2018 NZSA Writer Mentorships announced

Recipients have been selected for the New Zealand Society of Authors Mentorship Programme 2018 with thirteen chosen from a pool of ninety applicants. With a high level of commitment shown by the applicants and a wide variety of fascinating projects the judges had quite a task making their selection.

Our 2018 mentees are emerging writers with unique voices who have chosen to write in a diverse array of genres including contemporary fiction, young adult fiction, crime fiction, biography, memoir, creative non-fiction, literary fiction, children’s fiction, short fiction and poetry.

The 2018 recipients are: Dale Alderson, Heather Bauchop, Rose Carlyle, Vanessa Hatley-Owen, Margot McLean, Sarah Myles, Szening Ooi, Jessica Priestley, Rebecca Reader, Andy Southall, Leslie Van Gelder, Christopher Weale, and Mary Wilkins.

Writers create stories anywhere and our 2018 mentees hang their hats in Gisborne, Hawkes Bay, Palmerston North, Khandallah/Wellington, North East Valley/Dunedin, Redcliffs/Christchurch, Glenorchy near Lake Wakatipu, Te Atatu South, Takapuna, Pt Chevalier, Howick and Kelston in Auckland, with one mentee currently living in Victoria, Australia.

They will spend the remainder of 2018 honing their skills and developing their craft under the mentorship of some of New Zealand’s finest professional writers. Photos and info about 2018 mentees.

Selection panel convener Joan Rosier-Jones commented that ‘with 90 worthy applicants selection was far from easy. The panel had to look at a number of considerations: the standard of writing, the originality of the idea, the works potential in the marketplace and the clarity of expression, especially with the synopsis. Our final choices met all of these and the applicants are to be congratulated’.

Mentorships are offered by the NZSA every year with the intent of fostering and developing emerging writers with the support of established practitioners. The NZSA has run a highly successful mentoring programme for writers since 1999 and it is supported by funding from Creative New Zealand.