“The Game” is a story from Emma Hislop’s debut collection, Ruin and Other Stories, published by Te Herenga Waka University Press, and winner of the Hubert Church Prize for Fiction, for Best First Book at the 2024 Ockham NZ Book Awards. 

Ahead of his short course, Writing a Life, we spoke to Arnold about his omnivorous taste for all literary forms, the authors who enrich his life, and the importance of writers being attuned and open to the world, its landscapes and people.