Box of Light is made possible thanks to these visionaries:
During the Dunedin Writers & Readers Festival this past weekend I had the chance to meet some incredibly talented writers. The organising team did such a good job with some impressive names in attendance. I got to meet Brian Turner – one of New Zealand's great writers, but also an environmentalist, poet and biographer who wrote some of the great stories of New Zealand sport over the years. He's also a nature lover and mountaineer and in his younger years he represented New Zealand in hockey and was involved in the top level of many other sports. He's 77 now, 30 years my senior, but talking about sport melted any age or talent barrier.
I also got to meet one of the world'd great romance and thriller writers: Nalini Singh. Born in Fiji and raised in New Zealand, Nalini's written bestsellers throughout the world (including 32 books that have hit the New York Times Bestseller list), but she is a real Kiwi girl at heart. She wanders around New Zealand and finds suitable places to kill off her various characters. She dazzled the audience with her very funny account of how AI might eventually replace writers completely ... or will it?
I also got to meet Becky Manawatu who is a meteor of a success story among New Zealand writers. Her first novel Auē was released in 2019 and won the 2020 Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize and the Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Crime Novel. Auē has been in the bestseller lists ever since. Becky is the 2021 University of Otago Burns Fellow in Dunedin, and is working on her next book right here in Dunedin. And she surfs. She reckons the fellowship has 'ruined her for real life', mainly because she gets to just write and doesn't have to worry about the day-to-day financial struggle. Becky is one of the most down-to-earth people you could meet.
Once the podcasts are released, we'll share some of those here for you ...
See you at the beach ... Derek
PS We've had a few print orders lately from deep dives into our archives (hence a couple of old favourites in this week's report). If you are looking for an image then the easiest way to find it is to search all the images using the "Search for photos ..." box on our Gallery page. Just choose your keyword; wave, St Kilda, Smaills, the king, sea lion, Fiji, Matt, Ziggy Alberts, Catlins – whatever you're after and your image should appear. Good luck.
Box of Light is made possible thanks to these visionaries: