1
NZSA TOP OF THE SOUTH NEWS
23 October 2015
Send Top of the South news to Chrissie Ward at cj.ward@xtra.co.nz or
phone 03-546-9818. Let me know about meetings, coming events, book
launches, new publications, literary successes, etc. Don’t forget to tell
me if you change your email address. Past newsletters are archived for
a month on our website www.topwriters.co.nz.
Follow us on Facebook here https://www.facebook.com/topwritersNZSA
NZ BOOK WEEK
Calling New Zealand authors in the Top of the South!
NZ Book Week runs from 26 October to 1 November. To
celebrate this, we are offering you the chance to
display your book covers on the Top of the South
branch website. Both trade and self-published books
are welcome. There is a limit of two books per author,
but whether or not both will be used will depend on the
numbers responding.
If you want to take advantage of this opportunity, please send an image
of your cover (front cover only) in a good quality jpg format with
information on how to purchase the book, including links if applicable.
The cover image and information should be sent to Sue Perkins at
TOSNZSA15@gmail.com and must be received by midnight 24 October.
Don’t miss out!
NELSON ARTS FESTIVAL COMES TO AN END
The Nelson Arts Festival finishes this weekend. The Page & Blackmore
Readers and Writers remaining events are:
Friday 23 October, 5.30 pm: Geoff Murphy – A Life on Film
Saturday 24 October, 1 pm: Rachel Barrowman – Maurice Gee;
3 pm: David Slack – Bullrush
Sunday 25 October, 2 pm: Elspeth Sandys – What Lies Beneath;
4 pm: Charlotte Grimshaw – Starlight Peninsula
Monday 26 October, 12.30 pm: Poetry at Mahana Vineyard with
Bernadette Hall and Marty Smith
Get your tickets from i-Sites, the Box Office in Founders, or at
www.nelsonartsfestival.co.nz
2
NELSON REGIONAL POETRY SLAM FINALS
Poets by another name, Slam performers pour out
their hearts on matters personal, political and social
without a book or piece of paper in sight. No props,
no costumes, no notes!
The Nelson Regional Final will be held on Monday 26
October at 6 pm and will feature guest performances by US Slam
champions Carrie Rudzinski and Ken Arkind. They will set the scene for
our own local finalists to compete for the chance to represent the
Nelson region at the NZ Poetry Slam finals to be held in Hamilton in
November. The venue is the Yurt at the Freehouse, Collingwood Street.
For more information, contact Mark Raffills at mark@drycrust.com or
027 215 4967.
NZ BOOKSHOP DAY
NZ Bookshop Day is Saturday 31 October, and Page & Blackmore
Booksellers of 254 Trafalgar Street, Nelson invite their customers to join
in the celebrations. Things are happening all day – check out the
programme:
7.30 – 8.30 am: Silent Reading Breakfast BYO breakfast and book, but
toast, coffee and tea are provided.
9 – 10 am: Nathan Fa’avae will be signing copies of his new book,
Adventurer at Heart.
11 – 11.30 am: Murray & Carys Story Book Reading
2 – 3 pm: Tania Norfolk with readings from her children’s book
Grasshopper’s Week.
3 – 4 pm: Man Booker Wrestle Hear P&B staff defend their chosen Man
Booker short-listed novel – and eat cake! YA author Rachael Craw will be
serving cake and keeping order.
4 – 6 pm: Books and Bubbles Celebration. Celebrate NZ Bookshop Day
with a toast to Page & Blackmore!
All day activities:
The continuous short story – P&B create the opening lines, come and
add a line or two.
Literary graffiti – graffiti the shop windows with your favourite authors
and titles.
The selfie booth – get snapped or snap yourself with the ‘Why I Love My
Bookshop’ board.
Tag- team quiz – get a team together and pop in to the shop any time
during the day to answer a quiz question. There will be prizes!
There is all day tea & coffee and random giveaways, with special prize
draws on the hour. PLUS buy a book on NZ Bookshop Day and go in the
draw to win back the cost of your purchase and a $100 P&B voucher.
3
There are some national competitions too: 'All Good: A New Zealand
Colouring Competition' and 'Snap Me Reading'.
PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHS OF NZ AUTHORS ON DISPLAY
Portrait photographs of 43 New Zealand authors, photographed by Maja
Moritz in 2012, are on display at Nelson’s Elma Turner Library until 20
November.
Maja was commissioned by the German press agenda to photograph the
NZ authors present at the 2012 Frankfurt Book Fair, when New Zealand
was the Guest of Honour. This is a selection of photographs,
accompanied by texts and further information about the authors, often in
their own words.
MARLBOROUGH WRITERS
Marlborough Writers met at the Argosy Café for lunch on Tuesday 20
October, with nine present. It seems that everyone prefers the lunchtime
meetings and they are also much easier for our Picton members, whose
numbers are growing. We have decided to keep on with this venue for
our next meeting on Tuesday 17 November. The 200 word challenge for
that is: 'Collateral Damage'.
Our last meeting for the year will be the Christmas Party at Mike
Ponder's on either the 1st or 8th of December, the final date yet to be
confirmed.
POETRY IS BACK IN THE NELSON MUSEUM WINDOW
After a short absence, poetry is once again being displayed in the
window of Nelson Provincial Museum. A different poem is displayed
each month in the window on Trafalgar Street, near the entrance to the
museum. The poem for October is Evening, Tasman View Road by David
Briggs.
In addition, poems are displayed upstairs as part of the Museum’s WW1
commemorations.
The Museum is involved in the selection process, but submissions
should be sent to Carol Ercolano at c.d.ercolano@gmail.com. The
requirements are:
For the window: preferably reflecting the Top of the South, although it is
more important to display poems that people passing by and stopping
to read can readily identify with. Length ideally not more than 30 lines,
as the lettering can become too small to be read comfortably from the
footpath. However, an extract from a longer poem could be displayed as
lines from .... If you would like a poem of yours considered for the
window, send a selection of up to three as email attachments.
4
War poems: The Museum hopes to display war poems for the duration
of the WW1 Centennial commemorations, that is, up to 2018. Poems can
be about any war or war in general but, if they are about a specific war,
the Museum prefers WW1 themes. There is no set length because
people can read the poems close-up.
Carol looks forward to receiving your poems!
MORE ON THE TAYLOR RIVER WRITERS’ WALK
The Taylor River Writers’ Walk in
Blenheim consists of poems about the
river, written by local school students
and mounted on riverside boulders.
When the sixth poem on the Writers’
Walk was unveiled on 14 October,
there was a surprise – the unveiling of
a seventh poem on an existing
boulder. The latest poem was written
by Yazmin Shipley, who is now
attending Marlborough Girls’ College but was a student at Springlands
School when the Writers’ Walk began. Cathee Wilks of the Springlands
School Writers’ Walk Group explains:
‘Yazmin was a student in my class at Springlands School and was part
of the group that came up with the initial idea of the Writers’ Walk. Her
poem was one of the two that got short-listed for the first rock, but Fynn
Sawyer’s was chosen.
‘Yazmin has continued to be involved in the Writers’ Walk since,
attending each unveiling, and is on the selection committee. We thought
it would be nice to recognise her commitment and have one of her
poems published. We placed it beside the Springlands poem to show
the connection she has to Springlands School and the beginning of the
Writers’ Walk.’
The photograph (taken by Julie Kennedy) shows Yazmin Shipley at the
unveiling of her poem, the seventh on the Taylor River Writers’ Walk,
placed beside the first poem in the series, from Springlands School.
Here is the link to the article about the unveiling of the two latest poems
from Marlborough Express (although there are some factual errors – the
spelling of Yazmin’s family name and the numbering of the poems):
http://www.stuff.co.nz/marlborough-express/yourmarlborough/73016063/words-to-have-a-ripple-effect-along-the-taylorriver