Top literary names sign up with new academy

23 May 2016
Smiles all round at the launch of the Academy of New Zealand Literature
Smiles all round at the launch of the Academy of New Zealand Literature

Patricia Grace, Eleanor Catton and Witi Ihimaera are just a few of the big literary names associated with an ambitious initiative launched by award-winning New Zealand author Paula Morris last week.

Paula, the convenor of our Master of Creative Writing programme, has created the Academy of New Zealand Literature/Te Whare Mātātuhi o Aotearoa, which she envisions as “promoting, supporting and sustaining” a community of New Zealand’s best writers.

The ANZL's public face is a website which offers in-depth literary features, conversations between notable writers from New Zealand and overseas and profiles of its fellows, as well as the latest literary news, cartoons, excerpts and quotes.

Thoughts from New Zealand writers currently based overseas will also be part of the mix in a letters section.

Imagined as a constantly growing magazine, the site will offer a valuable resource for everyone from teachers, students and researchers to agents, publishers, editors, booksellers and literary festival directors, both in New Zealand and overseas.

“Teachers, for example, have very few secondary resources; this site will let them know who’s writing, who’s well regarded and who’s doing what,” explains Paula.

Meanwhile, the ANZL's ‘back room’ will function as a support network for mid-career and established writers, identifying a range of opportunities to promote and support their careers via scholarships, residencies, festivals and other valuable connections.

The ANZL will also be working on creating e-samplers to promote New Zealand writers to international publishers and festival directors.

Being a writer can be a lonely and frequently discouraging occupation that involves a constant struggle with self-belief, says Paula.

“It’s easy to imagine that no one cares about you. I see the ANZL as helping writers to sustain themselves creatively, intellectually and emotionally and as a way of feeling part of a community.”

A writer-led initiative involving a large amount of initial research into its viability and usefulness, the ANZL was launched with seed money from the Vice Chancellor’s Strategic Development Fund.

It is based on successful international models like the Royal Society of Literature in the United Kingdom and the German Academy for Language and Literature, and also has strong connections with the Royal Society of Literature, the Booker Foundation, and the Commonwealth Foundation in London.

Paula has already forged relationships with a range of writers’ conferences, arts festivals, university networks and artists’ residencies around the world.

“I’m working with contacts in the Baltic region, Vienna and the South Pacific to establish writer exchanges, and I’m particularly keen on developing opportunities across the Southern Hemisphere, especially in southern Africa and South America,” she says.

During the seed-money period, the academy will remain relatively small, with about 15 senior writers as fellows and around 100 members, but in time hopes to expand its membership.


Check out the Academy of New Zealand Literature