Award-winning
Christchurch writer and poet Helen Lowe will have her own office at the
University of Canterbury for the next six months after being named one of two
Ursula Bethell Writers in Residence for 2012.
Ms
Lowe writes fantasy/science fiction novels as well as poetry and short fiction.
Her first book, Thornspell, was published in 2008 and won the Science
Fiction and Fantasy Association of New Zealand’s Sir Julius Vogel Award for
Best Novel: Young Adult in 2009.
She
is currently working on a four book epic fantasy called The Wall of Night
series. The first volume in the series, The Heir of Night, was published
in 2010 and won the Sir Julius Vogel Award for Best Novel in 2011. The Heir
of Night is currently longlisted for the Gemmell Awards in the
United Kingdom. Volume two in the series, The Gathering of the Lost, is
due to be published in April this year.
As
well as writing, Ms Lowe also reviews books and interviews authors on Plains
FM’s Women on Air programme.
The
second residency will be taken up in August by performance poet and writer
David Eggleton.
TheUrsula Bethell Residency in Creative Writing was established by the University
of Canterbury in 1979 to provide support for New Zealand writers and foster New
Zealand writing. Jointly funded by the University’s College of Arts and Creative
New Zealand, the residency gives writers a chance to work on a project within
an academic environment. It is named in recognition of Christchurch poet and
artist Ursula Bethell (1874-1945) who is considered one of the pioneers of
modern New Zealand poetry.
Previous
recipients of the residency include Owen Marshall (1981), Margaret Mahy (1984),
Keri Hulme (1985), Fiona Farrell (1992), Sue McCauley (1993), Catherine Chidgey
(2003), Charlotte Randall (2005), Carl Nixon (2006) and Rachael King (2008).
No comments:
Post a Comment