Fresh talent showcased in Turbine | Kapohau 2019
This year’s issue of Turbine | Kapohau, Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington’s annual online literary journal from the International Institute of Modern Letters (IIML), has now been published.
The nineteenth issue previews new work from the University’s prestigious creative writing programme, as well as featuring other emerging and established writers, both local and international.
The journal has an extract from Rebecca K Reilly’s novel Vines, which has just been awarded the 2019 Adam Foundation Prize. Rebecca (Ngāti Hine, Ngāti Wai) reads from her comic novel in a recording accompanying the text.
Other highlights of Turbine | Kapohau 2019 include ‘Little Prayer’, a poem from Bill Manhire written in the wake of the 15 March terror attack in Christchurch. In an extract from her international award-winning essay, Nina Mingya Powles writes about the comforts of daily swimming in the Hampstead Heath Ladies’ Pond. And readers can listen to an audio recording of Anna Jackson reading her poem ‘Trippy’, one of a series of three incandescent and surreal love sonnets in rhyming pentameter.
This issue also holds a fresh range of poetry from IIML alumni Alison Glenny, essa may ranapiri, and Rebecca Hawkes, along with a host of other exciting voices, familiar and new.
A rich selection of fiction offers windows into the lives of a diverse range of characters and worlds, at turns surreal and ordinary, hilarious, and heartbreaking, such as Dara Flaws’ absurdist story ‘The Mayor’s Daughter’, in which a girl’s head begins to wobble, balloon-like. And the pain of long-distance love is rendered masterfully by Rachel Kleinsman in her story ‘Anya’.
In an interview with the IIML Victoria University of Wellington/Creative New Zealand 2019 Writer in Residence Lynda Chanwai-Earle, Master of Arts (Script) workshop member Emilie Hope provides a compelling snapshot of Lynda’s most recent projects, as well as delving into her long-standing career in theatre and radio.
“Love, loss and landscape are among the timeless preoccupations of literature given a fresh spin by these writers, but we also get a close-up of the world around us right now, with our very contemporary hopes, fears, and heartbreaks,” says IIML senior lecturer Chris Price.
Turbine | Kapohau is edited by 2019 MA (Page) workshop members Janey Street and Manon Revuelta. It can be viewed at http://turbinekapohau.org.nz/