NEW ZEALAND STUDENT WRITER TO TAKE ON WORLD

From today's New Zealand Herald:

A love of literature has won an Auckland student a trip to see the haunts of some of the world's greatest authors.
Lucy Rogers, (left), in year 11 at Diocesan School in Epsom, won an international short story competition based on the fantasy novel Conspiracy of Calaspia.
Lucy says she never expected her story to be a winner, especially as the competition was international.
"When I sent it in, I didn't expect to hear from them because I had so much competition."
She is one of 10 winners chosen from all over the world to go on a literary tour around Britain in July.
It will include a visit to Cambridge, Bedford, Oxford, and Stratford-upon-Avon - the birthplace of William Shakespeare.

The Ellerslie resident says she's looking forward to seeing where some of her favourite authors once lived, and especially Cambridge and Oxford, where Lord of the Rings author J.R.R Tolkien and author of The Chronicles of Narnia, C.S Lewis, both taught literature.

"Tolkien is one of my favourites. I love the detail of his stories.
"With C.S. Lewis, I like his philosophy."
After the 10-day tour, Lucy will participate in the triennial Summer Institute of the C.S. Lewis Foundation to be held in Oxford and Cambridge over two weeks.
This year's theme is: The self and the search for meaning.

Lucy says her passion for writing grew out of her love of reading.
"Up until the age of eight, I hated writing. But I loved to read.
"When I'd finished reading all the books in the house, I started to write my own," she said.
"I wrote my first book when I was nine, called The Quest of Cabirides."

And in a letter to the Book Council Lucy's mother, Heather Rogers. made the following comments regarding the Writers in Schools Scheme:

I would like to say a big THANK YOU to the Book Council for your Writers in Schools programme which was really a catalyst for all of this. Lucy has always loved reading and when she ran out of things to read (at her age level) she started to write things for herself.

It was not, however, until Joy Cowley came to her primary school and read aloud and talked about her life and encouraged the children to start writing for themselves that she really began to get a vision. She continued to communicate with Joy by email after her visit and sent her extracts of stories that she was working on. It was Joy's encouragement that made the crucial difference.

When Eoin Colfer visited Auckland he was another source of inspiration. There is nothing quite like hearing a writer read their own stories!
I should say that Rosemary Tidsall deserves some thanks for all of this, she supplied Lucy with a constant stream of good fantasy books when she was working as the Remuera Primary School Librarian, and was one of the promoters of the writers in schools programme. She also encouraged Lucy to read widely and to write stories.

FOOTNOTE:

Congratulations Lucy, and special mention to the Book Council, Joy Cowley and Rosemary Tisdall.