Staff
Last modified: May 25, 2011Director
Morrin Rout
Morrin Rout has been producer/ presenter of literary programmes on National Radio and Plains FM for over ten years. During 
that time, she has interviewed many leading international literary fi gures as well as a significant number of New Zealand’s best known writers. She was involved in the organisation of the Listener Women’s Book Festival, as Literary Programme Co-ordinator for the Christchurch Arts Festival, as a former Chairperson of the Christchurch Book Festival Trust and as a judge for the 2007 Montana NZ Book Awards. She is currently one of the Programme Co-ordinators for the Christchurch Writers Festival and has extensive contacts with publishers, book sellers and the writing community both here and overseas. She has also worked for many years as a counsellor and social worker.
Patron
Margaret Mahy
Margaret Mahy is New Zealand’s best-loved and most acclaimed children’s writer and her international standing was recognised 
in 2006 by the Hans Christian Anderson Award. Among her many other awardsare the Order of New Zealand, the Prime Minister’s Award for Literary Achievement and the Arts Foundation of NZ Icon Award. She was twice awarded the Carnegie Medal and her books have been translated into over fifteen different languages.
Tutors
Bernadette Hall
Bernadette Hall is a nationally recognised award-winning writer, best known for her poetry. Her sixth collection, ‘Settler Dreaming’ was short-listed for the Tasmania Pacific Poetry Award in 2003. In 2007 she spent 6 
months in Ireland on the Rathcoola Fellowship. ‘The Lustre Jug’, a collection of poems arising from this experience, came out in 2009. She has also established a strong reputation as an editor and as a writer of essays, short fiction and critical reviews. Over the years she has mentored many emerging writers and has built up an impressive track record as a teacher of creative writing. In 2004 she won an Artist’s Award which book her to Antarctica. In 2006 she was astaff member of the International Institute of Modern Letters as Writer inResidence at Victoria University. Bernadette will be on leave in 2011, teaching at the IIML at Victoria University
Frankie McMillan
Frankie McMillan is an award-winning fiction writer and poet. Her publications include ‘The Bag Lady’s Picnic and other stories’ and a forthcoming collection of poetry, ‘Dressing for the Cannibals’. Recent short stories
have been selected for Best New Zealand Fiction, Vintage, 2008 and 2009. She has an MA in Creative Writing from the International institute of Modern Letters and a Certificate in Adult Teaching. In 2005 she was the recipient of the CNZ Todd Bursary. She is currently writing a second collection of short stories. Frankie is an enthusiastic tutor with over ten years of teaching experience.
Kerrin P. Sharpe
Kerrin P. Sharpe completed Bill Manhire’s Original Composition class at Victoria University of Wellington in 1976. Over the last two years she has been published widely, including in Best New Zealand Poems 08,09 and 2010, Turbine 07, 09 and 10, Snorkel, Bravado, Takahe, NZ Listener, Poetry NZ, Junctures, Sport and The Press. In 2008, she was awarded the New Zealand Post Creative Writing Teacher’s Award by the International Institute of Modern Letters. She was featured Poet in Takahe 69.
Supervisors
Christina Stachurski
An award winning playwright and theatre director, Christina has been involved in theatre from an early age, also as 
an actor, stage manager and designer, and producer of outdoor Shakespeare for the Christchurch City Council’s SummerTimes (1993/4). Her M.A. is in New Zealand drama and her doctorate in New Zealand fiction focuses upon issues of ethnic identity. She has been a visiting lecturer at the Christchurch College of Education, and taught creative writing for Continuing Education, the School for Young Writers and the Books & Beyond Festival. Christina has also acted a guest poetry editor for Takahe, one-act play festival adjudicator and judge of the secondary schools’ Peter Smart Poetry Competition. She very much enjoyed her time as Writer in Residence at Hagley College in 2006. At present, she teaches Modern Drama and Creative Writing at the University of Canterbury.
Jeffrey Paparoa Holman
Jeffrey Paparoa Holman writes in several genres, principally poetry, non-fiction, and book reviews. His poetry has 
been widely published and anthologised: As Big As A Father (Steele Roberts: 2002) was shortlisted for the Montana Book Awards Poetry section in 2003, and The late great Blackball Bridge sonnets (Steele Roberts: 2004) was a critical and commercial success. His most recent publication is Best of Both Worlds: the story of Elsdon Best and Tutakangahau (Penguin: 2010) – a history of ethnography amongst the Tuhoe iwi, based on his doctoral thesis. He is currently a visiting academic in the English programme at the University of Canterbury, where he has taught postcolonial literature (principally Maori and Pasifika writing), New Zealand poetry and creative writing (poetry). His new book of poems, Fly Boy is due from Steele Roberts later this year.
Coral Atkinson
Coral Atkinson is a fiction writer. She has written novels and her short fiction has appeared in a range of publications in New Zealand and Ireland. Her first book, The Love Apple (2005), was a bestseller. Atkinson says, ‘I have forged a style in my writing that draws on two traditions – New Zealand and Ireland.’ Her second novel, The Paua Tower, was published in 2006. She has also published a young adult book ‘Copper Top’ and is a experienced and respected publisher and tutor for the Whitereia Publishing Course.
Charlotte Randall
Charlotte Randall is the author of five published novels. Her first novel, Dead
Faith Oxenbridge
Faith’s short story ‘ In the Back of a VW’ was chosen for the Six Pack collection for 2007 NZ Book Month. She currently teaches creative writing at Hagley Community College, writes theatre reviews for the Listener and has a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing at the University of Canterbury. ‘I
Rachael King
Rachael King is a novelist and short story writer. She gained a Masters in Creative Writing from Victoria University in 2001 and has worked in television and radio. Her first novel, The Sound of Butterflies, has been published in nine countries, including Greece and Russia. It won the NZSA Hubert Church Best First Book Award for Fiction at the 2007 Montana New Zealand Book Awards.
Tusiata Avia
Tusiata Avia is a poet, performer and children’s book writer. Of Samoan descent, Avia was born and raised in Christchurch. Her poetry has appeared in various literary journals and her first collection of poetry was published in 2004. Avia’s work is rich in Pacific themes and her books for children have been published in Samoan, Tongan, Cook Islands Maori, Nuiean, Tokelauan and English. Avia was awarded the 2005 Fulbright-Creative New Zealand Pacific Writers’ Residency at the University of Hawai’i, and was shortlisted for the 2006 Prize in Modern Letters.
Nick Williamson
Nick Williamson is a Christchurch poet who has been published extensively in New Zealand literary journals. His book, The Whole Forest, was published in 2001. A poem from it was chosen for Best New Zealand Poems that year. He was the winner of the New Zealand Poetry Society’s International Poetry Competition in 2005.
Owen Marshall – 2010