Category Archives: Uncategorized

Call for nominations for our next New Zealand Poet Laureate

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This is a golden opportunity to nominate a poet for this. I have a poet in mind and plan to write a letter saying why he or she is the perfect man or woman for the job! I love the way the Poet Laureate adds value to our poetry communities during their tenure – with appearances, publications and contributions to the Poet Laureate website.

 

The National Library is calling for nominations for the next New Zealand Poet Laureate.

The Award of Poet Laureate recognises an outstanding New Zealand poet, who receives $80,000 and is supported by the National Library to concentrate on their own work, take part in literary events, and utilise the Poet Laureate blog.

The Laureate also receives a tokotoko created by Jacob Scott and a stipend of wine from Te Mata Estate Winery (who began the Laureate Award in 1996 and supported it until 2007 when the National Library assumed responsibility for it).

Nominations close on 11 August, and the new Laureate will be announced on National Poetry Day, Friday 25 August 2017.

For further information and a nomination form.

Gecko Press bookclub for children needs one final pledge-me push

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I am wearing my children’s poetry hat here because this seems like such important endeavour on the part of Gecko Press. Only a couple of days to reach the target. They have some terrific rewards on offer and every donation helps!

Reading books as a young girl shaped me – and set me on a trail of wonderful experiences and discoveries as I grew into adult me.

Reading books matters so very very much. (especially poetry!!)

Go here to pledge-me page.

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Takahē Monica Taylor Poetry Prize 2017

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Judged by Elizabeth Smither

First Prize: $250.00
Second Prize: $100.00
Two runners up will receive one year’s subscription to Takahē

Unpublished poems of up to 50 lines long on any theme will be accepted.
Entry Fee: $5 per poem

Entry Forms can be downloaded here:

Each poem should be printed on one side of A4 and posted to:

Takahē 2017 Poetry Competition
PO Box 13-335
Christchurch
New Zealand

to be received no later than August 31
no email entries please

Result will be published in Takahē issue 91 (December 2017)

This new name commemorates Monica Taylor, a one-time contributor to Takahē
She represents all those whose publication in its pages brings unexpected delight.

 

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Janet Frame’s desk features in a Victoria University student project

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Students contribute to Victoria’s creative legacy

A project at Victoria University of Wellington has students building their creative thinking and research skills while writing stories about the University’s creative legacy.

Writing in their own voices, students have produced stories on topics ranging from Victoria’s art collection, the Classics Museum and Māori taonga (treasures) to ones about items with special significance. These include New Zealand author Janet Frame’s writing desk, Victoria alumni and chemist Alan MacDiarmid’s Nobel Prize medal and works of art that are displayed across the University and in exhibitions at the Adam Art Gallery.

“Victoria encourages creative thinking and enables experimentation, and this project has been an innovative way for us to teach and develop students’ storytelling and research capabilities,” says Dr Conal McCarthy.

“By having students engage with the University’s history, the project has integrated teaching and learning with civic engagement, contributing to Victoria’s role as a globally minded capital city university.”

The stories written by students about unique objects and buildings and the fascinating personalities that have shaped Victoria’s creative legacy will initially be accessed on the STQRY app, a mobile phone app featuring a global story-telling platform. Users find the stories using the in-built map or through pop-ups on their mobile as they pass the location of an object or story.

Master of Architecture student Gemma Winstanley says the project has taught her a lot about writing and storytelling.

“It’s given me a new perspective on how to put together a story—what should be given emphasis and where the most interesting elements are. I learnt that I had to get to the meat of my story quickly and how to put together a story to get the best out of it,” says Gemma.

Bachelor of Arts student Lisa Kiyomoto-Fink learnt how to approach research in new ways.

“I learnt that you have to put yourself out there in order to find the right information and the right interview subjects. Things often worked out better than expected because I had to try things through different avenues,” says Lisa.

The Creative Legacy project is an initiative of Victoria’s Cultivating Creative Capital theme—one of the University’s eight distinctive, multidisciplinary areas of expertise—and aims to showcase and celebrate Victoria’s heritage of imagination and innovation.

There will be around 150 stories in the STQRY app, each providing an account of the history of creative practice, people and places at Victoria.

Featured story: Janet Frame’s desk
In 1966, founder and editor of New Zealand magazine Landfall Charles Brasch gifted the desk he had used for 20 years to Janet Frame. After many adventures, it was gifted to Victoria University and now features on the STQRY app.

Janet Frame (1924–2004) is recognised as one of the greatest writers in Aotearoa New Zealand.

The desk was altered twice while in her custody: to make it more comfortable, she shortened its legs. In 1968, the tenants leasing her home sawed the desk in half, explaining it would not fit in a room with a double bed.

Unfazed by the tenants’ alteration, Janet pushed the pieces together and continued to use it. In 1989, she gave the desk to neighbours in Levin when she moved to Shannon. The neighbours gifted the desk to Victoria in 1996.

A conservation report was commissioned, and some further repairs were made.

The desk now resides in the International Institute for Modern Letters on the Kelburn campus, where it is considered one of New Zealand’s most unusual literary treasures.

Tracy K Smith named new US Poet Laureate

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Tracy K. Smith grew up in a house lined with books, an eclectic library that included dime-store mysteries, 19th-century novels, science fiction paperbacks, Shakespeare’s sonnets and Reader’s Digest Abridged Classics. It seemed vast to her as a child, but soon she’ll have full run of the world’s largest library: On Wednesday, Smith was named the new poet laureate of the United States.

Full story at Washington Post

Writers on Monday programme 2017 (yeah Charlotte Wood!!!)

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LAUNCH EVENT: TELL ME MY NAME

Tuesday 11 July 5.30pm at meow, 9 Edward Street

To launch the 2017 Writers on Mondays programme in style, we are delighted to present this special opportunity to see the first Wellington performance of Tell Me My Name, Bill Manhire’s sequence of thirteen riddle poems, set to music by composer Norman Meehan and performed by vocalist Hannah Griffin and violinist Martin Riseley. The music starts at 6, but be there early to secure a place!

 

17 JULY

The Wish Child: Catherine Chidgey

Writers on Mondays begins with fiction writer and multiple award winner Catherine Chidgey. Chidgey’s first three novels achieved international acclaim. Her much anticipated fourth novel The Wish Child won the 2017 Acorn Foundation Fiction Prize at the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards and is published internationally this year. Set in Germany in 1939, The Wish Child is a profound meditation on the wreckage caused by a corrupt ideology, on the resilience of the human spirit, and on crimes that cannot be undone. Join novelist Kate Duignan in a discussion about this intelligent and lyrical book and Chidgey’s writing career to date.

 

24 JULY

Stella! Charlotte Wood in conversation with Emily Perkins

 

31 JULY

The Little Death of Self: Marianne Boruch

American poet Marianne Boruch notes that ‘Both poetry and the essay come from the same impulse—to think about something and at the same time, see it closely, carefully, and enact it.’ A recent poetry collection Cadaver, Speak, sees her in the dissection room considering the ravages and resilience of the body, and in her new essay collection The Little Death of Self, Boruch’s restless curiosity ranges across science, music, medicine and art, asking questions such as ‘Why does the self grow smaller as the poem grows enormous?’ She is joined by poet and essayist Chris Price to explore how her poetry and essays approach the big topics of love, death and human knowledge.

 

7 AUGUST

Poetry Quartet: Louise Wallace, Hannah Mettner, Maria McMillan & Airini Beautrais

These poets write works of boldness and acute observation. Louise Wallace’s Bad Things, Hannah Mettner’s Fully Clothed and So Forgetful, Maria McMillan’s The Ski Flier and Flow by Airini Beautrais are diverse and exciting books of poetry. Each writer engages with language in innovative ways to explore and reimagine history, commerce, science, love and the things people do. Come and hear the latest New Zealand poetry in a reading and discussion chaired by poet and novelist Anna Smaill.

 

14 AUGUST

Hopeful Animals

In Tracy Farr’s new novel The Hope Fault, a weekend that unfolds in real time bookends 100 years which include events from the ‘real’ world. Damien Wilkins’ Lifting takes place in the weeks leading up to the close of a Wellington department store and has been described as ‘an intense exploration of the moment when the solid ground of a life is taken away’. Pip Adam’s The New Animals walks the streets of Auckland city now, examining the fashion scene. All three novels weave real and imagined events together, offering new ways to understand the present moment. Join novelist and short story writer William Brandt in a discussion with these writers about their work and why the novel continues to provide a vital lens on contemporary life.

 

21 AUGUST

Best New Zealand Poems 2016

Best New Zealand Poems is published annually by Victoria University’s International Institute of Modern Letters. Get ready for Phantom Billstickers National Poetry Day (on 25 August) by coming along to hear thirteen of the best read work chosen by Best New Zealand Poems 2016 editor Jenny Bornholdt – and be sure to visit www.bestnewzealandpoems.co.nz  to view the full selection. Poets Nick Ascroft, James Brown, John Dennison, Adrienne Jansen, Bill Manhire, Bill Nelson, Claire Orchard, Kerrin P. Sharpe, Oscar Upperton, Marty Smith, Tim Upperton, Airini Beautrais and Ashleigh Young are introduced by Jenny Bornholdt.

 

28 AUGUST

The Fuse Box

The Fuse Box is a brand new collection of essays and interviews with some of our best writers that aims to shine fresh light on the creative process. This event assembles some of the book’s contributors to explore issues relevant to all stages of the writing life: how to get started and what to write about, how to keep the flow going over time, freedom and constraint, how your writing might meet the world, and how to make the most of accidents. Playwright Gary Henderson, novelists Rajorshi Chakraborti and Elizabeth Knox, and poet James Brown join editors Chris Price and Emily Perkins to celebrate the launch of The Fuse Box.

 

4 SEPTEMBER

Victor Rodger and Friends

We are thrilled to have acclaimed playwright Victor Rodger as the Victoria University/Creative New Zealand Writer in Residence for 2017. Victor has assembled a panel of writers to explore how the work of others can inspire and challenge. Join Mitch Tawhi Thomas, Moana Ete, Jamie McCaskill and Faith Wilson in this conversation about creative communities.

 

11 SEPTEMBER

The Next Page 1

A wonderful opportunity to hear a fresh mix of poetry and prose by the current cohort of writers in the Master of Arts in Creative Writing Programme at Victoria University’s International Institute of Modern Letters. Maria Samuela, Rebecca Reader, Anthony Lapwood, Jacqueline Jenkins, Linda Collins, Mia Gaudin, Essa Ranapiri, Frank Sinclair, Tayi Tibble and Kirsten Griffiths are introduced by Emily Perkins.

 

18 SEPTEMBER

The Next Page 2

Part Two of the popular Next Page sessions features readings from Rebecca Priestley, Nicole Colmar, Sarah Scott, Antonia Bale, Claire O’Loughlin, Lynne Robertson, Sudha Rao, Sharon Lam, Sam Duckor-Jones and Clare Moleta. Introduced by Chris Price.

 

25 SEPTEMBER

Short Sharp Script 1: Circa Theatre

Actors perform dynamic new work by MA scriptwriting students from the IIML: Courtney Brown, Kate Burney, Madeline Bush, Lindsay Christopherson and
Fleur Cogle. Introduced by Ken Duncum.

 

2 OCTOBER

Short Sharp Script 2: Circa Theatre

More exciting work in progress from the second group of IIML scriptwriters, at Circa Theatre. This week: Ricky Dey, Ricardo Giraldo, Sarah Harpur, Sarita So and Jonathan Watt. Introduced by Ken Duncum.

 

 

Events run from 12.15-1.15pm, Te Papa Marae, Level 4, Te Papa

with the exception of the opening concert at Meow and the two Short Sharp Script events at Circa Theatre. See programme for details.

ADMISSION IS FREE, ALL WELCOME