Oh! We don’t envy the judges of this year’s Ockham New Zealand Book Awards – but we are delighted to see three members of the Randell Cottage Writers Trust family included in the longlist for best novels. They are Trustee emerita Fiona Kidman for This Mortal Boy (Penguin Random House), Tina Makereti for The Imaginary Lives of James Pōneke(Penguin Random House) and Vincent O’Sullivan for All This by Chance(Victoria University Press).
A scenographer by training, Karin Serres, the Randell Cottage’s 2019 French resident is a novelist, a playwright, for stage and radio, and a translator. She writes for general and YA audiences and will be in Wellington till late June. Her Randell project is a sequel to her 2018 novel, Happa no ko le peuple de feuilles (Happa no ko the leaf people).
Dunedin-based writer Paddy Richardson is to be the 2019 Creative New Zealand Randell Cottage Writing Fellow. Richardson has published seven novels and two short story collections. Her Randell project, The Green of Spring is the sequel to her 2017 novel Through the Lonesome Dark. Set in WWI New Zealand, it tells the story of young mining activist Otto Bader who is arrested as an ‘enemy alien’ and incarcerated on Somes Island along with others of Austrian and German origins.
Selection panel convener Stephen Stratford says “Many of us wanted to know what happened next for the characters in Through the Lonesome Dark, longlisted for the 2019 Dublin Literary Award, which is right up there with the Booker. For the sequel, Paddy will be able to research the Turnbull Library’s holding of letters and diaries of Somes Island inmates. A perfect synchronicity of project and residency.”
Richardson says she is delighted to be the 2019 resident and is looking forward to her six months in the capital.
The Randell Cottage Writers Trust was established in 2002. The restored Category II historic building, gifted to the Trust by the Price family, hosts two writers a year; one from New Zealand and the other from France. It is currently home to Christchurch writer James Norcliffe. The 2019 French resident, novelist and dramatist Karin Serres arrives in Wellington in late January 2019.
We finish the year with a presentation from our current resident, James Norcliffe, at the National Library on Thursday 6 December, from 12:10 to 1:00 pm.
James wears a number of writing hats. He is a children’s writer, poet, editor, teacher of creative writing and promoter of poetry in Christchurch. Apart from a collection of short stories set in China, The Chinese Interpreter, and a few other short stories, he has rarely written fiction for adults. Hie time in the Randell Cottage has given him the opportunity to write a novel for grown ups.
His wide-ranging talk will include readings from recent published work and background on how the pieces came about and then – braving the superstition regarding talk of work in progress – he will discuss The Frog Prince, his current Randell Cottage project.
Time: 12:10 to 1:00pm
Date: 6 December
Venue: Programme Rooms, National Library, corner Molesworth and Aitken Street.
Admission: free, although koha is appreciated as a contribution to the maintenance of the historic Randell Cottage.
You are invited to the Annual General Meeting of Friends of the Randell Cottage Writers’ Trust to be held on:
Tuesday, 20 November 2018, 6.00 pm in the Gallery, Southern Cross, Abel Smith Street, Wellington.
Please RSVP to info@www.randellcottage.co.nz or call Robyn on 04 4764823 evenings by 15 November.
AGENDA:
The business part of the meeting will be followed by a speaker. Details to come.
Light snacks will be served.
Please RSVP to info@www.randellcottage.co.nz or call Robyn on 04 4764823 evenings by 15 November.
Feminist and working-class stories, poetry as song, and a deeper understanding of New Zealand art – these are just some of the frontiers explored by this year’s winners of the Prime Minister’s Awards for Literary Achievement.
They are beloved Māori dramatist and fiction writer Renée, revered critic, curator and poet Wystan Curnow and admired poet, publisher and librettist Michael Harlow.
Monday 15 October, 2018
Each has been awarded $60,000 in recognition of their outstanding contribution to New Zealand literature. Renée will be honoured for fiction, Wystan Curnow for non-fiction, and Michael Harlow for poetry.
“Our warmest congratulations to Renée, Wystan and Michael,” says Arts Council Chair Michael Moynahan.
“Each of these extraordinary storytellers has a unique perspective on New Zealand identity, and has significantly contributed to our country’s literary landscape, creating a strong legacy for New Zealand writers.”
The awards were presented at a ceremony at Premier House in Wellington on Monday 15 October.
The Prime Minister’s Awards for Literary Achievement were established
Nominations are assessed by an external expert panel and recommendations forwarded to the Arts Council of Creative New Zealand for approval. This year’s selection panel was Jill Rawnsley, John Huria and Murray Edmond, chaired by Lauren Hughes.
A full list of previous recipients can be found on the Creative New Zealand website.
(Image: Creative New Zealand)
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Applications for 2019 CNZ RCWT Writers Fellowship now openApplications are now open for the 2019 Creative New Zealand Randell Cottage Writers Fellowship. The deadline for applications is Friday, 2 November 2018.
More information about the residency can be found here.
The successful applicant will be announced in December.
NEW ZEALAND SOCIETY OF AUTHORS
WELLINGTON BRANCH PRESENTS AN EVENING WITH
Join us to hear James Norcliffe, award-winning poet, fiction writer, editor and teacher, and 2018 Creative New Zealand Randell Cottage Writing Fellow, talk about his work and writing career.
7.30pm Monday 15 October
Vic Books, Pipitea campus
Rutherford House, 27 Lambton Quay
Everyone welcome! Koha at the door:
$3 NZSA members, $5 non-members
Vic Books bar will be open from 7pm, before the 7.30pm event.
An original and promising young French writer, Amélie Lucas-Gary has spent the past six
months living and working in Wellington as the 2018 Randell Cottage French writer in
residence. Join us for an evening of conversation and reflection on life in a new land and the writing of imagined histories.
Date: Thursday 7 June, 5:30 to 7:00 pm
Location: Programme Rooms, Te Ahumairangi (ground floor), National Library, corner
Molesworth and Aitken Streets, Thorndon
Cost: Free although koha in support of the Randell Cottage is appreciated.
RSVP: info@www.randellcottage.co.nz
Amélie Lucas-Gary has begun her programme of speaking engagements around the country.
Last week saw her in Dunedin at the Alliance française. The rest of us will have the chance to hear her in the following cities over the coming months:
Alliance Française Christchurch, Tuesday, 13 March
Alliance Française Auckland, Friday and Saturday, 23 and 24 March
Alliance Française Wellington, Thursday 19 April
Alliance Française Palmerston North, 17–19 May.
Further information is available from the various Alliances.
Wellingtonians will have a second chance to hear at the National Library on the evening of 7 June.
(We’ll be publishing more details closer to the date.)
New release from Peter Wells, Randell Cottage writer-in-residence 2002
New release from Peter Wells, Randell Cottage writer-in-residence 2002
Photo by Liz Marsh
Peter Wells, who in 2002 was the Randell Cottage’s first writer in residence, has just released his latest work: Dear Oliver, a family history, prompted by his discovery of a trove of family letters amongst his elderly mother’s effects.The find provided an entrée into writing a story that is uniquely his family’s but also very typical of other families whose ancestors emigrated from Britain during the nineteeenth century.
“The journey of my ancestors from Britain to New Zealand could be said to be the ur-journey of so many Pākehā New Zealanders. We are overfamiliar with its shape – poverty in the homeland, struggle across the seas, the hard impact on landing. Scrabbling around for a way to survive.
Gradually, some success as adaptation takes over, accompanied by a loss of memory about origins as the present obscures a now-distant past. Even the act of looking back – the search for genealogical origins – is a Pākehā cliché. Why do it?”
