CONTRIBUTORS
RACHEL BUSH
Rachel Bush lives in Nelson. She has worked in community education and as a teacher. She has been published in periodicals such as Sport, Landfall, New Zealand Listener and Faber’s Introduction. Her most recent book of poetry, All Patients Report Here, was published by Wai-te-ata Press (2006).
FAY CAMERON
Fay Cameron lives in Napier. She completed the Graduate Diploma in Creative Writing at Whitireia Polytechnic in 2008, was second in a national short story competition in 2006, and was selected to be part of the New Zealand Society of Authors mentor programme in 2002 and the manuscript assessment programme in 2006. ‘On Being Sophie’s Father’ is an excerpt from her novel Say Something. Fay Cameron is a pen name.
ELIZABETH COLEMAN
Elizabeth Coleman relishes the chance to write – the challenge it poses to create and craft. She lives in Marton and is often to be seen walking her dog whilst working on a poem or a story.
WHAI CONROY
Whai Conroy (Te Arawa) is a printer’s assistant from Porirua. Since injuring his back in 2008, he has completed various artworks and begun a creative writing course at Whitireia Polytechnic. He wrote ‘Body of Christ’ while completing the short fiction module.
KAY CORNS
Kay Corns completed her Bachelor of Applied Arts in 2008 at Whitireia Polytechnic. She acknowledges the tremendous insight and guidance she received from tutors Hinemoana Baker, Lynn Davidson and Renée. In 2009 she is completing her MA in Creative Writing at Victoria University.
LYNN DAVIDSON
Lynn Davidson is the author of three collections of poetry, Tender, Mary Shelley’s Window and How to live by the sea, and a novel, Ghost Net. Her poetry and short stories have appeared in Sport, Landfall, Turbine and The Red Wheelbarrow. In 2003 she was awarded the Louis Johnson Writer’s Bursary. Lynn tutors on the Whitireia creative writing programme.
NATASHA DENNERSTEIN
Natasha, an Australian-born New Zealander, has spent the past twenty years as a mental health nurse, which has given her an interesting perspective on the human condition. She has recently returned to her true love – creative writing – and has been writing up a storm during her first year at Whitireia Polytechnic.
MARY-JANE DUFFY
Mary-Jane Duffy’s poems have appeared in Millionaire’s Shortbread (Otago University Press, 2003) Sport and New Zealand Listener, as well as art publications Living By The Sea (Mahara Gallery, 2005) and Caught In This Sensual Music All: Works of Janet Paul (Fernbank Studio/City Gallery, Wellington, 2000). She co-directs Mary Newton Gallery in Wellington.
JUSTINE ELDRED
Justine Eldred is the wife of Andy and mother to Eden Hope, Julian Dennis and Leon Justice. She has studied short fiction, poetry and novel writing through Whitireia Polytechnic and Victoria University. Presently, she is writing a mythic drama, in bed, in her borrowed nineteenth-century villa in Greytown.
BARBARA ELSE
Barbara Else has published six novels as well as children’s books, short stories, articles and plays. She has also edited anthologies of work for children. She is co-director of a literary agency and manuscript assessment service. In 1999 she was Victoria University Writer in Residence, and holds an MNZM for services to literature.
HOLLY JANE EWENS
Holly Jane Ewens is a Paekākāriki-based poet and performer. An actor, musician and songwriter, she is currently studying at Whitireia Polytechnic and working towards a collection of intimate poems that explore the role of theatrical tragedy in the modern world.
ANAHERA GILDEA
Anahera Gildea (Ngāti Raukawa-ki-te-Tonga) was the winner of the 2007 Pikihuia Award for Best Novel Extract and has had short stories and poetry published in several collections. She is currently working on completion of her first novel, multiple theatre projects and wrangling her three-year-old son.
MANDY HAGER
Mandy Hager is a Wellington educator and writer of both fiction and non-fiction. She is currently tutoring the 2009 novel writing course at Whitireia Polytechnic. Her novel Smashed won the Esther Glenn Award in 2008, and the first book in her Blood of the Lamb trilogy, The Crossing, was published by Random House in 2009.
HELEN HEATH
Helen Heath is writing her first book of poetry for her MA in Creative Writing at Victoria University. Helen has been published in JAAM magazine, Poetry New Zealand, Turbine, Glottis and the 4th Floor Literary Journal and most recently has had a chap-book of poems published by Seraph Press called Watching for Smoke. She lives and works in Paekākāriki with her partner and two children. She blogs here and here.
LYNN JENNER
Until 2003, Lynn Jenner worked as an educational psychologist and counsellor, and read a lot. In 2004 and 2007, she studied writing at Whitireia Polytechnic, and in 2008 completed an MA in Creative Writing at Victoria University. She found ‘Houdini Causes an Elephant and its Keeper to Vanish at the Hippodrome’ in The New York Times.
KEVIN JOHNSTON
Kevin Johnston is not a mathematician, but has figured out the equation.
eat; sleep; tweet; watch; write
Not always in that order.
He lives in Auckland.
REINA KAHUKIWA
Te Arawa, Tūhoe, Ngāti Porou, Rongowhakāta, Te Aitanga-a-Māhaki.
Mother of two children, thirteen and fourteen years of age. I manage the Māori art resource business Mauri Tu. Degree in Sociology and Māori Studies, and Diploma in Māori Studies from Victoria University, and Diploma in Journalism from Whitireia Polytechnic. Studied film and television at Auckland Institute of Technology. I’ve held project management jobs comprising writing for the arts and in corporate sectors. I’m currently studying creative writing at Whitireia Polytechnic. Mauri ora.
MICHELLE MACKINNON
In 2008, Michelle MacKinnon completed a Graduate Diploma in Creative Writing and wrote the award-winning novel Escape from Eden and children’s picture book Bluebell Mary. A registered general and obstetric nurse, her career path has been varied – from beekeeping, alternative medicine and hobby farming to accounting, marketing and voluntary counselling.
SINÉAD MARTIN
A Londoner in Dunedin, Sinéad studied online at Whitireia Polytechnic in 2008. Then she pushed further south to Antarctica in December as a student at Gateway Antarctica. She remains stunned by her experience on the Ice. She is now working on poems and short stories in between gazing out the window.
BILL NELSON
These poems were written in 2008 while Bill was working towards the Advanced Diploma in Creative Writing at Whitireia Polytechnic. They also became part of his successful application to the Victoria University MA in Creative Writing programme. They are both set in Auckland.
MAGGIE RAINEY-SMITH
Writer, Mother, Lover, Grandmother. Found my literary feet in the undergraduate poetry and short fiction courses at Victoria University in 1999, followed by twenty weeks with Timaru’s Chekhov at Aoraki Polytechnic in 2001, and Whitireia’s Advanced Diploma in Creative Writing in 2003. Two novels published by Random House, About Turns and Turbulence – third novel under construction.
CERIDWYN ROBERTS
Ceridwyn Roberts is making her way in her late thirties through nappies, self-employment, a recovering addiction to adjectives and the ability to recite Slinky Malinki with her eyes closed. She is currently writing a young adult fantasy novel with the help of the Advanced Diploma in Creative Writing.
LORRAINE SINGH
Lorraine is a Wellington poet and a woman of unmentionable age. She studied creative writing at Whitireia Polytechnic in 2006 and 2007, and completed an Advanced Diploma in Creative Writing in 2008. Lorraine has previously had her work published in the 4th Floor Literary Journal (2007), Paekakariki Xpress (2007) and the Wellington sonnet competition publication Sonnets (2008).
ELIZABETH SMITHER
Elizabeth Smither was Te Mata Estate Poet Laureate (2001–2003) and received the Prime Minister’s Award for Literary Achievement in Poetry in 2008. She also writes novels and short stories. Her most recent collections are The Year of Adverbs (Auckland University Press, 2007) and Horse Playing the Accordion (Ahadada Books, 2007).
PUAWAI SWINDELLS-WALLACE
Kia ora. I’m of Ngāi Tahu descent and this is my first year exploring creative writing. My writing is influenced by detail. I enjoy the sound of words read off a page and the ambiguity that some words hold. I want to spend the rest of my life writing everything down.
APIRANA TAYLOR
Apirana Taylor, born in 1955, is a nationally and internationally published poet, playwright, short-story writer and novelist. He is of Ngāti Porou, Te Whānau-a-Apanui, Ngāti Ruanui, Te Āti Awa and Pākehā descent. He frequently tours as a poet visiting schools, tertiary institutions and prisons reading his poetry, storytelling and taking creative-writing workshops. He lives as an artist in Paekākāriki with his whānau.
CHARMAINE THOMSON
Charmaine Thomson is living in Wellington where her day job funds the real pleasures of life – like coffee, poetry, music and dance. Charmaine studied music and teaching in the past. She studied poetry through the online programme at Whitireia Polytechnic in 2007. These poems are her first published works. She looks forward to immersing herself further in poetry. Charmaine is very grateful to Lynn Davidson for being such an inspiring tutor.
JO THORPE
Jo Thorpe graduated from the Whitireia Polytechnic creative writing programme in 1998. She gained her MA in Creative Writing from Victoria University in 2001 and her first book of poetry, Len & other poems, was published by Steele Roberts in 2003. Jo is also a dance writer and critic, teaches dance history at the New Zealand School of Dance in Wellington and dances with the Crowsfeet Dance Collective. She and her architect partner share five daughters and five grandchildren.
GEORGIA TODD
Georgia is currently completing a BA in Psychology at Victoria University. She completed the Diploma in Creative Writing at Whitireia Polytechnic in 2006, and significantly enjoyed the term on screenwriting. It has been a lifelong dream to write a film, and living in Wellington has its everyday inspirations. Georgia enjoys writing short stories and poetry and is working on a fiction-entwined memoir as well as attending the odd lecture.
MERCEDES WEBB-PULLMAN
Mercedes Webb-Pullman is studying for a Diploma in Creative Writing from Whitireia Polytechnic. She has participated in poetry workshops at the International Institute of Modern Letters, Victoria University, and is published in Turbine (2008), Mana magazine, the Poets to the People collection and various online sites. She reads at open mic sessions on the Kapiti coast.
