NZSA enews - latest news, opportunities and events
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Index

Welcome
StartWrite 2016: Subsidised service for NZSA members open 
Public Lending Right for New Zealand Authors 2016
Marrakesh Treaty - Submissions Due
2016 Ashton Wylie Charitable Trust Literary Awards
Upcoming Writers Festivals!
SelfPublishBooks
Clippings from the Internet
  ‘Big books by blokes about battles’: Why is history still written mainly by men?
  92 Percent Of Students Prefer Print Books, New Study Shows
  Inviting Your Criticism of Criticism: The Paid Reviews Debate
Comic / Graphic News
  Culinary Comics: 10 Comics as Delicious as they are Delightful
  Angouleme Comics Festival Overshadowed by Gaffes, Protests Over Sexism
Digital Files
  Leading authors press for Supreme Court review of Google's digitised library
PEN Matters
  Attack on PEN Offices: South East Turkey
  Freedom of Speech: India
Creative Writing Dunedin - Courses 2016
National Writers Conference planned - Writers, save the date!
Opportunities & Death by Deadline
Events & Book Launches
Listen to a Literary Postcard on BBC4 by Tracy Farr 
Bestsellers from Nielsen BookScan
Writers on Radio and TV

Welcome to the Literary Bulletin


IMPORTANT: We have taken the long list of events and opportunities out of the Literary Bulletin and they are now always available on the website. Events can be viewed by all visitors to the website, so are a great place to promote your upcoming events. Only members can see the Calendar of Opportunities that we compile in date order for you so make sure you are logged in. There are some fantastic opportunities open at the moment, for example the Sarah Broom Poetry Prize ($12,000), submissions for the NZ Book Awards Children and YA and Creative NZ's Louis Johnson New Writer's Bursary to name a few. 

Opportunities display on the due date so look ahead in the calendar for any that you would like to apply for so you have plenty of time to prepare your application before the opportunity closes. We would prefer to show this in a list format so if there is any member out there who is a whiz on wordpress - please help!

While you are logged in fill in your writers profile. It's pretty easy to do, but any problems check out the how to guide on the website or call the office during office hours.

All the best
Jackie Dennis and Claire Hill

 

StartWrite 2016: Subsidised service for NZSA members open  

The NZSA Chapter and Synopsis Assessment Service is an excellent opportunity for writers and comic / graphic novelists to get an appraisal for part of a manuscript at an early stage.
  • Writers - send in one chapter (up to 6,000 words) and a one page synopsis.
  • Comic / Graphic novelists - send in a synopsis and up to ten pages of finished work. 
Manuscripts are appraised by experienced authors and assessors in a one to two page report. They will also answer up to three specific questions that the writer may submit with the chapter and synopsis. The charge for this excellent service is normally either $40 or $45. More

 

National Library is part of the Department of Internal Affairs

 

Public Lending Right for New Zealand Authors 2016

An annual $2,000,000 fund distributed to resident New Zealand authors who meet the criteria set out in the revised (2015) regulations.  The registration period is now 1 January to 1 March 2016.
 
Further information available at:
http://natlib.govt.nz/publishers-and-authors/public-lending-right-for-new-zealand-authors
 
Any queries to:
Public Lending Right for New Zealand Authors Coordinator
PO Box 1467, Wellington 6140
Email PLR@dia.govt.nz
Phone (04)4704528

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Marrakesh Treaty - Submissions Due


The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment has invited submissions to assist the Government in deciding whether New Zealand should join the Marrakesh Treaty.  This is an international treaty to facilitate access to published works for persons who are blind, visually impaired or otherwise print disabled.

NZSA will be making a submission and welcome's input from our membership.

We applaud the humanitarian and social purpose of this Treaty as its intention is to enable timely access to a greater variety of accessible format copies for people with a print disability. Our mandate is to ensure authors rights are considered in decisions made to the Copyright Act due to the Treaty, which is focused on the end user rather than the creator.

If New Zealand joins it will require legislative amendments to align with the Treaty’s obligations and changes to Section 69 of the Copyright Act 1994 which allows for exceptions to the Act.

The MBIE Marrakesh Treaty discussion document can be viewed here including an audio and braille version.

Writers can also make submissions. However, if you would like to feed in to the NZ Society of Authors submission please contact Jackie Dennis.

Due date for submissions is 26 February so Jackie will need your comments by Friday 19 February.

2016 Ashton Wylie Charitable Trust Literary Awards


Writers working in the mind, body and spirit genre have until 31 March to enter the 2016 Ashton Wylie Charitable Trust Literary Awards.

There are two award’s categories: Books and Unpublished Manuscripts. The winner in each category receives a $10,000 prize.

Spokesperson for The Ashton Wylie Charitable Trust, Adonia Wylie says the judging panel is looking for fiction or non-fiction works that have the potential to uplift and enhance people, relationships and society.  “We enjoy reading works that extend our knowledge of the genre and we would like to encourage all writers interested in the growing mind, body, spirit to enter.  Authorship and editing, and in the case of published books, quality of production such as design and typography will be important considerations.”  

The awards are unique in the country for their encouragement of writing in the mind, body, spirit field.  

For the published category books must be published between 1 April 2015 -31 March 2016. 

Shortlisted writers will be announced mid-July and the award winners will be announced at a ceremony in Auckland on 19 August, 2015.

Submission forms and entry details are available here.

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Upcoming Writers Festivals!


same same but different - Auckland

Friday 12 Feb to Sunday 14 Feb
A celebration of Aotearoa New Zealand’s top LGBTQI writing talent. With Witi Ihimaera, Alison Mau, Victor Rodger, Whaitiri Mikaere, Douglas Wright, Joanne Drayton, Chris Brickell, Paula Boock and many many more!  More


Writers Week - Wellington

Tuesday 8 March to Sunday 13 March
READ. THINK. FREE YOUR VOICE.
Bringing some of the smartest, most eloquent and entertaining people from home and abroad to Wellington for the week. Join the conversation as they talk about their work, their lives and the world around them. Check out the full programme online


Ruapehu Writers Festival - Ruapehu

Thursday 17 March to Sunday 20 March
The Ruapehu Writers Festival 2016 will be a long weekend of readings, talks, panel discussions, workshops, a poetry slam, and some more unusual events such as a literary waterfall walk, a bike ride and a pony trek, based in Ōhakune. More

SelfPublishBooks 

  • Self-publish with full, expert support, from manuscript to publication.
  • Amazon publishing, print on demand, custom ebook conversion and online book marketing.
  • Free, no-obligation quote.
  • Contact Martin Taylor 
    selfpublishbooks.nz
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Clippings from the Internet

 

‘Big books by blokes about battles’: Why is history still written mainly by men?


Extract from article in the Guardian  - Only four female writers appeared in the list of top 50 bestselling history titles in the UK last year. And women are still perceived as more suited to writing about drawing rooms than battlefields. Why? Leading historians and biographers discuss sexism and subject matter. More


92 Percent Of Students Prefer Print Books, New Study Shows

Extract from article in the Huff Post by Maddie Crum - The smell of old books is among the reasons students say they aren't going digital. 

In the future, books won’t be books at all. Pixely plots will replace cut-creating pages, and cover art will become a strange relic to be studied by our puzzled descendants. That’s the narrative we’ve been told, anyway: print is dead, and ebooks are the way of the future. But a slew of new studies have thickened the plot. More
 

Inviting Your Criticism of Criticism: The Paid Reviews Debate

Extract from article in Publishing Perspectives by Porter Anderson - If you know the Greek island of Paros in the Cyclades, you’ll be familiar with Parikia’s Panagia Ekatontapyliani, or “Church of 100 Doors.” Said to date back to the 4th Century AD, it’s a stately, elegiac Byzantine landmark in the Aegean. It does not, in fact, have a hundred doors, and no sure explanation for that abiding moniker, either.

When you look at the evolving industry of publishing today, it can seem to have parallel characteristics: the books business is a kind of temple based on our regard for literature. More

Comic / Graphic News

Culinary Comics: 10 Comics as Delicious as they are Delightful

Extract from Foodtank - Comics and graphic novels can be an entertaining medium through which to learn about the many ways food intersects with all facets of life. This list of 10 comics and graphic novels from culinary celebrities, comic writers, artists, and a vintner, highlight different relationships people can have with their food. More


Angouleme Comics Festival Overshadowed by Gaffes, Protests Over Sexism

Extract from Publishers Weekly by Calvin Reed - Although the annual Festival International de la Bande Dessinée (FIBD), held January 28–31 in the medieval city of Angoulême in France, is one of the most prestigious comics festivals in Europe, this year’s show will be remembered as much for protests over sexism and public relations gaffes by the festival’s organizers as for the tremendous display of graphic novels. More

Digital Files


Leading authors press for Supreme Court review of Google's digitised library

Extract from article in the Guardian by Alison Flood - JM Coetzee, Margaret Atwood, Malcolm Gladwell and Peter Carey are some of the major writers throwing their weight behind the US Authors Guild’s attempt to hold Google to account for its digitisation of millions of in-copyright works.

The case dates back to 2005, when Google first began to digitise books without permission. In 2013, US circuit judge Denny Chin dismissed an authors’ lawsuit against Google, saying its scanning of the books, and the “snippets” of text it makes available to users, constituted fair use. “In my view, Google Books provide significant public benefits,” wrote Chin at the time. “Indeed, all society benefits.” More

PEN Matters
 

Attack on PEN Offices: South East Turkey

On February 2nd, the Kurdish PEN Centre based in Sur Amed (Diyarbakir) was attacked. PEN International is seeking further information about the circumstances, and has called on the Turkish authorities to carry out a prompt, thorough and impartial investigation. It has asked that those responsible be brought to justice and that the authorities take steps to ensure that all Kurdish PEN members are protected from harm and are able to exercise their right to peaceful free expression. 
 

Freedom of Speech: India

Man Booker Prize winner, Arundhati Roy, once again faces charges in India. This time Roy faces a contempt charge for defending disabled writer, G.N. Saibaba. Saibaba is accused of links with Naxalites, an extreme left group. Roy won the man Booker Prize in 1997 for The God of Small Things, a complex novel about love, colonialism, and the caste laws that tear one family apart. Her novel, a work of fiction, was the basis of a court case when a public interest petition was filed against her. The petition alleged that the novel was obscene and likely to corrupt or deprave the minds of readers in the way it dealt with the caste laws around marriage. She went from being a Man Booker Prize winner to facing a gruelling court trial.

For further information on PEN or any issues or concerns raised above please contact Dana Wensley, PEN Representative for NZ at PEN@nzauthors.org.nz

Creative Writing Dunedin - Courses 2016


Creative Writing Dunedin offers a range of online and face to face courses throughout the year covering fiction, poetry and memoir. 10% discount for NZSA members.
 
Face-to-Face
  • Finding Your Voice: Fortnightly Starts Wed 17 February 7-9pm
  • Tools for Storytelling: Fortnightly Starts Wed 8 June 7-9pm
  • Writing Your Life: Fortnightly Starts Wed 17 February 1-3pm
  • Making Fine Poems: Fortnightly Starts Wed 8 June 1-3pm
Plus Saturday classes:
  • What’s The Story, Fiction: Saturday 5 March 11.00am-4pm
  • Real life: Memoir: Saturday 7 May 11.00am-4pm
  • Poetry, Black on White: Saturday 2 July 11.00am-4 pm
 Online: Online courses can be enrolled in at any time, as long as they are completed by 2 September 2016.
  • Finding Your Voice: Starts 15 February
  • Tools for Storytelling: Starts 23 May
  • Writing Your Life: Starts 15 February
  • Making Fine Poems: Starts 23 May
Course tutor is experienced teacher Diane Brown, award winning poet, novelist and memoirist.  www.creativewritingdunedin.nz

National Writers Conference planned -
Writers, save the date! 



Venue is University of Auckland

SPONSORSHIP
If you have a business, product or service you would like to promote consider becoming a supporting partner, sponsor or exhibitor at the National Writers Forum. Find out about all the sponsorship options here.

Opportunities / Death by Deadline

 

The Calendar of Opportunities is now found on our website. 

  • Opportunities are only visible to members! To see opportunities/death by deadline you need to log in using your email address and member password.
  • To find opportunities in your area, visit your branch page.

Events / Book Launches

 

Events are now be found on our website

  • To find all events and book launches go here.
  • To find events in your area, visit your branch page.

Listen to a Literary Postcard on BBC4 by Tracy Farr 


Prompted by the publication of Tracy Farr's novel The Life and Loves of Lena Gaunt in the UK, Open Book asked her to deliver a Literary Postcard from New Zealand, as part of an occasional series they commission from writers based outside the UK. Tracy focused on Wellington and its landscape/bookscape, the contemporary book scene in NZ plus some other related topics.
 
The podcast (which is the 2nd chapter) is online at http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06wbrk7. Alternatively, the whole episode is downloadable at http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03fl75j (Tracy's item starts at 08:50 minutes).
 
The whole 28-minute episode is also available for download from iTunes:
https://itunes.apple.com/nz/podcast/books-and-authors/id331296649?mt=2
(Episode: Open Book - Janice Y K Lee on The Expatriates, released 17.1.2016)

Bestsellers from Nielsen BookScan

Latest Nielsen Bestseller reports: Bestsellers Chart - fiction, non fiction, adults, children & Independent Booksellers Top 20

Writers on Radio and TV

Click here to see the lineup for upcoming Books on Radio New Zealand National.

Here's a direct link to Books on Saturday Morning

Copyright © 2016 NZSA, All rights reserved. This e-news is distributed fortnightly. The information included and views expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of The New Zealand Society of Authors (PEN NZ Inc). 
To submit news: office@nzauthors.org.nz     To advertise: director@nzauthors.org.nz
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