Janis Freegard's Blog, page 2

Toitū Te Tiriti!

So, a couple of weeks ago, I became a New Zealand citizen. I know, I know, I’ve lived here since I was twelve. The rest of my family took out citizenship decades ago. I could have done it then. I didn’t. Basically it was about the monarchy. I couldn’t see the point of paying lots of money to swear allegiance to a British monarch (yes, I know they’re the kings and queens of New Zealand too) when I was already a British subject. If it was about allegiance to Aotearoa or the Treaty, fair enough, I would have done that happily. But apart from not being able to run for parliament or work at MFAT, being a permanent resident gives you pretty much the same rights as a citizen, so I didn’t ever see the need.

Before Citizenship

Roll on Covid, when people were getting stuck overseas and Peter was worried I’d be away somewhere and not be able to come home. And it made sense, and culturally, I’m more of a New Zealander than a British person – although I’m a Sand Dancer* until I die. So anyway, now it’s official! And I got to shake hands with the lovely Tory Whanau in Te Papa, knowing Peter and Fleur were supporting me from the audience.

There are four options for declaring allegiance to the king: a religious oath in English, a religious oath in te reo, an affirmation in English or an affirmation in te reo. I felt very pleased to be able to stand with half a dozen others as we collectively affirmed in te reo. Afterwards the new citizens were given a certificate and a lovely little native tree.

* Sand Dancer – person from South Shields

During the ceremony

After citizenship

Photos courtesy of Fleur and the official photographer. Tiriti earrings by tawhiao7.

Ration the Queen’s veges!

Save the Date!

In a few weeks, a new publication will be replacing the late, great Polly (top left) in the line-up above. Yes – I have a new book coming out! Last year I won a Short Story Competition for my collection, ‘Wild, Wild Women’. It’s being published by At The Bay | I Te Kokoru and will be launched at:

Unity Books
Wellington
at 6pm on 19 June 2024.

This is what the judges said:

More details coming soon!

Music & Poetry with Neil Johnstone

Delighted to be reading a few poems and listening to Neil’s eerie soundscapes.

This Sunday at the Undercurrent!

Full respect to everyone who can remember their poems, but I will be reading mine off bits of paper, or a tablet if I’m feeling fancy

All wrapped up

Sometimes I set myself a goal for the year. It’s not quite a New Year’s Resolution, but more of an intention, something to aim for. I’d be disappointed if I did nothing to try to achieve it, but I’m not too bothered if I don’t do everything I aimed for.

The year I turned nineteen (1982), I decided to read 100 books during the year. This was because, after starting university in 1980, I found I was reading less fiction. Most of my reading was science textbooks. I missed what fiction can bring: the pleasure in story, the joy of language, the escape. So I set myself the 100 book goal. I kept a record at the back of my diary of everything I read and allocated stars to each book. My highest-rated books (4 stars) included ‘Looking On Darkness’ – André Brinks, ‘The Clown’ – Heinrich Böll, ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’ – Ken Kesey, ‘The Bleeding Heart’ – Marilyn French and ‘Merlin’ – Robert Nye. Janet Frame and Joy Cowley were on the list but otherwise it was all overseas authors. Most of the books I read back then were written by men, so in a later year I decided to read only female authors, to catch up.

I finished the hundredth novel late on New Year’s Eve (I was staying with my parents in Masterton and had no parties to go to), speed reading Jean Genet’s ‘Funeral Rites’. (I’d given up on the stars sometime in November, so I can’t tell you now what I thought).

So, fast forward to January 2023 when I set myself a target of submitting my writing 50 times during the year ie almost weekly. January was quiet and I was able to get 8 submissions away, so I was off to a good start.

To be clear, I was counting submission-events, rather than individual pieces. So if I sent off 5 poems to a journal, that was one submission; if I sent a whole manuscript to a publisher, that was one submission; if I entered a short story to a competition, that was one submission. Much of it was work I had already written, although there were also a number of new pieces. Commissions also counted, as did reprints of previously published work.

I’m pleased to say I got there, submitting work 50 times by the end of December. Of course, this has meant collecting many rejections. Generally, I don’t mind rejections too much. The way I see it, if I start a piece, that’s a success; if I finish a piece, that’s a success; if I send a piece out into the world, that’s a success. Obviously, I want everything to find a good home, but if a journal or publisher is not a match for a particular piece, I try to place it somewhere else. When a rejection arrives, I might feel a momentary disappointment, but most of the time, this is quickly displaced by the small pleasure of being able to update the elaborate submissions workbook I keep in Excel.

So, this is how I did in 2023. All up, I submitted 79 things: 34 stories (including flash fiction), 39 poems, 2 manuscripts and 4 essays/ creative non-fiction pieces. There is some double counting – if I submitted the same story to two different journals, I counted it twice. And if I was to add in all the individual stories included in the short story manuscript I submitted, the total goes up to 99 (or 98 really, because then you’d have to remove the manuscript from the total).

So far, 6 of the short stories and 5 of the poems have been published. A short story collection, an essay and a poem are due out in 2024. I’m also waiting to hear back about 9 more stories, 9 more poems and another manuscript.

It was a good exercise and I feel pleased with myself for getting there. I’m not intending to do it all again this year, but I will try to have 5 – 10 things out there in the world at any one time. Then, when a rejection comes back, I still have something to hope for.

I also had a few things published in 2023 that I’d submitted in 2022, so that was nice.

This year, rather, my aim is to write more. I haven’t set a firm target, but I reckon if I have 12 new things by the end of 2024, I’ll be very happy.

Ngā mihi o te wā (Season’s greetings)

Meri Kirihimete & Happy Solstice. Wishing everyone safety, peace and joy.

Two Anthologies

I’m very pleased to have work in two stunning collections: Iona Winter’s ‘a liminal gathering’ and ‘Headland’ (Massey University Press).

a liminal gathering makes a space for personal expressions of grief in the form of poetry, prose, essays, photos, art and music. Editor Iona Winter says “This book seeks to provide comfort, and act as a taonga to be shared between loving hands, during difficult times.” My contribution to the collection is a poem about my father.

Publications

Headland is an online journal that publishes short fiction and creative non-fiction. The current issue focuses on speculative fiction and includes an interview with Gina Cole. It’s great to have my story ‘Mercury and Back‘ in this issue.

Meowing at Unity

The Meow Gurrrls will be chatting with Chris Price at Unity this Thursday lunchtime 28th September 2023 -come along!

You can also listen to today’s interview with Meow Gurrrls Mary Macpherson, Mary-Jane Duffy and Sudha Rao on Culture 101

Meow Gurrrls Zine Launch

Famdamily Launch

6pm-7pm, Thursday 7 September, Te Awe Library, 29 Brandon Street, Wellington

The Meow Gurrrls – a poetry collective I’m part of – are launching our latest poetry zine Famdamily: Meowing Part 2 (illustrated by Mary-Jane Duffy) next Thursday. We’ll be reading from the zine at Te Awe Library 6pm – 7pm. Hope to see you there!

The Meow Gurrrls are: Kirsten Le Harivel, Mary Jane Duffy, Mary Macpherson, Abra Sandi King, Sudha Rao and me. We’re a group of Wellington and Kāpiti Coast poets, and took our name from Meow, the venue where we used to meet.

More here: https://fb.me/e/2MWiR8bpE

You catch watch our Youtube channel here

Poetry, Poetry!

It’s National Poetry Day this Friday 25th August 2023 and there’ll be events all over Aotearoa to celebrate: here’s the calendar

I’ll be attending the Poets on the Writers Walk Salon here in Te Whanganui-a-Tara (details below) which will celebrate the writers walk poets and poets who entered the NZSA Poetry Competition. The competition used prompts from the sculptures as inspiration and I was delighted to be the judge (is it ever really possible to judge poetry?) – what a treat it was reading all the poems. Everyone deserves a prize.

Happy 21st to the Writers Walk – we’re so lucky to have you!

SALON – POETS ON THE WRITERS WALK

Join Wellington Writers Walk and Wellington Branch of New Zealand Society of Authors on Phantom Billstickers National Poetry Day, for a celebration of poetry featured in, and inspired by, Wellington Writers Walk. At this salon event we’ll announce the winners of our POETS ON THE WRITERS WALK competition. We’ll have readings from competition winners and entrants, an open mic, and special guests. As well as new poems, we’ll celebrate the poems and poets featured among the 23 typographical sculptures of our iconic waterfront WELLINGTON WRITERS WALK – which turned 21 in 2023 – with readings from the sculptures, and visuals projected on screen.

Entry details: Entry by donation, $5 recommended

Date/Times: 25 August 2023, 5.30—8.30pm

Location: Adam Auditorium at City Gallery Wellington Te Whare Toi

Contact: wellington@nzauthors.org.nz

Further info: http://www.authors.org.nz/wellington