MASSEY UNIVERSITY - SCHOOL OF ENGLISH AND MEDIA STUDIES
ANNUAL WRITERS READ SERIES

Ex-patriate NZ writer Kirsty Gunn (pic right)) author of Rain and Award-winning The Boy and the Sea is the next speaker at Massey University’s fourth annual Writers Read series: 6 pm Thursday August 6 at Massey’s Wellington Theatrette [Buckle Street entrance] and 7 pm Friday August 7 at Palmerston North City Library.

The series aims to give readers a chance to meet writers in a relaxed environment over a glass of wine and hear them read from their work. Kirsty Gunn was brought up in Wellington and is the Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Dundee in Scotland. She has an international profile as a writer, critic and novelist. She has won the Scottish Arts Council Award and the London Arts Board Award for Writers. Gunn is working in Wellington as the Randell Cottage Writer in Residence on a cross-genre project with Katherine Mansfield as its subject. She will be chaired at Writers Read by author and Massey University tutor Mary McCallum.

The other writers in the series over the past four years include Bill Manhire, Elizabeth Knox and James George. The most recent, Glenn Colquhoun, riveted a record audience of readers both young and old. This year the writers include a range of poets: Glenn Colquhoun, Bryan Walpert, Tusiata Avia and Karlo Milo, as well as novelist Gunn.

The Writers Read initiative comes from Massey University’s School of English and Media Studies. All Writers Read events are free and open to the public. Palmerston North 2009 Series at Palmerston North City Library, drinks 6.30pm
Glenn Colquhoun
7:00 pm on 8 May

Kirsty Gunn
7:00 pm on 7 August
Chair Mary McCallum

Tusiata Avia
7:00 pm on 21 August

Karlo Milo
7:00 pm on 11 September

Wellington 2009 Series at Massey University’s Wellington campus at the Theatrette, Buckle Street Entrance, for the May and August events – drinks follow at 7.00 pm.
Bryan Walpert
6:00 pm on 2 April
Chair Ingrid Horrocks

Glenn Colquhoun
6:00 pm on 7 May
Chair Alice Miller

Kirsty Gunn
6:00 pm on 6 August
Chair Mary McCallum