Victoria University of Wellington’s International Institute of Modern Letters (IIML) is delighted to announce a new Emerging Pasifika Writer’s Residency for 2019.

The Residency, supported by Creative New Zealand, runs for three months and includes a writing room and a stipend of $15,000. A member of the Pasifika arts community will mentor the Emerging Pasifika Writer-in-Residence.

The Residency was one of several ideas proposed around supporting new Pasifika writers at a Talanoa—a process of inclusive, participatory and transparent dialogue—hosted by the IIML and attended by Pasifika writers and theatre-makers. Maualaivao Albert Wendt, whose ground-breaking fiction, poetry and teaching has influenced generations of writers, says emerging Pasifika writers need funding, “and the IIML offers a supportive, established and nourishing environment in which new writers can flourish”.

“This is a fabulous opportunity for a new Pasifika writer to work on a creative project in a stimulating and supportive environment. I am very excited,” says Assistant Vice-Chancellor (Pasifika) Dame Luamanuvao Winnie Laban.

The IIML welcomes applications from writers at an early stage of their careers, with a growing body of work. This Residency is unique in that applications are invited from writers in all areas of literary activity, including drama, fiction and poetry (page and performance), devised performance, creative non-fiction and graphic novels.

“There are so many exciting things happening in Pasifika writing and we’re thrilled to be involved with this residency,” says IIML Director, Professor Damien Wilkins.

Applications close 31 July 2018. Apply here, or for further details please contact modernletters@vuw.ac.nz

For more information contact Emily Perkins on 04-463 6905 or emily.perkins@vuw.ac.nz.

Vaughan Rapatahana’s full article here

As promised in the previous commentary, in these variegated tangents away from the vast soft white underbelly of New Zealand poetry, I here focus on two non–New Zealanders and their valuable and vitally different representations of Kiwi poets and their mahi, or work. One is French, one is American; both have been keenly involved in publishing or producing New Zealand poems for quite some time now. Both are visual artists. Alphabetically, I now approach them — America to France.

David Kelly-Hedrick is an artist who works with Kiwi (and others’) words and transforms them into quite brilliant tree/fence/free-range poetic sculptures.

Describe what you do in terms of depicting Kiwi poems (i.e. written by NZ poets) via your tree sculptures (that is, the physical outdoor depictions).

I gather scrap pieces of wood, often pieces that have washed up in our harbors and along our beaches, and I router words and lines of great verse and then paint them in bright acrylic colors. I place these lines in organized art installations or leave them out in public locations. I wish to lift and place poetry in surprising places. I want it to last a while, to fare all right in the weather. I want to install these wood planks and let them sing with new art. I started nearly ten years ago with an installation in a Botanical Garden in the States and have continued from there. In Dunedin, New Zealand, I collaborated with the poet Loveday Why on a Wild Lines installation as part of the Dunedin Fringe Festival.

Victoria University of Wellington’s International Institute of Modern Letters (IIML) is delighted to announce a new Emerging Pasifika Writer’s Residency for 2019.

The Residency, supported by Creative New Zealand, runs for three months and includes a writing room and a stipend of $15,000. A member of the Pasifika arts community will mentor the Emerging Pasifika Writer-in-Residence.

The Residency was one of several ideas proposed around supporting new Pasifika writers at a Talanoa—a process of inclusive, participatory and transparent dialogue—hosted by the IIML and attended by Pasifika writers and theatre-makers. Maualaivao Albert Wendt, whose ground-breaking fiction, poetry and teaching has influenced generations of writers, says emerging Pasifika writers need funding, “and the IIML offers a supportive, established and nourishing environment in which new writers can flourish”.

“This is a fabulous opportunity for a new Pasifika writer to work on a creative project in a stimulating and supportive environment. I am very excited,” says Assistant Vice-Chancellor (Pasifika) Dame Luamanuvao Winnie Laban.

The IIML welcomes applications from writers at an early stage of their careers, with a growing body of work. This Residency is unique in that applications are invited from writers in all areas of literary activity, including drama, fiction and poetry (page and performance), devised performance, creative non-fiction and graphic novels.

“There are so many exciting things happening in Pasifika writing and we’re thrilled to be involved with this residency,” says IIML Director, Professor Damien Wilkins.

Applications close 31 July 2018. Apply here, or for further details please contact modernletters@vuw.ac.nz

For more information contact Emily Perkins on 04-463 6905 or emily.perkins@vuw.ac.nz.

National Flash Fiction Day Celebrations

22 June 2018

in

Dunedin, Christchurch, Wellington, Auckland and Kawakawa

Guest speakers include Sue Wootton, Vaughan Rapatahana, Patrick Pink, Tim Jones, Jac Jenkins, Jennifer Lane and Wellington Mayor, Justin Lester

Flash fiction and micros

NFFD Awards – Regional Awards

Spot prizes

Listen to the winning stories from the 2018 NFFD competitions.

All welcome.

Find an event near you