Writers on Mondays

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Introduction

From mid-July to October each year, the International Institute of Modern Letters (IIML), home of Victoria University's renowned creative writing programme, runs a series of events highlighting writers active in and around Wellington, as well as guests from overseas.

Sessions take place on Mondays at lunchtime, with additional evening events from time to time.

Writers on Mondays is a stimulating way to start the working week – and it's free!

Below is the programme of events held in 2012. The 2103 programme will be available to read or download on this page by June 2013.

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Writers on Mondays Programme 2012	160 KB	PDF

Writers on Mondays 2012 was hosted by the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, with additional support from Circa Theatre and City Gallery Wellington. Michael Hoffman's visit to New Zealand was made possible by Victoria University's New Zealand Centre for Literary Translation.

Events run Monday 12.15 - 1.15pm on The Marae, Level 4, Te Papa, except otherwise noted.

Admission is free, all welcome. Please note that no food may be taken onto the Te Papa Marae.

2012 Programme

9 JULY Metaphysics for the Young and Curious: Bernard Beckett

Victoria University Writer in Residence and two-time New Zealand Post Young Adult Book Award winner Bernard Beckett is working on a screenplay for his novel August, and writing the third and final in a series of metaphysical novels, examining death. A young girl is rescued from a plague-ravaged slum by a rich benefactor, and taken to a world where nothing is as it seems…join us for a sneak preview with chair Kate De Goldi.

16 JULY The Graft of Poetry: Helen Heath, Joan Fleming, Lynn Davidson, Harry Ricketts

Four poets with collections published in the last twelve months offer a sampler of their work, and discuss the long and possibly rocky road to publication. Helen Heath (Graft) and Joan Fleming (The Same as Yes) are first-timers; Lynn Davidson (whose Common Ground mixes poetry and essay) and Harry Ricketts (Just Then) are both teachers of creative writing with longer track records. Does it get any easier after the first book? Chair: Chris Price.

23 JULY Best New Zealand Poems 2011

As a curtain raiser for National Poetry Day on 27 July, Chris Price introduces a baker’s dozen of the 25 poets whose work was chosen by last year’s editor, Bernadette Hall, for the on-line anthology Best New Zealand Poems 2011. We welcome Hera Bird, Zarah Butcher-McGunnigle, Janis Freegard, Rob Hack, Dinah Hawken, Anna Jackson, Helen Lehndorf, Kate McKinstry, Bill Manhire, Harvey Molloy, Marty Smith, Ranui Taiapa and Tim Upperton.

30 JULY I Come from Palmerston North: James Brown

This month sees the release of James Brown’s fifth poetry collection, Warm Auditorium. We thought it was time to find out more about the man behind the poems, and tease out the shifts and changes in the work itself. Chair Fergus Barrowman drags the poet away from his desk at Te Papa to consider how work, world and words have cohabited and evolved between the covers of his books, and to give the new poems a hearing.

6 AUGUST Bohemian Girl: Terese Svoboda

New York writer Terese Svoboda has a body of work that includes poetry, novels, memoir, translation and over a hundred published short stories. Black Glasses Like Clark Kent is a memoir of her uncle’s chilling experience as a military policeman in occupied Japan, and Weapons Grade uses poetry to interrogate the power of occupation – both political and personal. Svoboda’s latest novel is Bohemian Girl, ‘a cross between True Grit and Huckleberry Finn’. She talks with Mary McCallum.

13 AUGUST Speaking in Tongues: Michael Hofmann

In the year New Zealand takes centre-stage at the Frankfurt Book Fair, it’s a pleasure to present one of the world’s most highly-esteemed translators of German literature. Michael Hofmann has translated many of the greats (Roth, Brecht, Kafka, Eich, Süskind), including his own father, the novelist Gert Hofmann. He is an award-winning poet in his own right, as well as an astute poetry critic and editor. He appears in conversation with Bill Manhire. Michael Hofmann's visit to New Zealand has been made possible by the New Zealand Centre for Literary Translation at Victoria University.

20 AUGUST Better Than a Marriage? Ken Duncum and David O'Donnell at CIRCA

It’s said that, all going well, the playwright/director relationship can be ‘better than a marriage’. Ken Duncum and David O’Donnell talk about who does what and who did what in their world premiere production of West End Girls (running at Circa, 4 Aug-1 Sept). Where – if anywhere – are the creative divisions between writing a play and directing it? Are they two different things – or different phases of the same thing?

27 AUGUST Blood and Money: Gigi Fenster, Kirsten McDougall, Lawrence Patchett

Amercian writer Grace Paley once observed that stories could be about anything but they needed to ‘retain the facts of blood and money’. The eagerly-awaited debut short fiction collection from Lawrence Patchett and the acclaimed first novels by Kirsten McDougall and Gigi Fenster, are featured in this session. Hear what three new writers think about blood and money and books. Chair: Damien Wilkins.

3 SEPTEMBER Songs of My Life: Bill Manhire

The publication of the career-view Selected Poems is the perfect opportunity to profile this major figure in our literature. In his retirement year from Victoria University, it might also be time to lay to rest rumours of warm slippers and the fireside chair. The five-time winner of the New Zealand Book Award for Poetry will read and discuss his work with Damien Wilkins.

10 SEPTEMBER The Next Page (1)

Each September we preview talent emerging from the MA Writing for the Page workshops at the IIML. This week 10 writers read from prose and poetry in progress: Jessica Hansell, Megan Corcoran, Julie Hanify, Jane Blaikie, Helen Innes, Greg Kan, Samantha Byres, Kerry Brown, Hannah Mettner and Sue Francis are introduced by Chris Price.

17 SEPTEMBER The Next Page (2)

Another smorgasbord of new writing from the IIML’s 2012 MA workshops. Damien Wilkins introduces Magnolia Wilson, Cushla Managh, Nancy Fulford, Georgia Vaughan, Zarah Butcher-McGunnigle, Lydia Wisheart, Adam Stewart, Sarah-Jane Parton, Jo Morris and Wendy Joyce.

24 SEPTEMBER Short/Sharp/Script (1) at CIRCA

How much drama can you cram into 60 minutes? Find out as actors perform rehearsed readings of work produced by MA (Script) students at the IIML. Ken Duncum introduces snappy dialogue from Viany Choudary, Uther Dean, Francesca Emms, Kirsty Hamilton and Leon Harrison.

1 OCTOBER Short/Sharp/Script (2) at CIRCA

Five more funny, fast and furious mini-dramas by MA scriptwriters are delivered fresh and hot. Andy James, Maaike Olsthoorn, Joanna Pascoe, Jonathan Thompson and James Wypych are on show with Ken Duncum, once again cooking up the most entertaining lunch-hour in Wellington.

8 OCTOBER Poems, Photographs & Regenerating Histories: Kerry Hines at CITY GALLERY

Working with an archive of nineteenth-centure photographs, Kerry Hines has written a compelling collection of poems that bring together text and image, fact and imagination; raising the question of how we look at and imagine our history. Kerry will discuss the archive and its creator, outline the origins and development of the work, and present a selection of the poems and photographs which form part of her creative writing PhD thesis. Chaired by Roger Blackley.

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