• Fire and Fury – the right to freedom of speech under threat in the US

    ABA and Authors Guild Slam Trump’s Legal Campaign Against ‘Fire and Fury’ By Jim Milliot | Jan 04, 2018 A range of book industry organizations, including the ABA and the Authors Guild, have issued public condemnations of President Trump’s attempt to block Henry Holt’s publication of Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House by Michael Wolff. […]

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  • NZ author Joy Cowley heads New Year Honours list

    Congratulations to Joy Cowley, who has received the country’s top honour in the 2018 New Year Honours list! Joy Cowley has been an active and supportive member of the New Zealand Society of Authors (PEN NZ Inc) since joining in 1966. We are thrilled to see her outstanding service to literature and literacy in New Zealand […]

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  • Winners of the 2018 D’Arcy Writers’ Grants – Renee Liang and Mary Paul

    The winners of the 2018 D’Arcy Writers’ Grants are Renee Liang and Mary Paul.  They will each receive $5000 for 10,000-12,000 word essays.   The judges decided on the two winners from the largest field of applicants since the grants were first offered by generous New York-based expatriates, Mark and Deborah D’Arcy.   Renee Liang plans […]

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  • Archaeological heist caper film script wins prize

    IIML Awards to Sarah Harpur and Richard Dey – congratulations. A film script featuring an outlawed metal-detecting amateur archaeologist in 1980s Ireland battling the National Museum to prove an historical truth has been awarded the 2017 David Carson-Parker Embassy Prize for Scriptwriting at Victoria University of Wellington. Written by Sarah Harpur for her 2017 Master […]

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  • James Norcliffe Selected as 2018 Randell Cottage Writer in Residence

    Christchurch-based writer James Norcliffe is to be the 2018 Creative New Zealand Randell Cottage Writing Fellow. Norcliffe has published nine collections of poetry, a short story collection and ten novels for young people. As an editor he has had long involvement with the literary magazine, takah? and has edited anthologies of poetry and young people’s writing. He’s also served as […]

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  • Powerful poetry collection wins Adam Foundation Prize – Tayi Tibble

    A “powerful, restrained but unafraid” collection of poems that explore the lives of four generations of M?ori women has been awarded the 2017 Adam Foundation Prize in Creative Writing by Victoria University of Wellington’s International Institute of Modern Letters (IIML).   Tayi Tibble, 22, wrote the winning work—In a Fish Tank Filled with Pink Light—as […]

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  • OneTree House reveal 2018 catalogue

    In May 2017 OneTree House announced the formation of a new, New Zealand children’s publisher and today reveal their 2018 catalogue here. The titles emanate from a wealth of award-winning talent, and present picture books, junior fiction, middle fiction and young adult novels, from authors such as Kyle Mewburn, Mary-anne Scott, Brian Falkner, Tina Shaw, […]

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  • Protecting copyright is crucial to fostering creativity

    Protecting copyright is crucial to fostering creativity   Copyright Agency Limited chairman Kim Williams.Picture: Stuart McEvoy The issues of copyright and respect for creators is a great policy challenge in Australian creative life. The rights of creators are under siege on many fronts: • no consideration to who loses out when books, music, TV or […]

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  • Signals 2017 Launched

    The Michael King Writers’ Centre launched the sixth issue of Signals, its literary journal for young writers, on Saturday 9 December at the National Library in Parnell. The journal features the work of senior secondary students who took part in this year’s Young Writers Programme, as well as its alumni. Over 190 pieces were submitted […]

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  • Author Richard Flanagan says artists are held in contempt by those in power

    Award-winning author Richard Flanagan has accused politicians from both major parties of holding Australian artists in contempt and “frequently and assiduously” acting against their interests. Flanagan also said in a speech to the Copyright Agency that Australia faced the prospect of its culture being the “milch cow” of tech giants Google, Facebook, Amazon and Apple, who he described […]

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  • 2018 Grimshaw Sargeson Fellows to explore séances and a hostage drama

    The 2018 Grimshaw Sargeson Fellowship will help talented New Zealand playwright Carl Bland craft a hostage drama set in a pie shop, and writer David Howard summon Katherine Mansfield’s ghost to a séance. Carl and David have both been selected for New Zealand’s pre-eminent literary fellowship. The pair will share an annual stipend of $20,000 […]

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  • Focus on Fair Use: Debunking Copyright’s Snake Oil Salesmen

    Focus on Fair Use: Debunking Copyright’s Snake Oil Salesmen By Keith Kupferschmid,   1 December 2017   I was on the phone last week talking to someone about a potential partnership between our two organizations that could benefit individual creators. We began by exchanging information about our respective organizations. He spoke first, and I followed. After […]

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