News from IIML

 Report from China

Emily Perkins traveled to China to take part in the Shanghai Literary Festival. Highlights included a marathon session from cinematographer Chris Doyle and another on literary pilgrimages to the village George Orwell wrote about in Burmese Days. Emily thanks all her hosts for the amazing hospitality and food, including bullfrog (no - it doesn’t taste like chicken). She went on with Education New Zealand to read and talk at universities in Shanghai and Guangzhou, and made some exciting connections with students and teachers of creative writing and English Literature there. We hope these links will continue to be developed, so watch this space.

 Report from downstairs

Hinemoana Baker, our Writing Fellow, reports on a busy period: ‘In March I did three gigs, and contributed to another. WOMAD was one - I did five readings over the three days, at Te Paepae, alongside the weavers and tā moko artists. While I was at WOMAD, Te Papa's 'Walk With Me' project was launched, to which I contributed a poem. On 30th of March I was guest poet at Poets to the People at Valhalla Cafe in Raumati South. And the Sunday before that I performed some of my songs at the Sustainable Home and Garden Show (affectionately known as SHAG) up in Kāpiti.’ Hinemoana’s poem ‘Rope’ also appears in Best New Zealand Poems 2013.

 Johanna Knox

Next trimester we welcome Johanna Knox to the IIML teaching roster. Johanna will be filling in for Eirlys Hunter, our regular teacher of CREW 255 Children's Writing Workshop. Johanna is the author of The Flytrap Snaps (Hinterlands, 2011), a junior fiction novel that was shortlisted in the 2012 NZ Post Children's Book Awards, as well as for the LIANZA Esther Glen Award. It also made the Storylines Notable Book List. The second book in the same series, The Sundew Stalks, was published last year.

 Athens to Aotearoa: Greece and Rome in New Zealand Literature and Society

Witi Ihimaera is a keynote speaker at this conference in September which ‘explores New Zealand's relationship with its Greco-Roman heritage both through a critical appraisal of its effects but also by glimpsing into the creative experiences of New Zealand's writers and artists.’ Organised by the VUW Classics Programme, the deadline for abstracts is 2 June.

 Truth or Beauty: Poetry and Biography

Anna Jackson is one of the organisers of a VUW conference looking at ‘the growing field of biographical poetry or verse biography – poetry which maps out a life, or presents a portrait of a more or less historical person.’ The deadline for papers is 30 June. Keynote speakers include poet Robert Sullivan and Australian writers/scholars Jessica Wilkinson and Toby Davidson.

 How Wonder Works: a conversation about creative science writing

How can a writer educate as well as excite? And is it possible to write persuasively about science if you're not a scientist? Ahead of our Creative Science Writing  workshop, course convenors Rebecca Priestley and Ashleigh Young offer an information session on Tuesday 15 March 12-1pm in AM 101 (Alan MacDiarmid Building). This session will also feature readings from graduates of last year’s workshop. This is open to everyone.

 Pledge for Zarah Butcher-McGunnigle

Hue & Cry Press is planning to publish Autobiography of a Maruerite,  the debut volume from MA graduate Zarah Butcher-McGunnigle and they have just run a successful PledgeMe campaign to support it. Zarah’s work has appeared in a wide range of publications and her poems have been selected for Best New Zealand Poems in 2011 and 2012. She was awarded the Biggs Poetry Prize for her MA folio, the first draft of Autobiography of a Marguerite.

IIML