Frances Edmond has been selected as the third New Zealand writer to join the Shanghai Writers’ Association’s International Writing Program. Frances is a Waiheke Island based writer and reviewer who works across disciplines in film, theatre and literature. Her project for the residency is to complete a new draft of a screenplay for a film about Kathleen Hall; an unsung heroine. During the Japanese invasion of China in the 1930s, this unassuming New Zealand missionary nurse risked her life to smuggle supplies through enemy lines.
This opportunity is available through a partnership between the Michael King Writers’ Centre, the New Zealand China Friendship Society, the Shanghai Writers’ Association and the Shanghai People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries.
Frances says: “I am both honoured and thrilled. The film project about Kathleen Hall is very close to my heart and I think it is such an important New Zealand story and being able to work on a new draft in China is an amazing opportunity”.
 

Alumni Catch-up  
We are so proud of Briar Grace Smith (2016), who has become an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for her services to theatre, film and television in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List award last month. Well done Briar – you so deserve this honour.

Last month the NZSA announced that Chris Else (2012), is their 2018-2019 President of Honour. This prestigious position is bestowed on a senior writer and long-serving member in recognition of his or her contribution to writing and writers and the literary arts sector in New Zealand. As President of Honour, Chris will deliver the annual Janet Frame Memorial Lecture. Warm congratulations to Chris on this recognition of his wonderful contributions to the literary community of Aotearoa.

In January this year Vivienne Plumb (2016), travelled to Berlin to take up a Creative NZ residency until September. Whilst there Vivienne is continuing with the project she began work on whilst on her residency at the MKWC; a book that explores the hidden past of her late mother, Isabel Hurley – a seemingly ordinary New Zealand woman who was witness to some of the most extraordinary events of world history. For Vivienne, spending time in Germany is crucial to completing the book about her mother. Vivienne is pictured here with Paul Diamond and Biljana Popovic (the next resident, an installation artist).
For an interview with Vivienne on Radio NZ about the residency click here.

In February Anna Jackson (2017) sent an update on her residency to say, ‘the fiction I found myself writing while on the residency has been shortlisted for an Australian novella award from Seizure. I loved working on this in the beautiful golden shed, even though I was supposed to be writing poetry (and sometimes was)!  Having the long evenings was perfect for working on a longer form piece of work and doing the intricate work of editing and re-editing’. 
In 2012 Seizure began a novella prize, Viva la Novella, to celebrate and promote short novels. For the first time this year there are two New Zealand writers on the shortlist of five. The competition has always been open to writers across the Tasman but this year there were a number of particularly strong Kiwi entries. Winners will be announced and published simultaneously in August.
For more about Anna’s submission click here.

The NZ Book Council’s Writers in Schools programme continues to grow, and bookings have been as busy as ever over last term and for Term 3. First up after the school holidays, Ben Brown (2011) will tour schools in Gisborne.

Another of our alumni, Don McGlashan (2013) has recently announced a 17 date nationwide 'Free Flight' tour from 13 September - 5 October 2018. It is always such a pleasure to hear Don perform. For details click here.

As part of the keeping the legacy of Michael King alive we are keen to hear from people who knew or met him and would like to send us a note of their recollections of him. If you had any kind of association with Michael we would love for you to write a few paragraphs about that. Please email us

Thanks to publisher, poet, novelist, performer, and bookshop proprietor, Michael O'Leary for the following. .

The last time I saw Michael King was at the 2003 Prime Minister's Literary Awards, which he won for non-fiction that year. I had gone to support my old friend, Hone Tuwhare, who won the poetry section of the award. During the evening I got talking to Michael, who I had met several times before at literary events without getting to know him well. I had also met him though my sister, film-maker Clare O'Leary, who had filmed an interview with Michael a few years earlier, and which was subsequently shown at film festivals and on Maori Television. I was surprised and delighted when he told me he had read most of my work and that he really liked it and rated it highly. We talked for a while before he was whisked off into the award ceremony. I remember his last words to me were: 'Keep writing, Michael'.

MKWC are proud to support the visit of Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, one of the world’s literary treasures to Aotearoa for the Auckland Writers Festival. Ngũgĩ is the recipient of a 2005 Honorary Doctorate from The University of Auckland. Often mentioned as a deserving Nobel Prize nominee, and described as the Kenyan Mandela, the African writer and human rights champion Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o has spent his life grappling with the post-colonial experience. Translated into over 30 languages, his novels and memoirs tell a compelling and challenging story of Africa.
Be sure to catch one of his sessions at the festival.

Alumni Catch-up  
Our hearty congratulations to the recipients of the Unity Books 50th Birthday Literary Awards, Peter Wells and Patricia Grace. Unity Books has marked its 50th Birthday by honouring the two New Zealand authors with awards worth $20,000 each for their extensive body of work and for their long-span social justice activism. We are so proud of their achievements.See here for more details

Frances Edmond has been selected as the third New Zealand writer to join the Shanghai Writers’ Association’s International Writing Program. Frances is a Waiheke Island based writer and reviewer who works across disciplines in film, theatre and literature. Her project for the residency is to complete a new draft of a screenplay for a film about Kathleen Hall; an unsung heroine. During the Japanese invasion of China in the 1930s, this unassuming New Zealand missionary nurse risked her life to smuggle supplies through enemy lines.
This opportunity is available through a partnership between the Michael King Writers’ Centre, the New Zealand China Friendship Society, the Shanghai Writers’ Association and the Shanghai People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries.
Frances says: “I am both honoured and thrilled. The film project about Kathleen Hall is very close to my heart and I think it is such an important New Zealand story and being able to work on a new draft in China is an amazing opportunity”.
 

Alumni Catch-up  
We are so proud of Briar Grace Smith (2016), who has become an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for her services to theatre, film and television in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List award last month. Well done Briar – you so deserve this honour.

Last month the NZSA announced that Chris Else (2012), is their 2018-2019 President of Honour. This prestigious position is bestowed on a senior writer and long-serving member in recognition of his or her contribution to writing and writers and the literary arts sector in New Zealand. As President of Honour, Chris will deliver the annual Janet Frame Memorial Lecture. Warm congratulations to Chris on this recognition of his wonderful contributions to the literary community of Aotearoa.

In January this year Vivienne Plumb (2016), travelled to Berlin to take up a Creative NZ residency until September. Whilst there Vivienne is continuing with the project she began work on whilst on her residency at the MKWC; a book that explores the hidden past of her late mother, Isabel Hurley – a seemingly ordinary New Zealand woman who was witness to some of the most extraordinary events of world history. For Vivienne, spending time in Germany is crucial to completing the book about her mother. Vivienne is pictured here with Paul Diamond and Biljana Popovic (the next resident, an installation artist).
For an interview with Vivienne on Radio NZ about the residency click here.

In February Anna Jackson (2017) sent an update on her residency to say, ‘the fiction I found myself writing while on the residency has been shortlisted for an Australian novella award from Seizure. I loved working on this in the beautiful golden shed, even though I was supposed to be writing poetry (and sometimes was)!  Having the long evenings was perfect for working on a longer form piece of work and doing the intricate work of editing and re-editing’. 
In 2012 Seizure began a novella prize, Viva la Novella, to celebrate and promote short novels. For the first time this year there are two New Zealand writers on the shortlist of five. The competition has always been open to writers across the Tasman but this year there were a number of particularly strong Kiwi entries. Winners will be announced and published simultaneously in August.

For more about Anna’s submission click here.

The NZ Book Council’s Writers in Schools programme continues to grow, and bookings have been as busy as ever over last term and for Term 3. First up after the school holidays, Ben Brown (2011) will tour schools in Gisborne.

Another of our alumni, Don McGlashan (2013) has recently announced a 17 date nationwide 'Free Flight' tour from 13 September - 5 October 2018. It is always such a pleasure to hear Don perform. For details click here.