Despite an unwritten rule that authors shouldn’t install writers as characters in their work, in recent times a surfeit of writers as protagonists has appeared. Irishman John Boyne (A Ladder to the Sky), Pulitzer prize-winner Andrew Sean Greer (Less), Chilean Carla Guelfenbein (In The Distance With You) and Ockham NZ Book Awards longlisted Anne Kennedy (The Ice Shelf) come together to discuss writing as story, and what’s behind the trend.