ALISON WONG - A QUIET STAR AT AWRF

Last evening I had the great privilege of chairing An Hour with Alison Wong.

Most of us became aware of Alison Wong when she burst on the scene in 2009 with her beautifully told, richly textured love story, AS THE EARTH TURNS SILVER, but her literary credentials in fact go further back than this.
In 1996, she held a Reader’s Digest-New Zealand Society of Authors Fellowship at the Stout Research Centre and a New Zealand Founders Society Research Award; she was a founder of Porirua’s now defunct Poetry Café; she is a graduate of Bill Manhire’s Original Composition class.

 In 2002 she was the Robert Burns Fellow at the University of Otago and in 2007 her poetry collection CUP was shortlisted in the Best First Book for Poetry in the Montana NZ Book Awards. Her poetry was selected for Best NZ Poems in both 2006 and 2007. She has had poems and prose published in Landfall, Sport and the NZ Listener
Alison was born in Hastings but grew up in Napier where her mother and older sister still live, she gained a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics from Victoria University of Wellington. She has lived and worked in China at various times and worked in New Zealand as an information technology analyst and writer. Until recently Alison lived in Titahi Bay. She now lives in Geelong near Melbourne with her son and husband.
And she has been a guest at this Festival twice before - Last time in 2008 as a poet. And before that in 2003 on a panel about Chinese New Zealand writing.


Alison spoke modestly and movingly about her writing and personal lives, of the 12 years of research and writing she took to complete her novel and she read from both of her books. During her hour she won the hearts of many in the 150 strong audience.

Footnote:
Earlier review of AS THE EARTH TURNS SILVER by Maggie Rainey-Smith here
Report on book launch at Unity Books Wellington here.