New writing centre on Auckland Viaduct attracts top Kiwi authors

The Creative Hub, a new writing centre featuring leading New Zealand writers begins fiction and travel writing courses in early September. The Hub is located on the Auckland waterfront at Princes Wharf.
Name writers like Tessa Duder, Roger Hall, Paula Morris, Sarah Laing, Tina Shaw, Graham Reid and Judith White run workshops at the Creative Hub.

The authors give sessions on a variety of writing techniques, including character, plot and dialogue and how to capture your travel experiences in publishable form.
A course on novel and short story writing begins on 6 September and runs for 30 weeks and a Travel Writing course begins 7 September for six weeks

 The Director of the Centre,  fiction author and former magazine editor, John Cranna (pictured) said:
‘There’s a huge appetite for creative writing in New Zealand. Everyone has a story to tell, but most struggle with the craft issues. We show start-out writers how to get it all down on paper, and then go through successive drafts. As Hemingway said: ‘The first draft of everything, is crap.’

Mr Cranna said, ‘Our students come from every walk of life. Some have done a bit of writing in personal journals or had a short story published somewhere. The age range is huge.’

One of the most rewarding aspects of the courses, said Mr Cranna, is that New Zealand best professional practitioners are teaching at the Hub. ‘Roger Hall, perhaps our best known playwright, does a wonderful workshop on dialogue writing. Fiendishly hard to get right, but he knows all the tricks.’

Well-known children’s author Tessa Duder (pic right) runs a workshop on plot structure, and award-winning novelist Tina Shaw shows how to build credible characters. The Fiction course is coordinated by John Cranna, former editor of AA Directions magazine and winner of the Commonwealth Writers Prize for a first work of fiction.
Graham Reid, former Herald journalist coordinates the Travel Writing course beginning 7 September which promises participants an insight into the techniques and practices of professional travel writers. Graham Reid has won a number of national awards for his travel books.

Those who are interested can contact The Creative Hub at www.thecreativehub.net.nz or enquiries@thecreativehub.net.nz