BNZ Literary Awards 2013

Open Book

Best-selling writer of young-adult fiction Mal Peet will be leading a workshop on writing for young people at the Wellington Central Public Library, on Sunday 16 June from 1.00pm – 4.00pm.

Mal’s best-known books include Keeper, the Carnegie Medal-winning Tamar and the Guardian Prize-winning Exposure. Mal is a visiting lecturer at the International Institue of Modern Letters, and this is a rare opportunity for budding writers to meet him.

Mal will bring along CREW352, his creative writing group from the IIML (look out for Mandy Hagar and Eirlys Hunter) to chat about his work, their work and your work in an informal and relaxed session.

Mal says about the workshop: “Most of us learn to write by stealing from other writers. This event is an invitation to aspiring writers to do some serious shoplifting.”

For further information please contact Sarah Forster, sarah@bookcouncil.org.nz. Phone (04) 801 5546

Let master storytellers coax you out of hibernation at the New Zealand’s Book Council’s cabaret-style storytelling event, True Stories Told Live – A Winter’s Tale, being held in Dunedin next month.

Local musician Martin Phillipps, and Dunedin writers Maxine Alterio and Karen Trebilcock will be joined by poet Jeffrey Paparoa Holman, from Christchurch, and children’s writer Kyle Mewburn, from Millers Flat, among others, for this exciting storytelling event.

This is unabashed storytelling, totally unscripted, where anything can happen.

With a theme of A Winter’s Tale, our storytellers will warm you up with their stories, making you laugh, groan and shiver through their 10-minute vignettes.

This event is supported by the Dunedin City Council. DCC Library Services Manager Bernie Hawke says he is “delighted with the exciting line-up of New Zealand authors, setting the stage for a thoroughly enjoyable evening”.

True Stories Told Live – A Winter’s Tale starts at 5.30pm on Wednesday 5 June, at the Dunedin City Library in Moray Place. We welcome a small koha to help us cover our costs.

For more information:
Sarah Forster
New Zealand Book Council
Phone 04 801 5546

Bernie Hawke
Library Services Manager
Phone 03 474 3657

New Zealand writer Zoe Meager has won the Pacific Region Commonwealth Short Story Prize 2013 for her story 'Things with Faces'. The winning entry from the Pacific region last year was also by a New Zealand writer, Emma Martin, who has just released her first collection of short stories, Two Girls in a Boat. The five 2013 regional winners are:

Africa
THE NEW CUSTOMERS, Julian Jackson (South Africa)

Asia
THE SARONG-MAN IN THE OLD HOUSE, AND AN INCUBUS FOR A RAINY NIGHT, Michael Mendis (Sri Lanka)

Canada and Europe
WE WALKED ON WATER, Eliza Robertson (Canada)

Caribbean
THE WHALE HOUSE, Sharon Millar (Trinidad & Tobago)

Pacific
THINGS WITH FACES, Zoe Meager (New Zealand)

Commonwealth Writers has partnered with Granta magazine to give regional winners of the Commonwealth Short Story Prize the opportunity to be published by Granta online during the week commencing 27 May.

John Freeman, Editor of Granta said: “The Commonwealth Short Story Prize searches across a vast territory with relentless curiosity to select the brightest new talent from each region, and this year is stronger than ever. With voices that arrest, affirm, disturb and illuminate, this new crop of writers turn our expectations for what a story can do, and of where they are calling from, inside out. This partnership is an example of what the magazine can be at best – a beacon for those writers we didn’t know we were missing out on – and we salute Commonwealth Writers in their continuing good work.”

For more information about the Prize and the regional winners visit the Commonwealth Writers website.