Page Numbers 2020
New writing from IIML at VUW and the MA in Creative Writing at University of Auckland
The annual series of short stories/essays/excerpts from the graduate MA writers at IIML, Victoria University, and the University of Auckland.
The whole series premieres on air in Nine to Noon on RNZ National and online in 4 parts over the first half of the year.
The works are a mixture of self-contained short stories, essays and specially adapted excerpts from larger works
ALL PIECES IN THIS COLLECTION ARE FREE TO DOWNLOAD AND SHARE
ABOUT THE WRITERS
Rebecca K Reilly (Ngāti Hine, Ngāti Wai) is a former travel consultant from Auckland. She currently lives and writes in Wellington.
In 2019 she won the Adam Foundation Prize in Creative Writing for her manuscript of Vines, a novel about the complicated relationships of a family who have too much to do with each other and are often overwhelmed by their own personalities.
The two pieces in this collection, Sender and Rumbo are adapted from the novel.
Rebecca K Reilly Photo: All rights reserved.
Catarina de Peters Leitão (Te Whānau-ā-Apanui) is a Portuguese-Māori writer, born and raised in Lisbon. At the age of 15 she arrived in Aotearoa back to Otuwhare Marae, Te Kaha. She now lives Wellington.
In 2019 she won the Letteri Family Project Scholarship for her essay collection in progress Tuawahine.
Boss Bitch.Com is part of that collection — a family narrative at heart, it is searching for answers about her tīpuna, East Coast royalty and her experiences as a young emigrant in Aotearoa.
Catarina's essays have been published in Mimicry,Turbine Kapohau, Ruru Reads and Sport.
Catarina de Peters Leitão Photo: Alasdair Keating, RNZ
Tanya Ashcroft grew up in the Hutt Valley and now lives in Island Bay, Wellington.
Tanya earned a Diploma in Creative Writing from Whitireia before undertaking her MA at IIML.
Her story, Dan Alone, is an adapted excerpt from her draft novel Fault, which has been described as 'a very effective piece of Wairarapa Gothic'.
Tanya's work has been published in Turbine/Kapohau.
Tanya Ashcroft Photo: Tanya Ashcroft, RNZ
Stacey Teague (Ngāti Maniapoto/Ngāpuhi) is a poet from Aotearoa currently living in Te Whanganui-a-Tara - Wellington. She has published a full-length poetry collection, takahē (Scrambler Books, 2014), and an e-chapbook, not a casual solitude (Ghost City Press, 2016).
She is the current poetry editor for both Shabby Doll House and Scum Mag and in 2018 she was shortlisted for the Judith Wright Poetry Prize for New and Emerging Poets.
Stacey's piece, Tokikapu is adapted from a work in progress - a collection of poetry and essays.
Stacey Teague Photo: Stacey Teague, RNZ
Jane Cherry lives and writes back in her home town of Paekakariki on the coast near Wellington. She has been a secondary school teacher and a librarian. Her most interesting current job is as a simulated patient for medical and pharmacy exams.
Jane suffered small, frenzied bursts of writing up until she began writing about the people around her. Now she can't seem to stop.
This piece, Freedom, is an adapted excerpt from her yet to be published novel, Memory Foam.
Her work has been published in Turbine, Sport and the School Journal. She has also written a serious library 'thing' for an academic journal called Aslib Proceedings.
Jane Cherry Photo: Jane Cherry, RNZ
Janey Thornton is originally from Bristol, England, where she worked, surrounded by words, as a bookseller and bookbinder for five years before moving to New Zealand.
She is currently based in Wellington and is working on a book of poems. In 2019 she won the Modern Letters Fiction Prize for the manuscript of her first novel, Au.
This piece, Jellyfish Blue, is an adapted excerpt from that manuscript.
Janey Thornton Photo: Janey Thornton, RNZ
Cris Cucerzan is a Romanian-born writer and high school teacher of English.
In 2019, he worked on an anthology of essays for which he earned the Modern Letters Creative Nonfiction Prize. The collection connects and attempts to reconcile his childhood memories of Romania with his current life in New Zealand. Phone Calls is reworked from a lengthier essay within that anthology,. It charts the change in his relationship with his grandparents as a result of immigration, maturation and distance.
His writing has been published in Flash Frontier and Turbine | Kapohau.
Cris Cucerzan Photo: Cris Cucerzan, RNZ
Caleb Harris lives and writes in Te Whanganui-a-Tara. His ancestors include south Cork farmers, a German sailor who jumped ship in Melbourne and at least one English horse thief. He grew up on a sheep farm in the Horoeka hills, east of Dannevirke.
He has been a reporter in Wairarapa, a subeditor in Bristol and worked in Colombia where he completed a Masters thesis around how fiction might be an effective tool for collective grieving. He has taught English in Seoul, and is currently a professional firefighter.
In 2019 he wrote the first draft of a novel intended to be about the Cork farmers and the horse thief, but which turned out to be more about different kinds of love.
His futuristic piece, The Air Fish, was written as part of the warmup for that novel.
He has been published in Turbine | Kapohau and in 2018 his book of Spanish translations of James Baxter poems was launched in Wellington.
Caleb Harris Photo: All rights reserved.
David Glynn is a man of few words, except when writing.
Rotovegas is an adapted excerpt from a much larger work.