New Zealand Book Council

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Kia ora,
The Auckland Writers and Readers Festival looks set to be a roaring success this year and has the additional benefit of playing host to the announcement of the 2009 Commonwealth Writers Prize. We’ll be previewing the festival in both Booknotes and the May newsletter but we will also be welcoming some of the featured Commonwealth writers to Napier and Wellington in early May (details below).

In this newsletter we include an interview with writer Sarah Laing who is celebrating the publication of her first novel, Dead People’s Music. Already an accomplished short story writer, this fine new novel looks set bring her work to a wide new audience. We also caught up with international writer Sophie Hannah, author of The Point of Rescue, on her recent visit to New Zealand and inquired about her original approach to the detective novel.

Best wishes,
Noel

Staff News

We would like to let everybody know of a few changes in our ranks recently.

Bianca Cornford joined our team part-time in November 2008. She is our Accounts Coordinator, and deals with everything money-related (the lucky thing). In February, Emma Gallagher joined us part-time as Education Coordinator. She is in charge of our Writers in Schools programme, and is doing very well in keeping everything running smoothly.

We are sad to say farewell to lyric apted today, who worked as our Operations Manager for 18 months. She leaves today, to go to Portland, Oregon. And one final change is a change of name, not personnel. Sarah Hughes is now Sarah Forster - and she is still in her full-time position as Education Manager.

Commonwealth Writers Prize Winners come to New Zealand

A rare chance to hear some of the world’s finest voices in contemporary literature comes along next month.

Seven international prize-winning writers arrive in New Zealand on May 11 for the 2009 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize. These regional winners of the prize compete for the overall best book and best first book awards to be announced at the 2009 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize awards ceremony at the ASB Theatre Aotea centre on May 16. The ceremony will be hosted by television presenter John Campbell and speakers include the Governor-General Hon Sir Anand Satyanand and the Director of the Commonwealth Foundation, Dr Mark Colllins.

The writers, as well as the judges of the prize, will be taking part in the Auckland Writers and Readers Festival and writers will be visiting Hawke’s Bay and Wellington for free public events during the week leading up to the prize ceremony. The Book Council has worked hard to help the Commonwealth Foundation provide free events for the public in Wellington and Hawke’s Bay.

Hawke’s Bay
Monday 11 May, 8.00-9.30pm, Lindisfarne College auditorium, 600 Pakowahi Road, Hastings
Uwem Akpan, Marina Endicott, Joan Thomas, Mandla Langa, Mo Zhi Hong, chaired by Keith Thorson.
Public entry by gold coin donation i.e. NZ$1 or $2

Wellington
Tuesday 12 May, 6.30-8.30pm, Te Papa Marae
Wednesday 13 May, 11.30am-12.30, The New Dowse
Wednesday 13 May, from 1pm, Unity Books, Willis Street (book signing)
Marina Endicott, Mandla Langa, Christos Tsiolkas, Joan Thomas, Mo Zhi Hong, Uwem Akpan. Free events.

Auckland
Best First Book, festival event, Saturday 16 May, 10-11am, Aotea Centre
Best first book finalists Mohammed Hanif from Pakistan (Europe and South Asia regional winner), Mo Zhi Hong from New Zealand (South East Asia and Pacific regional winner), Uwem Akpan from Nigeria (Africa regional winner), and Joan Thomas from Canada (Canada and Caribbean winner), chaired by Lynn Freeman. Free.

Best Book, festival event, Saturday 16 May, 2.30-3.30pm, Aotea Centre
Meet three of the four best book finalists: Christos Tsiolkas from Australia (South East Asia and Pacific regional winner), Mandla Langa from South Africa (Africa regional winner), Marina Endicott from Canada (Canada and Caribbean winner), chaired by Lynn Freeman. Free.

2009 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize Awards, Saturday 16 May, 7.30pm, Aotea Centre - Award ceremony. Free event.

Auckland’s festival of words

News from the Auckland Writers and Readers Festival that New Yorker journalist Judith Thurbron lunch event has already sold out should start some of you paying closer attention to the programme that’s been lying around the coffee table. If you don’t already have one pick one up at libraries, cafes, or download one from their website.

This year’s Festival 09 programme is jam packed with interesting choices of events to choose from but too much dithering might mean missing out. So brave the maelstrom of indecision and get booking.

To help get you started we are giving away four double passes to four very different events at the Festival:

An Hour with Hendrik Hertzberg
Hendrik Hertzberg’s credentials include revitalizing the New Yorker under Tina Brown into the quintessential must-read magazine for literature and opinion - an hour to sharpen your mind.

An Hour with Debra Adelaide
The author of the warm, witty and sad The Household Guide to Dying is also a book reviewer, editor, and academic. Her previous books include The Hotel Albatross and she has edited anthologies and reference books on Australian literature – an hour to bone up on Aussie writers and the art of storytelling

Love, Food, Wine and Travel
Sarah-Kate Lynch and Nicky Pellegrino, two of New Zealand’s most successful authors and columnists on topics essential to good living, in conversation with Jim Mora - an hour to whet your appetite.

Poets on Sunday
Quick-fire readings from a range of our best, brightest and most recently published poets: Stu Bagby, Michael Harlow, Kevin Ireland, Selina Tusitala Marsh, Iggy McGovern and Tracey Tawhiao - An hour to marvel at the how words can roll

See the competitions section in this newsletter for how to win one of the double passes we have to give away to each of these events.

The nano-interview: Sarah Laing

Sarah Laing won the Sunday Star-Times Short Story Competition in 2006 and her first short story collection, Coming Up Roses, was published in 2007 to excellent reviews. Her much anticipated Dead People’s Music has just been published by Vintage, Random House. We gave her our five-easy-question nano interview.

What was the best thing you did over Easter?
I painted my living room blue – I’ll have to move my computer in there when baby no. 3 arrives and colonises the study.

Was the process of being published different second time round?
Yes – I was far less overwhelmed by the process; also less filled with run-away fantasies about being recognised at the supermarket.

Auckland super city - yay or nay?
Nay the way Rodney Hyde et al are going about it – it’s rather undemocratic and I worry that the city will be homogenised. What if Auckland was so centralized there was no ‘Going West’ festival?

What’s on your bedside table?
Part one of my Auckland writer’s fest list – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, David Malouf and Kirsty Gunn. I’ve recently finished Kate De Goldi’s The 10pm Question and Adrian Tomine’s Shortcomings – both great.

Which writer from the last century would you most like to meet?
Despite recently reading a Margaret Atwood quote that said ‘Wanting to meet a writer because you like his work is like wanting to meet a duck because you like pâté,’ I’ll choose her – I’ve admired her since I read The Handmaid’s Tale at age thirteen. Sylvia Plath, Dawn Powell and Maurice Sendak are also contenders.

The fiendish crimes of Sophie Hannah

It was a case of the big cities missing out to the small towns recently when Sophie Hannah toured New Zealand to promote her latest crime thriller, The Other Half Lives. The multi-talented English author visited Oamaru, Nelson and Matakana on a book tour with her publisher Hachette.

Sophie Hannah is a bestselling poet, a novelist and a children’s writer who regularly perfoms her work to live audiences. Her psychological thrillers Little Face, Hurting Distance and The Point of Rescue have sold 200,000 copies in the UK. Her fifth collection of poetry Pessimism for Beginners (Carcanet) was shortlisted for the T S Eliot award and among her other work with children are translations of two books by Tove Janssen. I caught up with her in her hotel room before she hit Oamaru.

Can you talk about the contemporary crime writers versus the ‘golden age of detective crime’ - Agatha Christie and her peers - Dorothy Sayers, Margery Allingham, Ngaio Marsh. I would suggest your work is an update of the former. Would you agree?

Christie and other golden age writers specialised in super-clever detectives - the brilliant Hercule Poirot and the shrewd Miss Marple were Agatha Christie's genius sleuths. Recently, in the drive for realism, many contemporary crime writers have abandoned the golden age tradition of having the brainbox detective reveal his stunning solution at the end of the novel, because that's not how real crimes are solved. But I have always thought it's a shame to lose the genius-sleuth aspect of crime fiction, since it's so pleasurable for readers.

I decided, when I started writing psychological thrillers, that I wanted a super-clever detective, so I've got DC Simon Waterhouse, who always does come up with the solution at the end, but I've tried to make it realistic too. He is simply a detective who is brighter and more sensitive to the nuances of people's behaviour than his colleagues. I make sure to get all the police procedure right, and this makes people willing to believe the rest - that there could be a cop in the modern British police service who can solve crimes brilliantly. I'm not trying to be 'the new Agatha Christie' but I've definitely been influenced by her work. I always try to make sure the solutions to the mysteries in my novels will make readers gasp!

How did your detective series develop?

The only realistic way to solve fiendishly puzzling crimes is via the police. I knew I'd need some cops in the books, and I thought I'd like to have some continuity with each book as well as some newness, so I invented Simon and Charlie and their team - judgemental, self-deluding Inspector Proust, polite and considerate Sergeant Sam Kombothekra, and DCs Sellers and Gibbs, one a committed philanderer and the other moody and brooding.

Half of each novel is narrated by the main character (always a woman) whose life has been plunged into a nightmare by whatever frightening events are going on. These sections are written in the first person, because it's more visceral, direct and draws the reader right in to the mind of the narrator. The other half of each book is from either Simon's point of view or Charlie's (depending on who is the 'main' cop in that book - they take turns!), and in the third person. Simon and Charlie are involved in a bizarre personal relationship, which develops over the course of the series of novels - Charlie is in love with Simon, but he seems to have a hang-up about relationships with women (though he's not gay - I always try to avoid the easy, obvious answers!)

I think it helps to have only part of each book from the police's point of view, because there's a danger that in series detective novels, the detectives become the only real characters, and the people murdering and being murdered are no more than names on a page. By having half of each book narrated by a protagonist specific to that novel, whose own personal life is threatened by whatever is going on, I am able to create a sense of everything being at stake, so that the reader really cares about whatever crimes are being committed and sees how horrific crime can be - it's not just a puzzle for the detectives.

Simon is based on two of my ex-boyfriends (both of whom had relationship 'issues'!), but there's also a little bit of my husband (who doesn't) thrown into the mix as well. Charlie, the stroppy, slightly tarty, not-as-tough-as-she-seems detective sergeant, is based on me - but only if readers like her. If they don't, then she isn't!

There's a Chief Inspector in the Carlisle police in the UK who helps me with the police aspects of the research for my books. He's someone I've known since I was a kid - his mum and my mum were in an organisation called the Housewives' Register together. He becomes more and more proprietorial with each book, though - he used to answer my questions politely and leave it at that. Now he suggests sub-plots left, right and centre! Sometimes I have to remind him whose book it is!

The structure of crime novels defy storytelling in a way because they make a habit of purposefully perverting the course of the story. You want the reader to take a certain view point but you don’t want to appear didactic. Can you elaborate on your narrative device ?

Yes, you have to withhold a certain amount of information, which I suppose means you can't tell the story in a natural, linear way. On the other hand, real life often seems to take the form of a convoluted narrative structure. People hide all sorts of things from one another, reveal the truth bit by bit, or not at all. We meet people and wonder what their story is, and maybe don't find out until years later. In fact, I think it's the many puzzles in real life, and the constant presence of all the things we don't know but wish we did, that makes crime fiction such an appealing genre - the puzzles and questions about people's motivations that we recognise from real life, except in crime fiction we're guaranteed answers and a satisfactory solution.

I don't find it at all difficult to write fiction that hides and reveals and manipulate, because that's my experience of real life - I often find I have to withhold or hide things, or reveal things in stages, so it seems more natural to me, in a way, to write in a genre that demands that same amount of subterfuge. Maybe other crime writers have more straightforward lives than me, and maybe they find it harder . . .

Interview by Susanna Andrew

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The New Zealand Book Council receives core funding from Creative New Zealand. We are extremely grateful to our funding partners, who enable us to deliver our programmes. We also value your membership, which supports our work in schools and communities throughout New Zealand.

Commonwealth Prize Writers in New Zealand
Auckland's festival of words
The nano-interview: Sarah Laing
The fiendish crimes of Sophie Hannah
Competitions opening in April

The team at the Auckland Writers and Readers Festival have kindly donated a double pass to each of the following events: An Hour with Hendrik Hertzberg; An Hour with Debra Adelaide; Love,Food, Wine and Travel and Poets on Sunday.

Random House have given us two copies of Dead People's Music, by Sarah Laing, to give away to our loyal readers.

To enter the draw for any of the books or tickets listed above, please email reception@bookcouncil.org.nz with the title of the book or event in the subject line. Please note you no longer need to be a member of the Book Council to enter our draws. Entries must be in by 5pm, Friday 1 May.

Karen Monk, from Corran School, was the lucky winner of a copy of Piggity-Wiggity Jiggity-Jig, by Diana Neild, illustrated by Philip Webb.

Belinda Johnston, from Elm Park School won a copy of Juno of Taris, by Fleur Beale.

After a visit to 826 Valencia in San Francisco (Dave Eggers' literacy-teaching pirate shop), Sarah has come back all inspired by things Eggers - so Nadya suggested this site for further inspiration. The site is TED: Ideas worth spreading, and it features 'riveting talks by remarkable people' - free to your computer!
In case you were wondering, Eggers is one of the remarkable people.

We all love word games here at the Book Council - and this is the latest craze. DeepLeap has been likened to a cross between tetris and scrabble, and it is just as addictive as either of those games.

The Storylines Book Awards were celebrated in Christchurch on Margaret Mahy Day, Saturday 28 March. Andrew Crowe from the Coromandel won the Margaret Mahy Medal; Anna Gowan, from Auckland, won the Tom Fitzgibbon award for an unpublished novel for children, and June Peka, from Christchurch, won the Storylines Joy Cowley Award. Fleur Beale was awarded the Storylines Gaelyn Gordon Award for a Much-loved Book for her classic book, I am not Esther (1998).

Lyttelton author and humorist Joe Bennett scooped the grand prize at the seventh annual Whitcoulls Travcom Travel Book of the Year Award for Where Underpants Come From (Harper Collins). Pam Wade, freelance writer, won the Cathay Pacific Travel Writer of the Year Award and Auckland photographer Amos Chapple took the Cathay Pacific Travel Photographer of the Year Award, presented Tuesday 31 March at a glittering Indian-themed gala dinner at The Heritage Auckland’s Grand Tearoom.

Colenso BBDO's work on Read a Book at Work for the Book Council won the top award of Grand AXIS at the 2009 CAANZ AXIS awards on Friday. The AXIS Awards honour the creative talents of the communications industry and are a celebration of the year's most exciting and original ideas. This caps a run of recognition for the campaign at advertising award shows around the world including two silver and one bronze Lion at the prestigious Cannes Festival, the Oscars of the advertising world.

Auckland, P.J. O’Rourke gives the 25th John Bonython Lecture
Thursday 30 April, 6.30pm
Wise-cracking political journalist PJ O’Rourke examines the global credit crisis and the future of capitalism at the CIS annual dinner.
Venue: Sky City, Federal Street, Auckland, New Zealand
Cost: $200 per ticket. To book visit website.

Wellington, A few of my favourite things
Thursday 30 April, 5.30pm
Join the Friends of the Dorothy Neal White Collection for the illustrated talk following their AGM, presented by the Research librarian, Lynne Jackett. Jackett will talk about a few of her favourite children’s book treasures from the Dorothy Neal White and National Children’s Collections.
Venue: Conference Room, National Library of New Zealand, Molesworth St, Wellington
Cost: Gold Coin

Coromandel, Night of Poetry and Music
Friday 1 May, 6:30pm
A fun night of music and live poetry, with a full range of exciting poets reading original material. Featuring guest poet Gus Simonovic, supported by John Irvine, with fine music from Kat.Please click for their website.
Venue: Hauraki House Gallery, Coromandel Town
Cost: $10.00 on the door

Wellington, Censured Books of Scandalous Notoriety
Wednesday 6 May, 12.30–1.30pm
The Katherine Mansfield Birthplace launches a series of discussions of censured books of scandalous notoriety with Professor Alan Dixson on Darwin and The Descent of Man.
Venue: Wellington Bridge Club, 17 Tinakori Rd, Thorndon
Cost: $5.00/ session; $30.00/ 8 sessions; KMB Society members free. Space is limited so reservations essential. Phone: 473 7268 or email:kmbirthplace@xtra.co.nz

Wellington, Writers on Mondays: Ann Thwaite
Monday 11 May, 1.00–2.00pm
Distinguished biographer Ann Thwaite has written lives of Frances Hodgson Burnett, Edmund Gosse (Duff Cooper Award winner), A. A. Milne (Whitbread Biography Award), Emily Tennyson, and Philip Gosse, the naturalist and fundamentalist at the heart of the Victorian conflict between science and religion.She talks with Harry Ricketts. Writers on Mondays is presented by the International Institute of Modern Letters with the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa.
Venue: The Marae, Level 4, Te Papa. Admission free, all welcome.

Hawke’s Bay, A World of Words: Commonwealth Writers’ Prize finalists
Monday 11 May, 8.00–9.30pm
A rare chance to hear some of the world’s finest voices in contemporary literature. Come and hear five of the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize finalists -- Uwem Akpan, Marina Endicott, Joan Thomas, Mandla Langa, Mo Zhi Hong -- chaired by Keith Thorson
Venue: Lindisfarne College auditorium. 600 Pakowahi Road, Hastings.
Public entry by gold coin donation i.e. NZ$1 or $2

Wellington, A World of Words: Commonwealth Writers’ Prize finalists
Tuesday 12 May, 6.30–8.30pm, Te Papa Marae. Chaired by Lydia Wevers.
Wednesday 13 May, 11.30am–12.30, The New Dowse
Wednesday 13 May, from 1pm, Unity Books, Willis Street (book signing)
A rare chance to hear some of the world’s finest voices in contemporary literature. Come and hear six of the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize finalists -- Uwem Akpan, Marina Endicott, Joan Thomas, Mandla Langa, Mo Zhi Hong. Free.

Auckland Writers and Readers Festival
13–17 May
Featuring Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Monica Ali, David Malouf, Lloyd Jones, Paula Morris, Owen Marshall and many more international and New Zealand writers. The full programme and booking details are available at www.writersfestival.co.nz.

Wellington, An evening with Philipp Meyer
Wednesday 27 May, 6.00pm
‘The new voice in American letters’ is in New Zealand to promote his heart-wrenching first novel, American Rust. For all fans of John Steinbeck, Richard Ford and Cormac McCarthy.
Venue: Unity Books, 57 Willis Street, Wellington.
Free event

Auckland, An evening with Philipp Meyer
Thursday 28 May, 6.00pm
‘The new voice in American letters’ is in New Zealand to promote his heart-wrenching first novel, American Rust. For all fans of John Steinbeck, Richard Ford and Cormac McCarthy.
Venue: Unity Books, 19 High Street, Auckland
Free event

COMPETITIONS

Katherine Mansfield 40th anniversary short story competition
To mark the 40th anniversary of the Katherine Mansfield Fellowship, Association France Nouvelle -Zélande is organizing a short-story competition, for students under 30 years of age, enrolled in a French or New Zealand university or those holding a student visa. The chosen theme is The Antipodes. The first prize is a return ticket New Zealand-France. The deadline for submitting is 30 June 2009. Visit their website for further information

The Commonwealth Short Story Competition
Entries are being called for The Commonwealth Short Story Competition, an annual scheme to promote new creative writing. Each year 26 winning and highly commended stories from the different regions of the Commonwealth are recorded on to CDs and broadcast on radio stations across the Commonwealth. The winner receives a prize of £2,000 and there are regional prizes of £500. The deadline for entries is 11 May 2009. Visit www.cba.org.uk for more information.

Students to the page
NZ Post National Schools Poetry Awards 2009 are now open and calling for entries from all students in years 11,12 and 13. There are two prize categories: Best Poem and Best Lyric. All poems are entered into both categories. This year’s judges are poet Jenny Bornholdt (Best Poem category) and Jason Kerrison of the award winning Opshop Band (Best Lyric category). Entries are due by 15 June 2009, the entry form is linked here.

Nominations open for the Prime Minister’s Awards for Literary Achievement
It’s that time of the year again for nominations for the 2009 Prime Minister’s Awards for Literary Achievement. Worth $60,000 each, the awards recognise writers who have made a significant contribution to New Zealand literature. They are administered by Creative New Zealand. Anyone can make a nomination, so support your favourite literary achiever and nominate them now!
Nomination forms can be found on the Creative New Zealand website. Nominations close at 5pm, Friday 5 June 2009.

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