In acknowledgement of the difficult year we’ve all faced, and in recognition of the partnership Waitangi Day hopes to foster, the New Zealand Society of Authors Te Puni Kaituhi O Aotearoa (PEN NZ) Inc would like to take the opportunity to commend each and every one of our members and celebrate their persistence and resilience in continuing to write, publish, support and share ideas in the face of relentless pandemic stress and worry.

We’d like to thank our members for their continued support at a time when, for many, an annual subscription may seem a superfluous expense. We pledge to keep fighting for their rights and to return this support in every way we’re able. We still face many uphill challenges in ensuring writers and illustrators are fairly compensated for their work, and that their work is protected by copyright, but our resolve is firm. In the spirit of partnership, we call on the government to make good their promises of a sustainable creative sector and to acknowledge the importance of writing, literacy and home-grown books to the wellbeing of all Aotearoa’s people and reward it accordingly.

In this same spirit of partnership, we would also like to honour Australian writer and part-time New Zealand resident Laura Jean McKay, whose extraordinary book The Animals in that Country won the prestigious Arthur C. Clarke Award, among several other impressive prizes, including the Victoria Prize for Literature, Australia’s richest literary prize.  Those fortunate enough to be taught by Laura in her role as Adjunct Lecturer at Massey University are enriched by the experience and we’re grateful to ‘borrow’ her from our neighbour, in the same spirit that sees Australia ‘borrow’ many of our own!

Aroha and kia kaha Aotearoa!