We’re delighted to announce the first Earthskin-Creative Hub residency at Muriwai, on Auckland’s West Coast. The first such residency will take place for the month of September 2018, and is open to anyone who has completed a Creative Hub writing course. The writer in resident will be provided accommodation at Earthskin rent and services free, during which time the resident will work on a writing project of his or her own choosing.

Earthskin’s philosophy is summarised on its website www.earthskin.co.nz:
 
“Earthskin Muriwai, our sacred place, nestles in a valley of ancient bush which creates an introspective and deep connection with the land … We offer creative and environmental residencies in our beautiful open plan home ... The house includes two bathrooms, one bedroom, shared kitchen, large living room, and an airy studio with good natural light. We have a log burner to keep you cosy.”
 
Entries are now open, and close on 20 January 2018. Please check the facilities at Earthskin, then email us at enquiries@thecreativehub.net.nz for application guidelines (they’re not complicated!).

Novelist, memoirist, travel writer and poet Kapka Kassabova will be doing a guest workshop this month on this theme: “Structuring the journey / narrative / plot is a problem shared by fiction, autobiography and even poetry ... I think the question of how real life events and people are shaped into memorable scenes and characters that resonate - this is something we grapple with in memoir and fiction.”

Graduate Karen Mills’ novel ‘Tasting Stars’, which sold out on its August publication day, continues to go from strength to strength. Karen was interviewed on TV1’s prime-time show Seven Sharp, and you can watch that interview here.

Karen writes: “Two weeks ago Tasting Stars was presented at the Frankfurt World Book Fair. My agent said publishers were looking for Young Adult novels with a moral. A top publisher from New York spoke to the convention saying his general impression of what genres attracted interest in Frankfurt were young adult, biography, health, spirituality, how-to, and some fiction titles, along with children’s picture books.”
 
“Many were looking for books with a moral lesson. Immigrant and indigenous stories have earned a great deal of attention recently, in all parts of the world. He said, ‘It’s about time we, as an industry, starting listening more closely to their world view’." 
 
“Three publishers showed interest in my book. Sourcebook’s chief, Dominique Raccah. Sourcebooks is an independent publisher in Chicago. Also a Chinese publisher with a one hundred letter name and Clare Wallace, a London-based agent from Darley Anderson, literary, film and TV agency. Tasting Stars is being show-cased at the Chinese Book fair in two weeks time.”

Hub Director John Cranna watches the latest ‘Blade Runner’ movie. An artistic malaise afflicts Hollywood and its attitude to violence and women he says. Read his blog here: www.creativehubber.blogspot.com