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LOUISE WRIGHTSON has lived in Wellington for many years with her partner, Dave Russell. She is a bookseller. After five years managing Unity Books, she set up her own company, New Zealand Books Abroad. The company specializes in New Zealand books and is currently building a website.
She was a student of Bill Manhire’s creative writing class in 1996. Her poetry and prose have been published in Sport, Landfall, Metro, The Listener, Turbine, and in many anthologies. She has a grant from Creative New Zealand to complete a manuscript.
Wrightson comments: ‘Anicë is named after her great-aunt. Her Lebanese name has two meanings – “the beloved” and “the bringer of great joy and happiness.”
Anicë’s birth was difficult and she spent several days in an incubator. When we first saw her, she had just come home and was distressed.
The poem is simply a record of what happened. We were all upset by the bombing of Afghanistan and on edge because Anicë was unsettled. It was a dangerous world to be born into but she also signalled a new life and a new beginning.
I had to be careful when I wrote “Anicë’s World”. A word out of place, (or the wrong word), could have tipped the poem over into sentimental slush. And I asked Rebecca’s permission to allow this personal experience to be shared outside the family.’
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