ABOUT US
Welcome to 4th Floor 2012
The 4th Floor Literary Journal is a selection of work written each year by students and tutors on the writing programme at Whitireia New Zealand. Our submissions guidelines tell you how and when you can submit work to the journal.
The 4th Floor takes its name from the fact that, at the time the journal began, the writing programme was situated on the fourth floor of the Whitireia Wellington city campus. Though the programme has since shifted, the name 4th Floor has stuck.
The Whitireia Writing Programme
The Whitireia writing programme was established in 1993. At that time, the writing programme offered one full-year full-time course. Since 2005, it has offered three full-time diplomas, including the Bachelor of Applied Arts (Creative Writing).
The Whitireia writing programme emphasises originality and excellence in the craft of writing, and provides the practical business knowledge needed for being a writer. We are very proud of our graduates who take part in almost every aspect of New Zealand writing life: as organisers of performance poetry events and writers’ groups, in the New Zealand Book Council’s Writers in Schools programme, as scriptwriters for screen and stage, and as editors, journalists and writers for magazines and other publications.
The work of more than 25 students from the Whitireia writing programme has been published in books or in established and emerging literary magazines. Many of our graduates have won awards for their work. Some of the successful authors to emerge from this programme include:
Tusiata Avia
Donna Banicevich-Gera
Vince Ford
Mandy Hager
Lynn Jenner
Wendy Jones
Louise Lawrence
Joan MacLean
Karen McMillan
Anne Powell
Maajte Quivooy
Maggie Rainey-Smith
Alison Robertson
Jo Thorpe
Mercedes Webb-Pullman
Caren Wilton
Donna Wright
Acknowledgements
We are indebted to the tutors on the Whitireia writing programme:
Hinemoana Baker
Donna Banicevich-Gera
Steve Barr
Mary-Jane Duffy
Mandy Hager
Adrienne Jansen
Vanessa Simons
Anna Taylor
Renée Taylor
Julia Wall
We would also like to thank all the New Zealand writers and editors who contribute to the success of our student writers:
Fergus Barrowman
Fleur Beale
Norman Bilbrough
Costa Botes
James Brown
Rachel Davies
Chris Else
Barbara Else
Catherine Fitzgerald
Mandy Hager
Anna Jackson
Daphne De Jong
Michael Keith
Fiona Kidman
Jonathan King
Phillip Mann
Sue McCauley
Julia Millen
Stephanie de Montalk
Paula Morris
Julian Novitz
Chris Orsman
Vivienne Plumb
Anna Rogers
Elizabeth Smither
Paul Thomas
Bridget Williams
If you are interested in finding out more about the creative writing study options provided at Whitireia New Zealand, please visit the website or
NB: This website uses macrons to indicate double-vowels in Māori language words. Letters with macrons may appear strange to Mac users who browse with Firefox. We recommend using Safari instead, or Google Chrome.
