Tim Jones's Blog, page 37

An Interview With Mandy Hager, by Johanna Knox: Part 1

 

Author and publisher Johanna Knox has previously contributed the guest post Can Children's Literature Be 'Literary Fiction'? to this blog. Now, despite everything else she is busy with, Johanna is back with a two-part interview with New Zealand author Mandy Hager. Thank you so much, Johanna and Mandy!



Interview with Mandy Hager: Part 1



About Mandy Hager: Kapiti-based Mandy Hager is the award-winning author of numerous young adult books, including the recent Blood of the Lamb trilogy, a dramatic dystopia in set in the South Pacific. In these books, teenager Maryam, with her friends, must try to escape and later overthrow the corrupt and oppressive religious cult that has dominated her people since a disaster known as 'the Tribulation' struck Earth.



Margaret Mahy has described the first book as 'Like 1984 for teenagers – direct, powerful and passionate.' Books 1 and 2 in the trilogy were shortlisted for the Sir Julius Vogel Awards in 2010 and 2011. Book 3 was released earlier this year to critical acclaim.



About Johanna Knox: Johanna is a Wairarapa/Wellington-based writer, researcher, and reviewer. She frequently writes on food and sustainability issues. She is also the author of The Flytrap Snaps, book one in a newly released mystery-adventure series for children, all about mutant carnivorous plants - see http://theflypapersbooks.blogspot.com.

JK: Have you had varied responses to the Blood of the Lamb trilogy ... Do people with different values or backgrounds respond differently?



MH: I am sure there will be people who are offended by what they think the books are about – that I'm somehow criticising Christianity – but I would hope that if they did read them they would realise the books are about the way Christianity (or any religion) can be hijacked for purposes of power and control.



I know in the States several publishers have thought it was too controversial to publish – I think that's sad, given that at their core the books promote compassion and love. I also know that some adults who loved The Crossing [book 1] didn't like Into the Wilderness [book 2] because they got so frustrated by the extended adolescent behaviour, but that doesn't worry me – the books are written for teenagers, about teenagers, and teenagers can be very angsty, annoying young people in their worst moments (and extraordinarily wonderful at their best!) And the teenage readers like them, so that's what matters most to me.



Some people also struggled with the idea that I had the gall to write about menstruation – isn't that sad? Half the entire human population menstruates (and the other half wouldn't be here if we didn't!), so why are we so ashamed to speak about it and refuse to acknowledge it? I suspect if men menstruated it wouldn't be a taboo subject.



JK: That's interesting. I'm trying to think back ... I don't remember finding adolescent behaviour annoying in the book ... It seems a realistic portrayal, and besides, plenty of adults can be that kind of annoying and angsty as well, especially under pressure?



MH: Yes, I totally agree. In fact I reckon we all pretty much revert to teenage default behaviour when faced with certain pressure points – like Christmas, school reunions, family get-togethers, funerals etc!



When people say, 'so how can you put yourself in a teenager's mind?' I don't find this hard – it's the most intense and defining time of our lives, so very easy to summon up again (plus I think there's a huge part of my brain that never grew past that! I still feel seventeen in my head – it's just the outer layer that's grown so disconcertingly old!)



JK: Do you see the trilogy as individual stories or one big story?



MH: I've always known the books would be a trilogy and I tend to think of them as the three acts of a drama (my MA is in scriptwriting, which I have found invaluable in terms of structure etc).



Act One has to set the scene, introduce characters and the story problem (and create enough dramatic tension to want to continue), Act Two delves more deeply into character, complicates the situation, and embeds theme, and Act Three provides resolution (to some extent.)



Having said that, I also planned each of the books as discrete stories, each with their own three act dramatic structure, which are (hopefully) totally satisfying in their own right. There have to be seeds planted in the first two books that don't pay off until the third, so plotting and structure are pretty important in order to achieve this.



JK: In what other ways has your scriptwriting education and experience fed into your novels?



MH: It's had a huge influence, actually. For a start it made me realise that novels are my genre of choice. Scripts are the bones of a story, then other people come along and put their individual stamp on top. (Directors, actors etc.) I realised I'm too much of a control freak about my stories – I see them as my very own film in my head, including sound track and camera angles. I used to try and put all this into scripts (which is a no-no), so I couldn't wait to get back to writing novels!



But the structure of scripts has been invaluable – really understanding the necessary steps for good dramatic structure – and particularly Joseph Campbell's Hero's Journey. This mythic structure lies pretty much behind all stories in one form or another, and to understand the steps and be able to visualise them as a story landscape that has to be traversed by the protagonist is the most useful thing I've ever learnt about writing.



And once I figured out that the stages of the Hero's Journey were really just steps in a psychological model of change (long term, significant change) – now that is a very powerful thing to understand, as it means you know how your character's emotional state needs to transform over the course of a book, and (hopefully) how to make that transformation feel organic and believable.



JK: During the trilogy you explore the enormous range of behaviours that humans are capable of. We know from history and everyday life that we humans are capable of incredible cruelty and also amazing compassion and generosity. I feel Blood of the Lamb takes readers to the heart of that. Lazarus of course embodies both possibilities in one person, changing from cruel to compassionate over the course of the books - and so I find him an incredibly hope-giving character.



Is this great capacity for both good and evil within the human race, and individuals, something you have thought a lot about?



MH: Yes, it is something I think about a lot (and certainly lies at the core of the books.) I've done quite a lot of reading about human behaviour, evolutionary psychology etc (for instance Robert Wright's A Moral Animal and a wonderful book by Richard Holloway called Between the Monster and the Saint which looks at precisely this issue.)



It boils down to needing to understand how we could try and shift human consciousness to a more generous and loving level. I can't buy the argument that just because human beings have had a violent past and have the capacity for violence and cruelty, that this is always how it must be.



I'm only an ordinary person and I can live by principles of generosity, empathy and love, so why not others? It will mean a huge redistribution of wealth, a concerted commitment to justice, human rights and education, and a complete overhaul in what we view as 'success' (i.e. instead of turning people into celebrities for how skinny, rich or white they are, maybe we could start celebrating the people who are the most humane or creative), but I do believe it is possible to suppress our monsters within!



Wouldn't it be nice if one day being labelled 'politically correct' (in other words, being inclusive and anti-racist/anti-sexist) was a compliment and something we all strove for?!



JK: Your main character Maryam is remarkable. Maybe she is the person we all hope we'd be when faced with crisis or the need for change, although I'm pretty sure I would fall short! What are your own feelings towards Maryam?



MH: I love Maryam for her desire to understand what's really going on, and not just to accept something if it is wrong. She's how I'd love all young people to be! And, really, she is what a lot of young people are: inquisitive, questioning, intelligent, angry... The truth is most people cope incredibly well with the most terrible situations - every day millions of people embody Maryam's bravery under the worst possible conditions – they are all unacknowledged heroes.



JK: Do you ever feel that we need more Maryams in the world right now?



MH: Yes! And it's just as hard for young people today to find out what the hell is really going on – the media and entertainment industries have dumbed things down (and spun) so much most young people have no real idea of just who controls their lives and why. If I can achieve anything, it's the hope that the story encourages young people to take an interest in the world around them and to question (and fight!) the current greed-based status quo, which is putting their futures very much at risk.



JK: From a writing-process point of view how did her character develop?



MH: It doesn't matter how much you think a character through before you start to write – so you understand their voice, likes and dislikes, history, point of view etc – you never really know how they're going to react until you put them under pressure in the story and have them interact with other characters.



What started out as Maryam's capacity for strength of mind also became her potential nemesis, as she struggled to understand why others thought and acted differently to her (i.e. Ruth.) It meant at times she was boorish and stubborn with no good reason – not nearly as compliant as I'd first thought! Thinking about it now, really it was just the teenager in her asserting her independence from me!



JK: Ruth is interesting, with a quieter, more passive goodness and integrity ...



MH: Ruth is probably the character I least understood at beginning of the books, and I don't think it was until [the third book] Resurrection that I truly understood her. Such blind faith (in the face of overwhelming evidence against it) is so foreign to me, and one of the reasons for writing the trilogy – to explore this for myself, as I didn't understand it.



But I came to realise that Ruth had been aware of the inconsistencies and hypocrisies of the religion, but that this was a separate issue to having faith – which is a more personal 'take' on our place in the scheme of things.



Her faith gave her comfort and morals to live by. I can't criticise her for that and came to respect her for it – so a big learning curve for me too, actually - it makes me more compassionate and tolerant to other people's need for faith now!



JK: Have you thought a lot about the different ways that different people react to crisis? What conclusions have you drawn?



MH: I have experienced a number of very gruelling crises myself and have been able to reflect on how I and the people around me coped (and, at times, didn't cope). My conclusions are as you would expect: that we all cope the best way we can, and that is different for everyone – and that a lot of it boils down to our role models and to our individual personalities.



Basically there are two types of responses – intuitive or instrumental. An intuitive person reacts with their emotions first – gets all their grief, anger, whatever, out in the open and deals with that first before they can handle information, advice or action. An instrumental person wants to know facts and details and takes action first, holding back on their emotional response until a later (often private) time.



There's no one response that's better – it's just how we are, and it isn't gender specific to how someone will react. I'm instrumental, for instance, while my daughter is intuitive. Either way, we both cope, we just come at the problem or crisis from different starting points!



The second and concluding part of this interview will be posted next week - on Thursday, all being well.You can buy books by Tim Jones online! Voyagers: SF Poetry from NZ from Amazon.Transported (short story collection) from Fishpond or New Zealand Books Abroad.

Tuesday Poem: happened to meet

 

happened to meet

fingers extending a welcome

household of tired gods

the table, drinks



then morning.



Birds, coffee, the paper

affirmed you



my hand on your hip

my hand on your breast

my hand on your heart.





Credit note: "Men At Sea" is a new poem, first published in my new poetry collection Men Briefly Explained.



You can check out all the Tuesday Poems on the Tuesday Poem Blog - this week's hub poem in the centre of the page, and all the other Tuesday Poems on the right.You can buy books by Tim Jones online! Voyagers: SF Poetry from NZ from Amazon.Transported (short story collection) from Fishpond or New Zealand Books Abroad.

IP Picks 2012

IP Picks is Interactive Press's annual writing competition for unpublished manuscripts. It is open to Australian and New Zealand citizens and residents.



Keith Westwater's Tongues of Ash won the 2011 IP Picks Award for Best First Book, and my new collection Men Briefly Explained is also published by IP. Keith and I will soon be joined by IP Press Publisher Dr David Reiter for a post-World Cup book tour - check out the details, or sign up for the tour venue nearest you on Facebook.



Here is the information IP has sent me about IP Picks 2012.



About IP Picks



Now looking ahead to its eleventh year in 2012, the IP Picks Awards provide guaranteed royalty publication to the best book-length manuscript in five categories: Best Fiction, Best Creative Non-fiction, Best Poetry, Best Young Adult / Junior Prose, Best First Book.



First Place Winners of each category are awarded publication. Highly Commended entrants are given a short reader's report valued at $299, offering editorial advice on how to improve the manuscript. Commended entrants will receive a summary of the judging panel's report on their entries. There is no guarantee of publication for Highly Commended or Commended entrants.



The competition is open to citizens and residents of Australia and New Zealand.



The Fiction category is for manuscripts up to 80,000 words and can include short story collections, short novels and novels written for adults. Any form of fiction is eligible, including science fiction and fantasy.



The Creative Non-fiction category is also for manuscripts up to 80,000 words based on real-life experience and research, but written with literary flair. Biographies, memoirs, travel literature, histories and inspirational self-help books are examples.



The Young Adult / Junior Prose category seeks manuscripts up to 70,000 words. Novels or creative non-fiction works intended for young adult (18 and under) or junior audiences (12 and under) are welcome. Picture books are not eligible.



The Poetry category is for complete collections in any sub-genre, including verse novels, verse plays, special forms such as haiku, or a a mixture of forms, minimum 48 A4 pages.



The Best First Book category can be in any genre (excluding Young Adult / Junior Prose), but the author must not have previously had a book-length manuscript (48 A5 pages or longer) published by a recognised national publisher. Authors who have self-published with only local distribution are eligible to enter under this category. There is no age restriction, but if you are under eighteen years of age, you must have a parent or carer co-sign your entry form.



You may enter a single manuscript in two categories, but you have to pay two entry fees.



How Is It Judged?



IP Picks entries are adjudicated in-house by our Editorial Board.



Each entry is blind read by at least two judges. The judges first form a long-list of entries through a ranking system adjudicated by our genre editors. Next, the Board compares entries on their lists and compiles a short list from the rankings. The short-listed entries are read again by the Board, which, at that stage, includes the Director. Finally the Board meets to decide the winners and commended entries. At that meeting, the Board may also recommend that the Director offer publication to certain of the commended entries.



We then contact the winners and commended entrants and post the results on our website in IP eNews, our online newsletter, as well as circulating the results to all State writers centres.



Deadlines and Fees



IP Picks opens on 1 October and closes on 1 December each year. Entry packages must include:



two printed copies and one digital (on CD or floppy disk) copy of the entry (if you are entering in more than one category, you only need to submit two printed copies and one digital copy to cover both categories).
a completed entry form - type or print in block letters
the applicable fee

Download the required Conditions and Entry form in Word format or as a pdf file for further details on the submission procedure and to enter the competition. If you have trouble downloading the form [Adobe Acrobat Reader® required], email us for a copy, or send a self-addressed stamped envelope to IP, Treetop Studio, 9 Kuhler Court, Carindale 4152, Australia.



We charge a reading fee, currently set at AUS $66 per entry. This must be included as a cheque or money order, with your entry. Included in the reading fee is an IP title of your choice (must be a title from our Interactive Press, Glass House Books, IP Kidz or IP Digital imprints). If you enter more than one category, you must pay a fee for each entry, and for that you receive an extra title of your choice.



At the time of submission you may also ask to have a short report written on the publishability of your manuscript. The discounted fee for that report is AUS $249 GST-inclusive, or AUS $199 for students or concession card holders (must provide photocopy of student card or concession card).You can buy books by Tim Jones online! Voyagers: SF Poetry from NZ from Amazon.Transported (short story collection) from Fishpond or New Zealand Books Abroad.

Tuesday Poem: Evensong In A Graveyard Of Villas, by Keith Westwater

 



The pines on the ridge are about to cede

their colour to the night. Once more

light's absence will shroud this place.



Not even car-lights on the highway below

(such is their need for road when it's dark)

re-mark the trees – their placement



their particular explanation of green.

Soon the evening will lay claim too

to vestiges of villas which once stood



in the bush beneath the pines –

orphaned lawns, homeless paths

rhododendron that flower



among five-finger, tree fern, rata.

These last artefacts mark the bones

of grand abodes. These and a plaque



at the site of each home

listing its name, its history of dwellers

its date of sacrifice to the road.



Credit note: "Evensong In A Graveyard Of Villas" is from Keith Westwater's debut poetry collection Tongues of Ash.



Tim says: In late October, Keith Westwater and I will be embarking on a book tour to Dunedin, Christchurch, Wellington, Lower Hutt and Auckland to launch our respective collections, his Tongues of Ash and my Men Briefly Explained.



I met Keith when we both did the IIML Writing The Landscape course, run by the wonderful Dinah Hawken, in 2003. "Evensong In A Graveyard Of Villas", the penultimate poem in the penlutimate section of Tongues Of Ash, is a fine example of his landscape poetry, and anyone who knows me will know that I am in full agreement with the last line!



The Tuesday Poems: You can check out all the Tuesday Poems on the Tuesday Poem Blog - this week's hub poem in the centre of the page, and all the other Tuesday Poems on the right.You can buy books by Tim Jones online! Voyagers: SF Poetry from NZ from Amazon.Transported (short story collection) from Fishpond or New Zealand Books Abroad.

Book Review: Tales For Canterbury

 

Book Review: Tales for Canterbury: Survival – Hope - Future



A Post For NZ Speculative Fiction Blogging Week.



(Disclaimer: Tales for Canterbury includes my story "Sign of the Tui", which I have not attempted to review!)



Tales for Canterbury, as people who follow this blog may know, is an anthology of short stories (and a poem) which was pulled together very quickly by its editors, Cassie Hart and Anna Caro, in the wake of the 22 February earthquake which caused many deaths and much destruction in Christchurch. All the work appearing in the anthology, and the very considerable time and effort invested by the editors, was donated, and all proceeds from the book are being donated to the New Zealand Red Cross Christchurch Earthquake Appeal.



Well. I've gone on the record before saying what a good cause this is, and how richly it deserves your support. I've mentioned what a remarkable line-up of authors Anna and Cassie pulled together at very short notice – a mixture of international big names and New Zealand authors ranging . But what of the stories (and the poem) themselves? Do I recommend the anthology purely for the quality of the work included. Should you buy it for entirely selfish motives?



The answer is, most emphatically, yes. Tales for Canterbury is full of good stories, and what especially impressed me is that just as many of my favourite stories in the collection come from the lesser-known authors as come from the big names.



But (I hear you asking – but then, my hearing is not what it was) why is this a post for NZ Spec Fic Blogging Week? Well, this collection consists of about 2/3 speculative fiction (SF, fantasy and horror) stories to 1/3 literary fiction stories of various stripes, and quite a lot of that spec fic is written by New Zealand authors.



So. Here are a baker's-dozen-minus-one* of the pieces that particularly moved, excited or impressed me in Tales for Canterbury. (I should say that I liked nearly all of the other stories, too!)



*Known in our Earth language as "a dozen".



The opening story, "Broadwing" by Simon Petrie, is an SF story set on Titan that could easily be an extract from a Kim Stanley Robinson novel about the colonisation of the outer solar system. Coming from me, that's high praise indeed.
Neil Gaiman's contribution is a poem, "Inventing Aladdin". I was, at first, slightly disappointed when I saw that Neil Gaiman had contributed a poem rather than a story. I needn't have been. "Inventing Aladdin" is a fine poem, with a killer last line.
I have never quite decided what my favourite story is in Tales for Canterbury, but "My Dad, The Tuatara" by Amanda Fitzwater is right up there. This is a lovely piece of magic realism, happily at home right on the border of literary fiction and speculative fiction.
One of the things that most impresses me about Helen Lowe's writing is her command of tone. "The Fountain" is a story of hope restored all the better for the control with which it is told.
"Daughter of the Khan", by Mary Victoria, is a fine tale that takes place at the intersection of fantasy and modernity.
Janis Freegard's writing, both poetry and fiction, specialises in pulling rabbits out of hats and rugs from under feet. Her "The Magician" is a little piece of literary magic.
Tina Makereti's "Shapeshifter" gives Pania of the Reef her voice, and it's a voice well worth listening to.
Somewhere in the mulch of a bottom drawer lies an early, unpublished story of mine called "Shore Leave", about a man returning to his family after time-dilated service in space. From time to time, I have thought about digging it out and having another go at it. Now I know I don't need to, because Matt Cowens has contributed a much better story called "Shore Leave" to this anthology.
"The Delightful Maiden", by Debbie Cowens, is one of the relatively few stories in the book that is actually set in Christchurch. A Christchurch-set cyberpunk story? It sounds improbable, but this was another of my very favourite stories in the book.
"Desperately Seeking Darcy", by R J Astruc, throws a Bill-and-Ted-styled "excellent adventure" together with Regency England. It's a shameless recycling of used story parts. It's also wonderfully entertaining.
Patty Jansen's "Looking for Daddy" takes the material of what could be a bog-standard horror story and uses it for different, and much more affecting, ends. One of the strangest stories in the book, and one of the best.
There are writers whose work I like, writers whose work I don't like, and writers whose work I admire from a distance: I can tell they are very good writers, but for one reason or another, I can't connect with their work. Up until now, Gwyneth Jones has been one such author for me: but "The Voyage Out", the penultimate story in the book, really worked for me.

I read much of the book on a return journey between Wellington and Invercargill, passing through Christchurch Airport both ways. The ground, during my short stopovers, stayed firm. For a visitor passing through, it was easy to forget anything strange, anything tragic, had happened here. The book – survival; hope; future – pressed into my palm, reminding me otherwise.



Sales info



Tales for Canterbury is only available online, and you can buy it as a paperback or ebook from the Random Static website.You can buy books by Tim Jones online! Voyagers: SF Poetry from NZ from Amazon.Transported (short story collection) from Fishpond or New Zealand Books Abroad.

Tuesday Poem: Men At Sea

 



1. Puysegur



Glint of gold, horizon

proclaiming fish: familiar

warnings of gale and cloud.



He descends to the fishing boats.

One will take him tideward,

southward, a tolerated,



but far from welcome,

inspector of catches. In a pre-dawn

counterfeit of morning, they cast off



for Puysegur: the south-west

corner, the Roaring Forties'

big back yard, their hunting ground.



Three days of the sea as mountain range,

eating with the crew, sharing danger

but not profit. Three days



of soaked skin, puddled clothes, each

wooden bunk a trampoline, salt spray

in every cut and nick. At last



the turning homeward, past Solander,

past Centre Island — the Bluff

finally, blessedly, in sight.



He will make tallies, say farewells,

enact the weary rituals

of damp wharf and empty office.



He will drive a narrow highway home,

eyelids heavy, engine cold and catching

in the falling winter light.



2. Halfmoon Bay



School holidays. The ferry's

uncertain plunging past the fishing fleets,

young feet



attentive to the scuppers. Green bile

derived from dread and remnant breakfast

flung, a final offering,



to the greedy waves. Then this

harbour long desired, Foveaux's fingers

unclamping from my inner ear. Sudden



ease, relief; a brief reflection

that all this must be undergone again.

Boats in our wake, men at sea



raising a laconic workman's finger

to visitors, to loopies,

to the daily irruption of other lives.



And now the island: crash

of gangways, solid ground,

davits whining as we walk away.



Men at sea, I take my father's hand

as we approach the village, houses

hunched against the glowing skies.



The lure of escape, of absorption

into no-time, merely being

and doing. The memory of waves.



The journey back. Hands,

half-longed-for, half-feared,

reaching as we near the shore.



Credit note: "Men At Sea" is a new poem, first published in my new poetry collection Men Briefly Explained.



Tim says: My dad used to work as a fisheries inspector in Southland, the southern province of New Zealand. Halfmoon Bay on Stewart Island/Rakiura, and Puysegur Point at the south-west corner of New Zealand, were two of the places on his 'beat'. I went with him several times to Stewart Island, but the trip to Puysegur was regarded as a bit tough for a child of my age. I still haven't been there.



You can check out all the Tuesday Poems on the Tuesday Poem Blog - this week's hub poem in the centre of the page, and all the other Tuesday Poems on the right.You can buy books by Tim Jones online! Voyagers: SF Poetry from NZ from Amazon.Transported (short story collection) from Fishpond or New Zealand Books Abroad.

South Pacific and Asia Book Chat: An Appreciation

 

South Pacific and Asia Book Chat is a weekly book chat that takes place on Twitter on Thursday evenings (New Zealand time). To join it, all you need to do is (a) join Twitter and (b) send out tweets at the appropriate time which include the #spbkchat tag. I take part about once a fortnight, on average.



(You don't have to live in this region to participate - it's just that the chat was set up to be at a time that people in the region could make. Most book chats on Twitter are US-based, and the timing doesn't work for many other parts of the world.)



Recently, #spbkchat celebrated its first anniversary. During the past 13 months, a huge range of topics has been covered - there are general book chats every month or so, chats about particular genres, and chats about the national literatures of various countries in the region.



I find these latter chats especially interesting. Despite New Zealand's geographical position, New Zealanders - or at least (largely) monoglot New Zealanders like me - learn far more about books and writers from England and the US than we do about writers from Asia and the Pacific - or even Australia. I really value hearing about the writers to watch out for, and the shape of the writing and publishing scene, in the Philippines, and Indonesia, and - tonight's topic - Malaysia, and it is great that readers, and sometimes writers, from so many countries get involved.



So this is to say thanks to Marg, Maree and Tanabata, the organisers of #spbkchat, and to all the enthusiastic, knowledgeable folks - readers, writers, readers and writers - who take part. Long may it continue!You can buy books by Tim Jones online! Voyagers: SF Poetry from NZ from Amazon.Transported (short story collection) from Fishpond or New Zealand Books Abroad.

Tuesday Poem: Impertinent To Sailors - Now Set To Music

 

Curved over islands, the world

dragged me south in a talkative year



slipping Southampton

as the band played a distant farewell.



It was better than steerage,

that assisted passage: ten pound Poms



at sixpence the dozen, promenading

in sun frocks, gathering for quoits,



angling, in an understated way,

for a seat at the Captain's table —



while I, a child, roamed decks, became

impertinent to sailors.



And the heat! My dear, there never were

such days — rum, romance,



the rudiments of ska. Panama beckoned,

locks pulsing like the birth canal.



We passed through, to be rocked

on the swells of the quiet ocean,



its long unshaded days

of trade winds, doldrums, Equator —



then a cold shore,

a bureaucratic harbour,



and the half of a world

it would take to say goodbye.



Credit note: "Impertinent To Sailors" was published in JAAM 27 (2009), edited by Ingrid Horrocks, under the title "Over Islands", and is included in my new collection Men Briefly Explained.



Tim says: I've run "Impertinent to Sailors" as my Tuesday Poem before, and I don't usually repeat them - but there is a special reason to do this week. "Impertinent To Sailors" has been set to music as a choral work, "Brighton to Bondi", which will premiere at a concert of the same name at the Sydney Town Hall on Friday 16 September.



Here is composer and conductor Brett Weymark's account of how he wrote "Brighton to Bondi".



I was delighted when Brett got in touch, having found my poem online when it was previously posted as a Tuesday Poem - so thanks go to Mary McCallum too, for getting the Tuesday Poems rolling in the first place!



I hope the concert is a great success, and I also hope that this will not be the last time "Bright to Bondi" is performed.



You can check out all the Tuesday Poems on the Tuesday Poem Blog - this week's hub poem in the centre of the page, and all the other Tuesday Poems on the right.You can buy books by Tim Jones online! Voyagers: SF Poetry from NZ from Amazon.Transported (short story collection) from Fishpond or New Zealand Books Abroad.

The First Asian AB - Renee Liang's New Play Comes To Auckland And Wellington

 

Renee Liang is a poet, playwright, short story writer, and librettist. You can find out more about her work on her excellent blog and in my interview with her almost exactly a year ago.



Renee's latest venture is very timely indeed: a play called "The First Asian AB", which has Auckland and Wellington seasons coming up. Here are all the details from Renee's announcement:



Introducing The First Asian AB, a hilarious new comedy from Kiwi-Chinese writer Renee Liang...



What would you do to represent?



Willy's a homestay Asian student. Mook's Samoan and he's been here for ages. They're best mates at Timaru Boys High. But when Willy decides his dream is to try out for the All Blacks, mateship — and everything else — is up for grabs.



A warm feel-good comedy with serious undertones, The First Asian AB examines the question 'what makes someone Kiwi?' Is it rugby, racing and beer – or being true to oneself and one's friends?



At breakneck pace, Benjamin Teh (The Bone Feeder, Odd Socks) and Paul Fagamalo (Rent, Where We Once Belonged) capture multiple characters – a Samoan aiga, a bored class of thirteen year olds, two entire rugby teams playing each other, and one sassy girl called George.



Directed by Edward Peni (Samoa Mo Samoa, The West Auckland Cardigan Appreciation Society) with live music by Andrew Correa, and dramaturgy by Oscar Kightley, The First Asian AB debuts as part of the Real NZ Festival (the 'arty' side of the Rugby World Cup!).



Where You Can See the First Asian AB



Basement Studio, Auckland, 6pm, 13-18 Sep 2011,

Tickets http://www.iticket.co.nz/events/2011/..., (09) 361 1000

Q+A after the show on the 14th



BATS Theatre, Wellington, 6pm, 22 Sep-1 Oct 2011,

Tickets http://www.bats.co.nz/content/first-a..., (04) 802 4175

Q+A after the show on the 23rd



Tickets $18 full, $13 concession (seniors/students), $15 groups 6+



Renee adds:



For rugby diehard fans: where else could you pay 2% of the cost of a RWC opening ticket and watch 3 rugby matches in 90 minutes?? The show contains plenty of rugby hero moments!!



For people who couldn't care less about the RWC: this is not really a play about rugby, but about the immigrant experience. (Shhhhh.)You can buy books by Tim Jones online! Voyagers: SF Poetry from NZ from Amazon.Transported (short story collection) from Fishpond or New Zealand Books Abroad.

Judging And Presenting The Dan Davin Literary Awards

 

In April, I took part in the Readers and Writers Alive! Literary Festival in Invercargill, and had a great time. Hamesh Wyatt, Rebecca Amundsen and the Dan Davin Literary Foundation really know how to look after visiting writers - in a way that makes them feel a part of the community they are visiting - and if you ever get the chance to attend the Festival, my advice is: take it!



But my association with the Dan Davin Foundation didn't end there. I also took on the job of judging the Open and Student short story competitions, and I returned to Invercargill on 1 September to present the prizes.



I didn't know it when I chose the winners, place-getters and honourable mentions, but the identity of the winners turned out to be stories in themselves, one sad and one happy.



As the student section winner, I chose "A Day at the Beach" by Pooja Pillay. What I didn't know was that Pooja was seriously ill by the time I made my choice. She learned of her victory the day before she died, a few days before the presentation ceremony, as reported in the Southland Times.



As the Open section winner, I chose "The Journey of the Magi" by Claire Buckingham. While the Student competition is confined to senior high school students from Southland schools, the Open competition is open to entrants from throughout New Zealand, and this appears to have been the first time that a Southlander has won the Open section. (Not that I knew this when judging - the entries were anonymous.)



There were a number of other very fine stories among the placegetters and Honourable Mentions, and as I said in my Judge's Reports, both the present and the future of Southland writing appear to be in good hands.



Given the circumstances, the presentation ceremony (at which Bill Manhire also delivered the annual Dan Davin Lecture) was a bittersweet affair. I presented the open competition awards first - there was a lot of applause at the news a local writer had won, but Claire is away on her travels and wasn't able to receive the prize in person - and the student competition awards second.



This meant that Pooja's award was the last announced, and having announced her as the winner, I then handed over to representatives from Pooja's school, Aparima College. One of Pooja's fellow students gave a moving eulogy that focused on the difference Pooja's presence had made to the school and to her fellow students, then her English teacher read Pooja's winning story before we settled back to listen to Bill's lecture.



Some of us were still chatting away over food and drinks the best part of an hour after the formal parts of the evening finished, and this discussion only reinforced my feeling that the main thing holding writers back in Southland is not any lack of ability, but isolation, both real and perceived. I know the Dan Davin Literary Foundation has some big plans to help ease that isolation, and I am looking forward to seeing those plans come to fruition.You can buy books by Tim Jones online! Voyagers: SF Poetry from NZ from Amazon.Transported (short story collection) from Fishpond or New Zealand Books Abroad.