Welcome to episode 241 of Sweetman Podcast with support from our sponsors – T Leaf T and Yeastie Boys

Now – as you probably know, as well as the usual platforms (this site, soundcloud, iTunes/Apple) you can now get to Sweetman Podcast on Spotify – follow it there and have it saved in your Spotify library.

This week’s guest is John Newton. He is a writer and academic, a poet, literary biographer/historian, critic and songwriter.

John’s brand new book is a novel-in-verse, the very funny romp, Escape Path Lighting.

It’s been a busy last decade and a half for John, two poetry volumes, a book about James K. Baxter, the first volume of his planned three-book deep-dive into the history of 20^th Century NZ literature. An album of his own songs, two bands and he’s currently in Dunedin serving out a Burns Fellowship.

Ahead of that John was teaching at Canterbury University after releasing his very volume of poetry back in 1985.

I first met John over a decade ago, and played in a couple of his bands – The Tenderizers and The Overdogs.

This was our first time catching up in person in a few years. And this conversation was recorded the day after the launch for Escape Path Lighting.

I loved this conversation and this chance to reconnect with John. I hope you enjoy listening to this too.

Here now is episode 241 of Sweetman Podcast – my conversation with John Newton.

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