Poet Kate Camp on her Matariki swim series, sea poetry, and how swimming can be the destination

Swim Chats

Kate Camp is a poet, author, and ocean swimmer. She's also the organiser of the annual '9 Bays of Matariki' winter swims and the '12 Bays of Christmas' summer swims. In this episode Kate talks about when and how she started sea swimming, the art of quickly changing out of wet togs into warm clothes, and the importance of the swim community. She also reads a poem called 'Freyberg Carpark' – featuring Graham from episode 10! – from her new book, 'Makeshift Seasons' (Te Herenga Waka University Press, 2025). Follow the Matariki swims (or come if you're in Wellington) via the Facebook event page Buy a copy of Makeshift Seasons from Unity Books Read Kate's article 'Why I won't write about swimming' on The Spinoff Author photo by Ebony Lamb * This month you can sponsor Shona for The Big Swim (Coastguard NZ fundraiser) : bigswim.org.nz/s-riddell Support the podcast via ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Patreon.com/SwimChats⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Follow Swim Chats on Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Hit 'Follow' so you don't miss an episode. Thanks for listening! :-)
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Kate Camp is a poet, author, and ocean swimmer. She's also the organiser of the annual '9 Bays of Matariki' winter swims and the '12 Bays of Christmas' summer swims. In this episode Kate talks about when and how she started sea swimming, the art of quickly changing out of wet togs into warm clothes, and the importance of the swim community. She also reads a poem called 'Freyberg Carpark' – featuring Graham from episode 10! – from her new book, 'Makeshift Seasons' (Te Herenga Waka University Press, 2025). Follow the Matariki swims (or come if you're in Wellington) via the Facebook event page Buy a copy of Makeshift Seasons from Unity Books Read Kate's article 'Why I won't write about swimming' on The Spinoff Author photo by Ebony Lamb * This month you can sponsor Shona for The Big Swim (Coastguard NZ fundraiser) : bigswim.org.nz/s-riddell Support the podcast via ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Patreon.com/SwimChats⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Follow Swim Chats on Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Hit 'Follow' so you don't miss an episode. Thanks for listening! :-)
2025-06-17 41 min
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