Sport 41 - New Zealand New Writing 2013

Fifty-seven writers, from Pip Adam to Ashleigh Young, two-thirds fiction by page count and three-quarters poetry by writer, and the focus firmly on emerging talent, Sport 41 is a superb overview of current New Zealand writing. And a very handsome piece of publishing.

Publication date 14 June 2013, $30

Available from good booksellers

Internet orders vup.victoria.ac.nz/sport-41

Ebook $15 from mebooks.co.nz

I loved this tribute to Barbara Anderson which appears at the front of the book.

Barbara, who died on 24 March 2013, was there at the beginning, one of seven writers who’d just published or were about to publish their first book who appeared in the first issue: Barbara, Jenny Bornholdt, Anne Kennedy, Elizabeth Knox, Virginia Were, Damien Wilkins, Forbes Williams. Barbara’s stories were a magical combination of life experience and the delight of someone learning something new. In person, she had a huge sense of fun, a sharp impatience with stuffiness, and a firm sense of how one ought to behave. She enriched our literature and our lives, and is greatly missed.

Barbara Anderson was born in 1926 and lives in Wellington. She writes plays, and stories, which have featured in several Awards and been published in a number of magazines. Her first collection of short stories will be published by Victoria University Press in 1989.

(Contributors, Sport 1, Spring 1988)

Footnote:

Review to follow..