Hagley Writers' Institute

Congratulations to graduates from 2018 who have had work published this year:

Kaye Gillhooley’s fiction was published in takahē 95, and twice in X-R-A-Y Literary Magazine, with her story Trout nominated for a Pushcart Prize.

Scholastic is issuing a second print run of Desna Wallace’s children’s novel, Canterbury Quake, due out in February 2020.

Toni Wi’s fiction was published in takahē 96, the Year’s Best Aotearoa New Zealand Science Fiction & Fantasy: Volume I, and her flash fiction Dunedin was long listed for National Flash Fiction Day 2019.

Three of Shannon Beynon’s flash fictions were published in takahē 96.

Sandra Hamilton’s flash fiction appeared in the April 2019: Love edition of Flash Frontier.

We are delighted to announce that Zoë Meager will be tutoring in 2020. She joins Frankie McMillan and is a highly qualified and experienced writer and teacher. Zoë is from Ōtautahi and has a Master of Creative Writing from the University of Auckland. Her short stories have been commended at home and abroad, including winning the Commonwealth Writers Short Story Prize, Pacific Region, 2013, with her story Things with Faces, which was published in Granta. Her work has appeared in Hue and Cry, Landfall, North & South, Overland, and Turbine | Kapohau, among others, and been anthologised in Bonsai: Best small stories from Aotearoa New Zealand, and two Bath Flash Fiction volumes. She is fiction editor for takahē and an Editorial Assistant (Fiction) for Overland. There’s more at zoemeager.com.

We were pleased to celebrate another successful year for our 2019 students. The Margaret Mahy Award was given to Francesca Aitken, runner up was Kirstie Mchale who also won the takehe Award for the best short story and Megan O’Neill was highly commended.

Hagley Writers’ Institute was part of the recent WORD Festival pop-up readings in New Regent St. It was a lively and busy event and thanks to our readers, Zoe Meager, Gail Ingram, Sam Averis, Chris Stewart and Ronnie Smart for showcasing their talent. The crowd came and went and you can see the great Scottish crime writer, Denise Mina, on the left, just next to our reader, Chris Stewart.

Bonsai, a new collection of NZ short fiction edited by Michelle Elvy, Frankie McMillan and James Norcliffe was recently launched at Scorpio books and contains work by a large number of Hagley graduates, students, mentors and tutors – it’s a real tribute to the strength of the genre in Christchurch and the great teaching by our tutors at Hagley.

Frankie’s class at the end of a busy and stimulating programme. The classes now break while they work on their portfolios to be handed in by mid-October. It’s been a great year.

There is no mystery in who won the short short story competition –  Sue Kingham’s story won and the runners-up were Nod Ghosh and Zoe Meager – all Hagley writers. Congratulations to you all. Buy this Feb’s edition to read these remarkable stories.