16 December 2022
This year’s issue of Turbine | Kapohau, the annual online literary journal of the International Institute of Modern Letters (IIML) | Te Pūtahi Tuhi Auaha o te Ao, is now live.
The journal showcases brand new fiction, creative non-fiction, and poetry from the 2022 Master of Arts (MA) in Creative Writing workshops at the IIML, as well as brilliant work from emerging and established writers across Aotearoa. The journal proudly features work by the 2022 Adam Foundation Prize winner Olive Nuttall, and the 2022 Peter and Mary Biggs Prize winner Nafanua Purcell Kersel (Faleālupo, Malaelā, Mosula, Satufia, Tuaefu).
Two MA workshop members have already been awarded residencies for 2023. Ariana Tikao (Kāi Tahu) will take up the Creative New Zealand Ursula Bethell Residency at the University of Canterbury, and Amber Esau (Ngāpuhi, Manase) was awarded an emerging Māori/Pasifika writer’s residency at the Michael King Writers Centre in Auckland.
Senior lecturer Chris Price says, “It’s great to see two of our writers off to a flying start in their careers, and there are many others we’ll be reading great work from in the future.”
In this year’s journal, an overarching theme is one of reaffirmation and rediscovery of who we are. Why, the writers ask, do we continue to make art when constantly knocked back? For Sean Molloy, Erin Donohue, and Ashleigh Young, there is a sense of connection with others in their essays and poems. Amber Esau, Majella Cullinane, and Nat Baker bring their whānau to the page, looking to the past to discover themselves.
Megan Dunn, the Creative New Zealand Te Herenga Waka―Victoria University of New Zealand 2022 Writer in Residence, shares her customary candour and humour in an illuminating interview with Jennifer Trevelyan. Dunn discusses the residency, writing, and her obsession with mermaids, all of which led to her curation of the exhibition The Mermaid Chronicles, which can be viewed until 18 December at the Adam Art Gallery.
With over 550 submissions this year from almost 200 writers, this year’s Turbine | Kapohau co-editors had their work cut out for them. The final journal features a judiciously selected 89 pieces from 57 different writers. Six writers―Amber Esau, Kahu Kutia, Natasha Lampard, Khadro Mohamed, Sylvan Spring, and Ariana Tikao―also perform their pieces in a series of stunning recordings.
This edition of Turbine | Kapohau was co-edited by 2022 MA workshop members Jackie Lee Morrison, Jenny Nimon, and Nafanua Purcell Kersel. You can view the journal at: https://turbinekapohau.org.nz
