Editorial

We have been spoilt for choice this year with a record number of submissions. New voices, established writers, overseas visitors and recent graduates of the International Institute of Modern Letters Creative Writing programme have been brought together as a means of recording the literary year that has passed. Poems from Ignatius McGovern (Ireland), Ken Bolton (Australia) and Bernadette Hall (New Zealand) among others are a reminder of our successful Writers on Mondays series presented in partnership with City Gallery Wellington.

Work from Zach Savich, Dora Malech and Curtis Sittenfeld – all imports who have passed through the renowned Iowa Writers’ Workshop – introduces and welcomes voices soon to be heard in New Zealand. This summer at the Institute Curtis Sittenfeld (author of Prep) convenes a fiction workshop aimed at writers starting and building a novel, and Zach Savich convenes a workshop examining chaos and order in poetry. Dora Malech, who taught a popular poetry workshop here last summer, will be spending next year in Wellington as convenor of one of the 2007 MA (Page) workshops.

Turbine has always provided a forum for work from promising new writers; this is particularly evident in our 2006 contributions. We are pleased to publish the story that won the novice section of this year’s BNZ Katherine Mansfield Short Story Awards, written by 2006 MA (Page) student Emma Gallagher. Recently or soon-to-be published poets such as Michele Amas and Angela Andrews have contributed new poems. Novelists Craig Cliff and Susan Pearce have offered sneak-previews of work in progress, and Abby Letteri’s extract is our first publication of work for younger readers. We were also pleased to receive Brian Flaherty’s visual poem, and hope to be able to feature other such work in future issues.

Our regular feature The Reading Room offers excerpts from some of the journals kept by MA (Page) students during the year. Making connections between the writers’ journals and their creative submissions is a satisfying and often entertaining way of understanding the writing process. Another layer of understanding can be gained through hearing the writer read their work. Thanks to David Long’s patience and expertise, we have been able to provide recordings of both new and familiar writers presenting their poetry for the ear as well as the eye. Bernadette Hall’s recording is a particular treat. Bernadette has been the 2006 Victoria University Writer in Residence, during our interview she discusses the year, her latest project – a gothic romance – and her experiences with artist Kathryn Madill in Antarctica. We’d like to thank Robert Cross for the elegant photograph that accompanies the interview.

Turbine 06 owes a great deal to the sedulous assistance of Jason Darwin and Jamie Norrish at the New Zealand Electronic Text Centre, who patiently solved all technological challenges. We’d like to sincerely thank Imogen Mitchell for designing the site, and, as always, Katie Hardwick-Smith for smoothly fulfilling all our administrative needs.

Amy Brown
Chris Price