Category Archives: Subject

Visiting Fellow – Peking University

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David Gruber was recently chosen as one of ten Visiting Fellows to The New Zealand Centre at Peking University, 2017 (http://nzc.sfl.pku.edu.cn/10VFS.html). As a result, in April, he traveled to Peking University in Beijing and delivered an invited talk entitled, “Neuroscience and the Media.” He discussed his own research into the public understanding of neuroscience and outlined future trajectories of the field area, encouraging more cross-cultural and interdisciplinary research projects. During his visit, he also met with professors from Peking University’s School of Communication and Journalism to promote Massey’s School of English and Media Studies. Toward the end of the week, he had the opportunity to visit an English class where he met with students and gave a thirty minute lecture on the importance of re-writing.

Brian McDonnell publishes fourth book

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Brian McDonnell’s new book on the 2004 New Zealand film In My Father’s Den has been published by boutique UK publisher Kakapo Books which specialises in New Zealand material. In My Father’s Den is widely regarded as one of the most important films ever made in New Zealand and also as one of the boldest and most radical adaptations of a classic New Zealand novel. Dr McDonnell’s book is an extensive, painstakingly researched and copiously illustrated analysis of this key film. It scrutinises Maurice Gee’s 1972 novel In My Father’s Den, which is the source of the film’s story and delineates closely the process by which scriptwriter/director Brad McGann took the book’s core and made it his own, while reimagining its central ideas and characters for the 21st Century. McGann’s brilliance as both a writer and a director are addressed with key sequences selected for closer examination in order to highlight the film’s intricate texture. Brian McDonnell hopes his book will confirm In My Father’s Den as an undisputed classic of New Zealand cinema.

In My Father’s Den is also the first book in a projected series of short books (called New Zealand Film Classics) that are focused studies of single films, rather in the tradition of the famous BFI Classics series. Series Editor is UK academic Dr Ian Conrich and Brian McDonnell is Series Consultant. Each book is devoted to providing a comprehensive appreciation of eminent, momentous and acclaimed New Zealand movies that have been viewed as key texts within the history of New Zealand cinema. It is envisaged that one or two new books in the series will be published yearly, written by local and international academics and other specialists in the field. Among films already chosen to be part of the Film Classics series are: Heavenly Creatures, Came a Hot Friday, Whale Rider, Out of the Blue, Rain, The Piano, Boy, Rewi’s Last Stand, Once Were Warriors, An Angel at My Table, Ngati, Broken Barrier, Sleeping Dogs, Sons for the Return Home, Smash Palace, Bad Blood, No.2.

This is Dr McDonnell’s fourth book about film, his best-known previous work being the Greenwood Press Encyclopedia of Film Noir which he co-wrote with Australian film scholar Geoff Mayer in 2007.

Abundance of young voices in latest Poetry NZ

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Young poets are out in force alongside established scribes in the latest Poetry New Zealand Yearbook, the 67th issue since 1951, and published for the first time by Massey University Press.

Poet and managing editor Dr Jack Ross says the 352-page volume, launched this week – with 128 poems, as well as essays and reviews of 33 new poetry collections  – includes many new, young poets writing “hard-hitting, honest, beautiful poems”.

They include Emma Shi, winner of this year’s Poetry New Zealand poetry prize, worth $500 and judged by Dr Ross, for her poem it’s ok to lie if you mean it.

“Emma Shi is one of those rare people who appears to have been born with a kind of poetic perfect pitch,” Dr Ross says. “Her work is strange, and suggestive, and disturbing. It has a lot to do with illness, and death, as well as the intricacies and perfections of nature. There’s something quite awe-inspiring about her talent.”

Second-prize ($300) went to Devon Webb, for Note to Self, and third prize of $200 went to Hayden Pyke, for his poem You Say You Got to Leave Someone.

This volume is the fourth edited by Dr Ross, a senior lecturer in the School of English and Media Studies. In a Massey University Press online Q&A, he notes there is a lot more poetry being written in New Zealand these days, especially by younger writers. Why?

“I think that some combination of the ease of digital distribution with a general sense of despair about the state of the world has made it seem, all of a sudden, more relevant to people than ever. If you want to attract the attention of the mighty, it’s probably more effective to write a poem than an editorial nowadays,” he says.

New voices alongside well-known poets

This edition’s featured poet is Auckland-based Elizabeth Morton, whose poems Dr Ross says “have a kind of otherworldly air to them, which fascinates me. I love reading them, and featuring her seemed like the best way of getting to see more of them. She’s undoubtedly a writer of great technical talent, but I guess what really attracts me to her work is its uncompromising nature. She goes places other people are afraid to go.”

Readers can sample 21 of Morton’s poems and an interview with her in the book. Well-known contributing poets in the volume include Michele Leggott, Owen Marshall, Elizabeth Smither, Riemke Ensing and Anna Jackson, as well as essays by Janet Charman, Lisa Samuels and Massey University creative writing lecturer and poet Associate Professor Bryan Walpert.

Poetry New Zealand Yearbook 2017 was launched at the Devonport Library on Tuesday, with 10 poets in the book reading their work. The edition is available at good bookshops and can be ordered online from Massey University Press. Read the full Q&A with Dr Ross here.

Poetry NZ poetry prize winner for 2017

it’s okay to lie if you mean it

we tell ourselves we’re doing a good thing. a

little girl tugs on my sleeve, asks, why are

you here? her mother sends me an apologetic

smile, but doesn’t take her away. i’m not quite sure.

a younger girl lies on her bed, face scrunched up,

and i almost want to run away. we use

soft voices here, pretend we know why. her

father says thank you and i shake my

head, say, no, i don’t deserve it.

i talk to a small boy who builds castles with

cardboard and glue. the nurse comes in

with a needle and i hold his hand, tell her to be

quick, the syringe like a prayer – maybe this time.

we make spaceships out of air and name them

after stars, say, we are going to the moon. say,

it is so beautiful here. it is so beautiful.

© Emma Shi

Refugee play wins international award

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A play about the global refugee crisis penned by Massey University theatre lecturer and playwright Associate Professor Angie Farrow has won second place in the International New Works of Merit Playwriting Contest.

Her play, The Politician’s Wife, came second equal among almost 250 entries from all over the world. The judges’ commented: “This brilliantly written script deals with the refugee crisis from many different angles. We wish you great success with this timely script that deserves to be produced in many different venues!”

In its 15th year, the New York-based New Works of Merit Playwriting Contest was developed to bring works of social significance to the attention of producers and artistic directors.

Dr Farrow is delighted by the international recognition, saying there are few opportunities for playwrights to expose their work, in part due to the “ephemeral” nature of the genre. “Once a play has been produced and performed, you really just have the programmes and the memories.”

Since she wrote the work, she feels the play’s theme resonates with even more poignancy now, with Donald Trump elected US president on the basis of his strong anti-immigrant, anti-refugee and anti-Muslim views. These have been echoed in Brexit and in several European election campaigns.

Performed last year in Wellington and Palmerston North – The Politician’s Wife has an Antipodean focus on the refugee crisis. Dr Farrow, who teaches in the School of English and Media Studies at the Manawatū campus, says her work also tells a universal story about how privilege can sometimes make us immune to caring or empathising with the overwhelming suffering of our fellow humans, or can it empower us to respond with compassion!”

Refugee crisis in Berlin an eye-opener

She began writing the play in 2014, following a visit to Berlin on a writer’s residency, at a time when the refugee crisis was reaching new levels as people escaped conflicts in Syria and Iraq.

Being there brought her into contact with the unfolding events and with some of the refugees, as well as those who were helping them. She also witnessed the fear and resentment of some in host countries in reaction to a sudden, large influx of desperate people with different religious and cultural backgrounds.

The desire to explore the issue from multiple perspectives inspired her to write the play. However, translating such an emotionally and logistically complex issue into a piece of theatre forced her to think about what it might mean on an individual, as well as political, level.

Shortlisted for the 2016 Adam NZ Play Award, The Politician’s Wife is an unapologetic response to the global refugee crisis, which has dominated headlines and divided the world.

The play centres on Kim, a woman of privilege – the eponymous politician’s wife – who becomes caught up in the refugee crisis, which – in the play – is not accorded a specific geographic or ethnic label. Torn between her loyalties to her conservative husband and her desire to help displaced people on an offshore island, Kim finds herself unwittingly at the centre of a national scandal. As the drama unfolds, she must take a stance, and the consequences could throw her life, and the lives of those closest to her, into turmoil.

Dr Farrow is currently working on a trilogy of plays about issues affecting young women, focussing on identity, relationships and social media.

She has had international success with other works, including a short play, The Blue Balloon, which won first prize at Toronto’s Inspirato Festival from 400 international entries in 2013 and Best Wildcard Award at the world’s biggest short play festival in Sydney in 2014.

See full results and details of the New Works of Merit Playwriting contest.

Māori literature deserves academic recognition

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The School of English and Media Studies’ new creative writing lecturer has an ambitious vision – to see Māori literature recognised as distinct field.

Award-winning author Dr Tina Makereti, who is Ngati Tuwharetoa, Te Ati Awa, Ngati Rangatahi, Moriori and Pākehā, says people are always surprised to hear that no one offers a single paper in Māori literature in English. “In fact there are less than a handful of academics working in the field in New Zealand. A lot of published research comes from overseas researchers, some of whom have never been to the country.”

Dr Makereti says she’s excited by the opportunity to contribute new research into Indigenous creative writing along with teaching in the School of English and Media Studies. “There is a huge deficit in academic research in Māori and Pacific writing in particular. It’s no wonder young people aren’t drawn to study if they don’t see their own literature reflected.”  She says New Zealand literature courses touch on Indigenous writers but she’d like to see programmes that truly engage with matauranga Māori – Māori understanding and knowledge.

Dr Makereti has a host of awards to her name, including twice winning the Ngā Kupu Ora Māori Book Awards for fiction for her short story collection Once Upon a Time in Aotearoa (Huia 2011) and then her first novel Where the Rēkohu Bone Sings (Vintage 2014).

While her PhD in Creative Writing was completed at Victoria University, Dr Makereti completed a Post Graduate Diploma in Māori Studies at Massey University in 2007 and has taught at Massey in the past. She will be based on the Manawatū campus.

Dr Makereti is looking forward to getting students excited about writing and says she’ll be aiming to surprise them.“People have preconceived ideas about what creative writing is, so I’ll be looking for work that surprises and gets them to look again.”

Globe Theatre Awards – Best Ensemble

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Congratulations to Massey’s 2016 Modern Drama class for picking up the award for Best Ensemble at the Globe Theatre awards this weekend! The Globe Awards celebrate the best of Palmerston North’s non-professional theatre, and we were delighted to be in such esteemed company. The production was Caryl Churchill’s 2012 Love and Information, directed by Rachel Lenart, with design, performance and all aspects of production by the 300-level students. The future of New Zealand theatre is bright with these students leading the way!