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VUW Writer in Residence 2016: Submissions Welcome

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Writer in Residence 2016: Submissions Welcome

We invite applications for the Victoria University of Wellington/Creative New Zealand Writer in Residence 2016. Writers in all areas of literary activity, including drama, fiction and poetry, New Zealand art, biography, history, music, society and culture, are eligible to apply.

Applicants should be writers of proven merit, and must be either a New Zealand citizen or permanent resident.

The Writer will have use of an office at the IIML and while there are no formal duties attached to the position, it is expected that the Writer will take part in the cultural life of the University.

The appointment will be for twelve months from 1 February 2016 to 31 January 2017, with a salary of NZ$50,000, and will be made subject to Creative New Zealand funding.

Applications close 30 September 2015

Victoria University of Wellington is an EEO employer and actively seeks to meet its obligations under the Treaty of Waitangi.

For more information and to apply online visit http://www.victoria.ac.nz/about/careers

We invite applications for the Victoria University of Wellington/Creative New Zealand Writer in Residence 2016. Writers in all areas of literary activity, including drama, fiction and poetry, New Zealand art, biography, history, music, society and culture, are eligible to apply.

Applicants should be writers of proven merit, and must be either a New Zealand citizen or permanent resident.

The Writer will have use of an office at the IIML and while there are no formal duties attached to the position, it is expected that the Writer will take part in the cultural life of the University.

The appointment will be for twelve months from 1 February 2016 to 31 January 2017, with a salary of NZ$50,000, and will be made subject to Creative New Zealand funding.

Applications close 30 September 2015

Victoria University of Wellington is an EEO employer and actively seeks to meet its obligations under the Treaty of Waitangi.

For more information and to apply online visit http://www.victoria.ac.nz/about/careers

Lounge Reading #45

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MEGA-READING AT OGH LOUNGE 12 AUGUST 5.30-7 PM
ALL WELCOME!

LOUNGE #45 WEDNESDAY 12 August,
Old Government House Lounge, UoA City Campus, Princes St and Waterloo Quadrant, 5.30-7 pm

Featuring performances by:

Ivy Alvarez
Anni Docking
Graham Lindsay
Rapheal Mathis
Maris O’Rourke
Ruby Porter
Shahab Ramhormozian
Hadi Rezaei
Lisa Samuels
Daniel Satele
Jamie Trower

Free entry. Food and drinks for sale in the Buttery. Information Michele Leggott  m.leggott@auckland.ac.nz  or 09 373 7599 ext. 87342. Poster: http://www.nzepc.auckland.ac.nz/events/lounge45_poster.pdf

The LOUNGE readings are a continuing project of the New Zealand Electronic Poetry Centre (nzepc), Auckland University Press and Auckland University English, Drama and Writing Studies,  in association with the Staff Common Room Club at Old Government House.

LOUNGE READINGS #45-47: 12 August, 23 September, 21 October  2014

Kelly Malone’s PhD Fundraiser, Code Gala, features a stellar lineup

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Where: Rannoch, 77 Almorah Rd, Auckland

When: Friday 17th July 7pm until 10pm

Ticket Information:

  • Suggested Donation: $40.00
  • Buy Tickets – 0274723669
  • Additional fees may apply

Websites:

Kelly Malone’s PhD Fundraiser, Code Gala, is an exciting event that brings together upcoming and established New Zealand artists and poets including Wystan Curnow, Murray Edmond, Sara Hughes, and Tessa Laird, who have responded to a selection of Kelly Malone’s poetry. Join us for an evening of entertainment: poetry reading; stop motion film puppet show; display of the artworks created by the artists involved and available for sale, and the sublime voice of Caitlin Smith on her return from Europe. Emcee: Michele Leggott.

Held at Rannoch, home to Sir James Wallace and some of the Wallace Arts Trust collection, you will have the opportunity to view the collection and experience the elegance of Rannoch.

Suggested donation $40. Cash, eft-pos, or cheques made payable to Kelly Malone. Refreshments will be provided.
RSVP kellyamalone@gmail.com to reserve a place.

Friday 7pm, 17th July,
77 Almorah Place,Epsom
Park on Gilgit or Almorah Road and walk down to 77 Almorah Place. No stilettos please.

Kelly Malone is a New Zealand poet whose engagement with poetry in Aotearoa has continued to develop since completing two First Class Masters: Master of Creative Writing in 2009, and Master of Arts in 2012, at the University of Auckland. Subsequently, Kelly has taught and worked alongside poets and writers at the University of Auckland, including Michele Leggott, Paula Morris, Lisa Samuels, and Selina Tusitala-Marsh.

Kelly’s fresh approach to poetry is evident in the reception she has been given internationally from Australia, Canada, and the UK, as well as in local zines both online and in print. The opportunity to study through a government-funded PhD at the University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia, means Kelly can expand her audience and research. Kelly remains engaged with the local scene, spending some of her time in Auckland, and at the University of Auckland, where she has an external supervisor.

To date, Kelly has taught while studying, and although a committed teacher (she cut her teeth in the secondary classroom as an English teacher) the Code Gala Fundraiser is to help her raise funds in order to focus on her PhD in Creative Practice at the University of Newcastle, NSW, fulltime for a semester. Kelly’s topic of research ‘How Performance Writing is Evolving in Oceania’ examines what and how Performance Writing is practised in Oceania. (Performance Writing is how language engages with another media as an event.)

‘Wellington poetry: now and then’ hosted by VUW for Wellington’s 150 Anniversary as a capital city

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Victoria University is running on Saturday 25th July at 1pm to celebrate Wellington’s 150th anniversary of becoming a capital city.

As part of a series of public events that weekend we will be hosting ‘Wellington poetry: now and then’. Wellington poets, including Jenny Bornholdt, Gregory O’Brien, Harry Ricketts and Anna Jackson, will read their own work and poems from the past. It is a free, publicly open event but if you are able to RSVP that would help us to estimate numbers expecting to attend.

Wellington Poetry: Now and Then
When: Saturday 25th July, 1pm
Where: Old Government Buildings, 15 Lambton Quay, Lecture theatre 1
RSVP: This is a publicly open event but to allow us to estimate numbers please RSVP if possible to Cheryl.spain@vuw.ac.nz

Ahh another reason to be in Wellington: James K Baxter’s prose: a launch and a seminar

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Victoria University Press warmly invites you to the launch of

James K. Baxter: Complete Prose
edited by John Weir

on Saturday 29 August
at Te Taratara ā Kae, Level 2, Rankine Brown Building, Kelburn Campus Library
Victoria University of Wellington

Seminar: 3.15pm–4.45pm
Launch: 5.00pm–7.00pm
(see below for programme details)
3.15–4.45pm
A seminar on aspects of Baxter’s writing life

Fergus Barrowman, publisher at Victoria University Press will introduce the seminar’s speakers:

Dr John Weir on his experiences editing Complete Prose;

Colin Durning, close friend and confidant of Baxter’s on his friendship with the writer;

Eli Kent, playwright and grand-nephew of Baxter, reading a Baxter manuscript on drama;

Dr Paul Millar, Baxter scholar, who will talk about his Baxter research.
5.00pm–6.30pm
Launch of Complete Prose

A karakia for the books will be followed by a performance from Dave Dobbyn singing Baxter’s ‘Song of the Years’.

Guests are invited to stay on for refreshments following the launch.

Copies will be available for purchase courtesy of Vic Books.

This four-volume set contains over a million words, from Baxter’s first draft of ‘Before Sunrise’ as a teenager in 1942 to his ‘Confession to the Lord Christ’ shortly before his death in 1972.

Edited with scrupulous care by John Weir, the Complete Prose is a testament to Baxter’s huge contribution to New Zealand literature, culture and society.

2662 pages: 4 hardback volumes with cloth spines presented in a box.
The box reproduces three details from ‘Poet Three Times’ (Tryptych) by Nigel Brown, acrylic on canvas, Fletcher Trust Collection. $200rrp
The seminar and launch are free to attend, however we do require guests to indicate their attendance by RSVP to Kirsten McDougall by Tuesday 25 August.

Please indicate if you will attend both the seminar and launch, or just one part of the programme
by email: kirsten.mcdougall@vuw.ac.nz
by post: VUP, PO Box 600, Wellington 6140
by phone: 04 4636531

Directions:
The Rankine Brown Building is located on the harbour side of the main campus entrance off Kelburn Parade. You enter the library through the Hub (the old Quad). Te Taratara ā Kae is located on Level 2 of the library. Library staff wearing red vests are located on Levels 1 and 2 of the library and can help give directions.
Copyright © 2015 Victoria University Press, All rights reserved.
You are receiving this email because you opted in at our website or via email.

Our mailing address is:
Victoria University Press
PO Box 600
Wellington, Wgtn 6140
New Zealand

Dunedin’s Writers Salon

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Please join us for our next
Writers Salon

Please join us for our next Writers Salon

Monday July 6th, 2015
The Thistle Café and Bar, 23 The Octagon

Featured writers:

Breton Dukes
reading from his novel in progress, Betty Dean

Emma Neale
reading from ‘The How Do We Begin,’ a prose/poetry extract from a longer work, Billy Bird
(published in Landfall 229)

Neville Peat
reading an essay from Wild Central, and a narrative from Coasting: The Sea Lion and the Lark

All welcome

Please come at 6.00 pm if wish to eat.
Readings start at 7.00 pm.

Congratulations to Flash Fiction Day winners

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Congratulations to Frankie McMillan of Christchurch

and Leanne Radojkovich of Auckland

who took top honours in this year’s competition!

And to all Highly Commended writers and

Regional Prize winners, too, posted on

the NFFD Winners page, along with judges’ comments.

All sixteen long-listed stories from this year’s competition will be published in a special winter edition of Flash Frontier: An Adventure in Short Fiction.

THANK YOU! 

Special thanks to Owen Marshall and Fiona Kidman for so generously sharing their time and wisdom.

Thanks to the NZ Society of Authors branches who support the Regional Awards. A great deal of individual effort has gone into organising the gifts and awards that the branches donate, and it’s thanks to branch chairs and members that this part of NFFD is a growing success.
Thanks to Designlab in Auckland for our logo and banner images. We’re handsome and shiny because of you!

Thanks to the bookshops around NZ who support our efforts — Jason Books in Auckland, Unity Books in Wellington, University Bookshop in Dunedinand Scorpio Books in Christchurch.

And thanks, finally but hugely, to our event organisers, volunteers, proxy readers and MCs — NFFD would be nothing without you! Here’s to this year’s success, and to you!

Margaret Cahill

Maryrose Doull 

James George

Eileen Merriman

Nod Ghosh

Trisha Hanifin

Tim Heath

Katherine Honeyman

Brindi Joy

Graeme Lay

James Norcliffe

Catherine Robertson

Morrin Rout

Owen Scott

Rebecca Styles

Sian Williams

Ana Worner

Simon Armitage wins Oxford Professor of Poetry election

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from The Guardian

Popular British poet selected for prestigious post ahead of strong field including Wole Soyinka

Simon Armitage: keen to discuss ‘poetry’s relationship with the civilian world’.
Simon Armitage: keen to discuss ‘poetry’s relationship with the civilian world’. Photograph: Gareth Phillips for the Guardian

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The British poet Simon Armitage has seen off an international field to be chosen as Oxford’s latest professor of poetry.

Speaking to the Guardian after the announcement, Armitage said he was “delighted and very excited and suitably daunted as well”.

“It’s been such a long process,” he said. “In the time it’s taken we’ve had a general election, Sepp Blatter has come and gone and come again, and we’ve nearly got a new leader of the Labour party.”

He said he would try to give students an insight into “what is occasionally quite a muddy world, and a muddy art form, remembering that the audience are primarily students, and not to see it as a platform for professorial grandstanding”.

“For me, it’s a chance to say something a little bit more contemporary,” he said. “Often it’s been professors talking about previous generations. I feel as if I’d like to bring thing up to date. To look at poetry today, in dialogue with the poetry of the past.”

The award-winning author of more than 12 collections of poetry, Armitage has been hailed by fellow poet Sean O’Brien as “the first poet of serious artistic intent since Philip Larkin to have achieved popularity”. Combining linguistic inventiveness, streetwise flair and contemporary subjects, he has reached an audience far beyond the literary ghetto with poems, novels, translations of medieval verse and scripts for radio and television.

The poet laureate, Carol Ann Duffy, welcomed the announcement, calling Armitage “a fine, vocational poet and a brilliant communicator for the modern age who never forgets the roots and ancestry of poetry”.

for more see here

Book Trade Awards: Poetry books need great booksellers – Wonderful to see the Parsons Family honoured

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I am delighted to see the Parsons Family honoured at these awards. The Auckland store under the guidance of Helen used to stock the best selection of NZ poetry in a room devoted entirely to NZ books. Bravo Roger and Helen, booksellers extraordinaire.

Book Trade Industry Awards

21 Jun 2015
A renowned family of booksellers were honoured with a lifetime achievement award tonight at the annual Book Industry awards in Auckland, while individual publishers and booksellers were recognised as being the best in the New Zealand  trade.
This year the award was presented to the Parsons Family of Auckland and Wellington for the inter-generational contribution the family have made to the industry.
All of the winners of the Book Trade Industry Awards this year have been applauded by the judges for their dedication to quality – whether in publication, selling, or running events – and passion for the trade. There were six awards given, and for the first time this year, applicants were invited to self-nominate. This allowed some smaller bookstores who didn’t frequently see publishing reps to highlight their own efforts to improve sales for their stores. There was a large number of nominees in this category, making the prize even more desirable.
The judges of the awards were Karen Ferns, Jill Rawnsley, Carolyn Morgan, Graham Beattie and Karren Beanland.
The winners of each category are announced below:
2015 Young Book Retailer of the Year: 
Jenna Todd, Time Out Books, Mt Eden
‘Jenna manages the shop, which had its best ever sales in 2014, in an exemplary manner. Not only does she run their media & social media effectively, the customer testimonials for her work were outstanding,’ said judge Karen Ferns.
2015 Sales Rep of the Year: 
Tammy Ruffell, HarperCollins NZ Lower North Island rep
‘Tammy is tireless in seeking ways to inspire customers, and has shown great leadership and resilience in facing head-on, with those customers, the challenges of the past year (or few),’ said judge Jill Rawnsley.
Marketing Strategy of the Year: 
Penguin Random House NZ, for Chelsea Winter’s Everyday Delicious
‘The winning marketing strategy for 2015 saw an impressive result for the publisher and Chelsea Winter, the author, whose input into the campaign is every bit as contributory to the results. It is a competitive area of publishing, but the team at PRH pulled it off beautifully,’ said Rawnsley.
NZ Book Industry Special Award: 
Bridget Williams Books
‘Bridget Williams Books wins this for their innovative list, and how effectively they have embraced the new digital age. They have proven their commitment to quality non-fiction publishing, publishing the important Tangata Whenua, while launching their new imprint BWB Texts over 2014,’ said Morgan.
Publisher of the Year: 
Potton and Burton Publishers, newly renamed from Craig Potton Publishers
‘Potton and Burton show exceptional commitment to quality in its publishing programme, its production values, its relationships with customers and authors alike, and in the delivery of an essential distribution service. As well as this, the company’s dedication to New Zealand stories shines through in their regularly award-winning books,’ said Rawnsley.
Bookseller of the Year: 
Unity Books, Wellington
‘Unity Books runs 50 events per year, and their support of NZ publishing accounts for 18% of their sales. Unity has proven over the years a great training place for aspiring booksellers. Overall, they win this award for their general excellence, and the special place they occupy in the community,’ said Morgan.
The Book industry is well-served by the passionate booksellers and publishers that are continuing to inspire in a changing environment. The Book Industry Awards are sponsored by PANZ, Nielsen Book and Booksellers NZ, and were administered via Booksellers NZ, by the Book Trade Liasion Committee.