In this episode of Bad Diaries Podcast, Tracy talks with writer Caroline Barron about diaries, speaking your truth with kindness, and the power and particular melancholy of nostalgia.

Caroline is the author of two wonderful books – a memoir, Ripiro Beach, and a novel, Golden Days – and in this episode of the podcast, we talk about how both of these books use and connect with diaries. We talk about Caroline’s decades-long and very consistent diarykeeping practice, and we look at her latest project, My Year of Rereading, and how her diaries from the 1990s gave this 2024 project a starting point and a structure.

Caroline Barron (Te Uri O Hau / Pākehā) is an award-winning New Zealand author. Her first book, the memoir Ripiro Beach, won the 2020 New Zealand Heritage Literary Award for Best Non-fiction Book. Her debut novel, Golden Days, was published in 2023 in Australia and Aotearoa. She has a journalism degree, a Masters in Creative Writing from University of Auckland and, from the early 2000s – when she was only in her twenties – she owned and ran Nova, a leading model and talent agency.

As well as being a writer, Caroline is active throughout the New Zealand book ecosystem as a manuscript and funding assessor, reviewer, story coach, writing teacher and presenter.

Find Caroline on her website.

Find full show notes for this episode on the Bad Diaries Salon website baddiariessalon.com, or get in touch via Instagram or Facebook – we're @baddiariessalon everywhere.

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Bad Diaries Podcast Season 3 is recorded and produced in Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand, on the iwi lands of Taranaki Whānui, and Ngāti Toa Rangatira. Seasons 1 & 2 were also recorded in Naarm Melbourne, Australia, on the lands of the Kulin Nation. We pay our respects to Mana Whenua, and to Elders past, present and emerging, of these lands.