Turbine | Kapohau 16 combines a new look with literature from writers who aren’t afraid to tackle change

Victoria University of Wellington’s International Institute of Modern Letters’ (IIML) annual online literary journal returns this year with a new name—Turbine | Kapohau—and a new website.

This combines the original name Turbine with a new Māori name Kapohau.

Kapohau is the Māori term for the action of a wind turbine, comprised of ‘kapo’, to catch/capture, and ‘hau’, which typically means wind in the turbine context. However, ‘hau’ is also used in other contexts to mean the vitality or vital essence of a person, place or object.  This ambiguity makes for a beautiful fit for the journal.

Showcasing new writing from an international selection of emerging and established writers, plus the latest graduates from the IIML, Turbine | Kapohau 16 is spinning with work that investigates re-invention and change. Edited during a turbulent month of the United States elections and earthquakes, the Turbine | Kapohau 16 contributions jolt and soothe in equal measure.

The 2016 Adam Foundation Prize winner Annaleese Jochems contributes a chapter from her award-winning novel, And Lower. Anna Jackson returns from the 2016 Katherine Mansfield Menton Fellowship to contribute three poems and a sound recording. Other poets in this issue include Airini Beautrais, winner of the 2016 Landfall Essay Competition, and Nick Ascroft and Bill Nelson, who have both published new books with Victoria University Press this year. There is fiction from Christine Utz and poetry from Justin Cox, both teachers at The University of Iowa and convenors of this summer’s IIML Iowa Workshops, hosted at Victoria. This year’s edition also sees a diverse selection of fiction, creative non-fiction and poetry from past, present, and future IIML Master of Arts and PhD students.

In the Turbine | Kapohau interview, 2016 Victoria University/Creative New Zealand Writer in Residence and award winning poet, novelist and scriptwriter Anne Kennedy shares her thoughts on returning to Wellington, working across form, and watching the birds from her window. When asked about the writing life in Aotearoa Kennedy says: “Writing a New Zealand novel is about as sensible as buying a Lotto ticket, but I do it because I don’t know what else to do for kicks.”

After a brief hiatus, the ‘Reading Room’ returns in this issue. Selected entries from the reading journals of students from the IIML’s Master of Arts in Creative Writing shed light on the inner workings of a developing writer’s mind as each of them looks to the future.

Turbine | Kapohau 16 was co-edited by Elizabeth Baikie and Evangeline Riddiford Graham.

Turbine | Kapohau 16 can be viewed online.