New Zealand’s national reading charity brings kiwi writers to Otahuhu schools

The New Zealand Book Council has been running the Writers in Schools programme for over 40 years. In that time, they’ve brought New Zealand writers and illustrators to one million students at over 10,000 events.

This year the Book Council expanded the programme to create The Otahuhu Writers in Schools Project, an innovative collaboration between five Otahuhu primary/intermediate schools, Reading Together (a Ministry of Education supported reading initiative), the Otahuhu Community Library, the National Library Services to Schools programme, and the New Zealand Book Council’s Writers in Schools programme.

Five low decile schools in Otahuhu (South Auckland) hosted five diverse New Zealand writers in residence over terms three and four. They encouraged and inspired students to develop their creative writing talents and helped them to publish their work in a series of anthologies.

The final outcome of The Otahuhu Writers in Schools Project is a publication created by each school featuring poems and short stories written by students during the workshops.

The participating writers were Lino Nelisi, Paula Green, Paula Morris, Vasanti Unka, and Grace Taylor.

“It is the first time that the Book Council has attempted something so ambitious, and it’s very exciting for us”, said NZ Book Council Chief Executive Catriona Ferguson.

“It was full of faces; the faces of children feeling absolute pride in what they had produced”, said New Zealand children’s poet Paula Green, who was the Writer in Residence at Fairburn School.

“What made the residency extra special was the Family Sharing Day where all classes shared plays and poems for parents and grandparents, including a spectacular performance of James K Baxter’s The Big Black Whale and one class’s ocean poems.”

The project was made possible by the generous support of the Rotary Club. Their funding enabled the initiative to develop into a more substantial programme than would have otherwise been possible.

The project will culminate in a celebratory book launch featuring participating students and their families at the Otahuhu Community Library on 19 November at 6pm.