Menton comes to Wellington

NEWS FROM THE IIML

One person who will miss graduation this year is Chris Price, who has the honour of delivering the inaugural Katherine Mansfield Menton Lecture even as our graduates are crossing the stage just a hundred metres away.  Chris will present an illustrated selection of her experiences as the 2011 New Zealand Post Mansfield Prize recipient, and read from the creative nonfiction project she worked on at the Villa Isola Bella – a book that goes in search of the death-obsessed English poet, anatomist and suicide, Thomas Lovell Beddoes. Chris promises a mix of poetry, prose, photographs, and even live music: as a scene setter for the lecture, her partner Robbie Duncan will play music composed in Menton, accompanied by images from the year away, between 5.15 and 5.30pm. 

The lecture begins at 5.30 pm – entry is free, but please note seating is limited.

Thursday 17 May, 5.30pm at City Gallery, Wellington.

Teju Cole comes to Wellington

We're delighted to confirm the visit of US/Nigerian writer Teju Cole next

month. Teju's first novel, Open City, was one of the most widely-admired and

talked-about books of 2011, making the top 10 lists of both Time magazine

and NPR. It also won the PEN/Hemingway Award, the New York City Book Award

for Fiction, and the Rosenthal Award of the American Academy of Arts and

Letters.

Teju is also an art historian and a street photographer whose work has

appeared in the New Yorker, the New York Times, Tin House and A Public

Space. His Twitter project, Small Fates, makes startling condensed

narratives out of old newspaper stories. His work-in-progress is a

non-fiction book about Lagos.

There are plenty of great links here.

Teju will give a masterclass for the IIML's postgraduate creative writing

students, and there will be a public event at Unity Books, Wellington on

Monday June 11th at midday.

German poetry comes to Wellington

Six German and New Zealand poets will be present at the Transit of Venus 2012 celebrations at Tolaga Bay on June 6, and will explore the process of writing about this extraordinary astronomical phenomenon – with its associated border crossings and cultural encounters – in a series of workshops and public presentations. The poets are Hinemoana Baker, Glenn Colquhoun, Chris Price, Uwe Kolbe, Brigitte Oleschinski, and Ulrike Almut Sandig.

For the second part of this reciprocal exchange, the German and New Zealand poets will meet again in October in Frankfurt and Berlin, working together in a translation workshop organised by Literaturwerkstatt, and presenting the results at the Frankfurt Book Fair.

On 13 June there will be a special presentation by the poets, chaired by Bill Manhire, in association with the Adam Gallery’s Dark Sky exhibition.

Passages: Reading around the Transit: a panel discussion with readings.
Adam Art Gallery

Wednesday 13 June 2012
6pm
Free entry