Wednesday, June 13, 2007


AND NEWS ALSO FROM THE I.I.M.L. AT VICTORIA UNIVERSITY OF WELLINGTON

1. Tricksters, Conjurors, Skydancers

An IIML project initiated back in 2003 is about to bear fruit. DVDs featuring leading writers Joy Cowley, Margaret Mahy and Jack Lasenby are to be distributed free this week to all New Zealand secondary schools and also made available to public libraries. They were launched at the National Library of New Zealand last night.

The DVDs feature interviews with all three authors by Kate De Goldi. The authors read from their work and speak openly about their influences, their beliefs and their writing for young people. They also build a picture of New Zealand’s literary and social history and the importance of story and language in a full human life.

The DVDs are accompanied by a substantial lesson resource for teachers, which makes strong links between the English curriculum and New Zealand literature.

Tricksters, Conjurors, Skydancers is a not-for-profit collaboration between New Zealand Post, the Ministry of Education, and the International Institute of Modern Letters at Victoria University. It might well be the first in a projected series of interviews with New Zealand writers. Watch this space.


2. Hemi goes to Harvard

We hear that the poems of James K Baxter will be on the academic menu at Harvard this northern autumn – or maybe we should say this fall. Poet and critic Stephen Burt, who is about to take up a post there plans to include him in a world poetry course. We think this may be the first time a New Zealand poet has been taught inside the hallowed halls, but if we are wrong we are very happy to be corrected.


3. Great myths of our time

We feel moved to share Radio New Zealand’s 2 June news announcement that Janet Frame’s The Goose Bath has made the shortlist for this year’s Montana New Zealand Poetry Award.

‘A collection of poetry by one of New Zealand's best-known writers, the late Janet Frame, is a finalist in this year's Montana book awards. The Goose Bath, which was published posthumously last year, is the first new Frame title in 20 years. She died in 2004, aged 79, after a long battle with cancer.

The Goose Bath is a collection of poems found after her death in a bath Frame used for washing her pet geese.’

Should you need a postscript to this wonderfully literal piece of misinformation, you can check out the current whereabouts of the original goose bath by scrolling down the home page of the Janet Frame website: http://www.janetframe.org.nz/

In October, Random will also bring out Janet Frame’s unpublished novel, Towards Another Summer. Says the publisher’s website: ‘Frame rejected the pressure to publish Towards Another Summer in her lifetime, because she claimed the story was “embarrassingly personal”. And indeed she does turn her unflinching eye on herself, foibles and all; often enough the joke is at her own expense.’


4. Why is poet Andrew Johnston so busy?

One of the reasons poet Andrew Johnston is so busy is because he is the judge for the 2007 New Zealand Post National Schools Poetry Awards. This means he is reading a record 420 poetry entries.

This year, along with the $1,000 first prize ($500 to the winner and a $500 book grant to their school library), one of the ten shortlisted poems will be set to music and recorded by musician Barnaby Weir of The Black Seeds and Fly My Pretties.

The winner of this prize – who may not be the overall winner – will be invited to spend a day with Barnaby in his home studio in Raumati and then to attend the recording at Trident Studios in Wellington. If the winner lives outside the Wellington region, the prize will include flights and accommodation for the student and an accompanying adult.

More information about the awards here: http://www.vuw.ac.nz/modernletters/activities/school-poetry/about-poetry.aspx


5. The Expanding Bookshelf

Congratulations to Natasha Judd, whose first novel Lessons to Learn (Cape Catley) was launched last night at the Takapuna Library by Dame Cath Tizard. Tash wrote the first draft of Lessons to Learn in the 2005 MA workshop. Her novel follows the fortunes of Charlotte, a young New Zealander who travels to Korea as a teacher of English. In a Korean language school she finds herself dealing with the past she has tried to leave behind. More information here: http://www.capecatleybooks.co.nz/index_files/Lessons.htm

Congratulations also to IIML colleague Damien Wilkins, who has followed his Montana-shortlisted novel The Fainter with a book of short stories, For Everyone Concerned, a gathering of fables, satires, notes to self, and short shorts. See http://www.vuw.ac.nz/vup/recent%20titles/foreveryoneconcerned.htm

There is also word of new novels by Maggie Rainey-Smith (Turbulence)
http://www.randomhouse.co.nz/newsroom/PRESS_RELEASES/Turbulence%20PR.pdf
and Barbara Else (Wild Latitudes)
http://www.randomhouse.co.nz/newsroom/PRESS_RELEASES/Wild%20Latitudes%20Press%20Release.pdf

Meantime, IIML lecturer and Montana shortlistee Chris Price has begun blogging on the NZ Book Month site – http://nzbookmonth.co.nz/ – where (until 5.00 pm tomorrow, June 14) you can still vote for your favourite Six Pack finalist.

For more go to the IIML website.

And go here for my earlier comments on Brief Lives by Chris Price who is presently happily ensconsed in Tasmania but usually resides by day at Th IIML. I hope she will be back for the Montana NZ Book Awards because I'm picking her to be a winner!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Lucky schools, getting these DVDs, they sound wonderful. But how do the rest of us mere mortals get to see them?! Happy travels, Mr Beattie!

Jessie B said...

Yes, I'm gladly teaching Baxter at Harvard this autumn/ fall (your spring): write this winter (your summer) and I'll let you know how it goes, and whether it's really the first time an NZ poet has been on the syllabus there.