Friends of the Michael King Writers’ Centre will launch a new series of writer
events this winter, featuring leading New Zealand writers in conversation. The
first in the series will bring together authors Peter Wells and Shonagh Koea in
conversation on Sunday April 27 at the Michael King Writers’ Centre.
Other guests in the series will include art writer and biographer Joanne
Drayton and film-maker Gaylene Preston later in the year. Each writer will be
in conversation with another writer, a friend or colleague, making for a
relaxed and informal discussion about their work.
The “In conversation” events will be held once a month, usually on the
last Sunday, from April to August this year starting at 4 pm. Most will be held
at the Michael King Writers’ Centre on Takarunga Mt Victoria in Devonport.
Peter Wells, from Napier, is the current writer in
residence at the centre. He is a writer and film-maker who has had huge success
since his first book of short stories Dangerous Desires won the 1992 NZ
Book Award for Fiction. His memoir the Long Loop Home won the 2002
Montana Book Award for Biography and his biography of William Colenso The
Hungry Heart was finalist for the NZ Post Book Awards in 2011. The same
year he was awarded Creative New Zealand’s Michael King Fellowship for Journey
to a Hanging - Carl Sylvius Volkner & Kereopa Te Rau, to be published
by Random Penguin in May. He co-founded the Auckland Writers & Readers
Festival, and was creative director in 2000, 2001, then from 2003 to 2008. In
1999 was declared New Zealander of the Year by North & South magazine. He
has been made a Member of the Order of New Zealand for services to film and
literature.
Shonagh Koea is an equally distinguished author, who has written seven
novels and three collections of short stories. She began her career as a journalist
before being driven to write fiction. She went on to win many significant
awards and prizes for her work. The Kindness of Strangers (Kitchen
Memoirs), published in 2007, is a collection of Koea’s memories from her
various roles as daughter, wife, mother, journalist and novelist. Her books
include Sing to Me, Dreamer, originally published in 1994, The
Wedding at Bueno Vista (1996) and The Lonely Margins of the Sea
(1999). All of these have recently been reissued by Random House. Staying
Home and Being Rotten (2006) achieved acclaim and her latest novel is Landscape
with Solitary Figure published this year.
Peter Wells and Shonagh Koea in conversation at the Michael King
Writers’ Centre
Sunday April 27, 2014, 4 pm. Bookings recommended.
Ph: 09 445 8451
E: assistant@writerscentre.org.nz
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