Stuff has confirmed that 16 reporter and three news director jobs could be made redundant in community papers. And that’s terrible news, former Rodney Times editor Rhonwyn Newson writes for Newshub. When I was a child my mum would occasionally pop into our local newspaper’s newsroom and drop off a photo of my brother’s water-polo … Read more
Whangarei writer Michael Botur continues our occasional series which examines whether literature exists in any shape or form in the regions. He reports from Northland, home to Sam Hunt, Kelly Ana Morey, and a romance writer who sells more books than you’ve had hot dinners or whatever. Tiny Rawene hosted the Hokianga Book Festival earlier this month, … Read more
In the latest of our occasional series of essays which investigate whether literature exists in the provinces, John Summers looks for clues in Greytown in the Wairarapa. I do most of my writing on the Wairarapa line, the WRL. Every morning, every evening, it rattles beneath the hills between Wellington and Greytown with me aboard, … Read more
In the second of our occasional series of reports of literary activity in provincial towns, Taumarunui writer Antony Millen – a runner-up in last year’s Surrey Hotel writers residency award – describes what goes on in the King Country. It’s nearly 3am, sometime in December of 2012, and I’ve just completed the draft of my first novel … Read more