2018 Viva la Novella award. He currently lives on Waiheke Island with his wife and two children, where he enjoys open-water distance swimming and works as an English Teacher Our interview begins at  25.00 We've got a Substack publication now! On the last day of the month, we share recommendations for two things we reckon you should read/watch/listen to. The beauty of Substack is you can revisit all our old editions and comment on our episode updates to share your thoughts. Come say hi! Caitlin recommends: I Hope This Finds You Well by Natalie Sue*An incredibly funny and relatable workplace comedy where a woman gets access to the emails of everyone in her company. Michelle recommends: Family Politics by John O'FarrellA left-wing campaigning couple's son comes home from uni and tells them he's... a conservative. If you've read a comment thread that's been controversial online in the past few years, you'll relate to many of the conversations. In this interview, we chat about:The duality of identity, and exploring this through the character of MaxChoosing the time period to set the book and how changing this affected the storyMasculinity and the influence of the 'Southern Man' advertising campaign in New ZealandExploring bisexuality and the feeling of needing to 'choose'Max's journey to finding and connecting with his birth parentsThe character of Busby and the found family that supports MaxAvi's long and winding road to becoming a writerBooks and other things mentioned:Making It by Laura Kay (a friend of the pod, listen to our previous episode here)Experienced by Kate YoungWe Are History (podcast)The VB advertising campaign I Kissed A Boy and I Kissed A Girl (TV series)The Primal Wound by Nancy VerrierFollow @aviduckorjones on InstagramMax is available in Australia and New Zealand. Thank you to the publisher for providing us copies of the books in preparation for the interview. Connect with us on Instagram: @betterwordspod

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