Residential Workshop
Writing the Arts: The Explanatory Word
Literature, visual and performing arts
Applications are now open for the fifth Michael King Writers’ Centre Residential Workshop, this year focusing on Writing
the Arts.
The workshop is a rare opportunity for writers with an interest in the arts to hone their skills in a challenging and
stimulating environment. It will be an intensive, high-level, symposium-style seminar, where working writers mingle with
leading speakers and publishers, all of whom are highly respected in their fields. It will explore writing about
literature, visual arts, music, theatre, dance and film. It will cover short and long-form writing, from reviews and
catalogues to large projects, ethics and issues, the internet, and current trends in publishing and the media. It is
open to just 24 participants.
Writing the Arts will be held at a beautiful retreat, Vaughan Park, in Long Bay, Auckland, over Labour weekend this
year.
The workshop convenor is author, curator and academic Dr Peter Simpson, who was awarded the Creative New Zealand Michael
King Writer’s Fellowship in 2012, and who has written numerous books on the literary and visual arts. Other speakers
include Dr Joanne Drayton (visual arts), Dr Murray Edmond (theatre and performing arts), Dr Iain Sharp (literature),
journalists and broadcasters Finlay Macdonald, Lynn Freeman, Josie McNaught, Peter Calder and Gordon McLauchlan, writers
Stephen Stratford and Steve Braunias, arts writer and Professor Jonathan Mane-Wheoki, publishers Anna Hodge and Mary
Egan.
This year’s workshop is designed for writers engaged in reviewing or writing about the arts, as well as professionals
who work in art galleries, arts centres, theatres, universities or public institutions.
When: 12 noon Saturday October 26 to 12.30 pm Monday October 28, 2013
Location: Vaughan Park Retreat and Conference Centre, 1043 Beach Road, Long Bay, Auckland 0630 –
www.vaughanpark.org.nz
Cost: Workshop, all meals, two nights single accommodation $595 incl GST
Workshop, all meals, two nights shared twin accommodation $550 incl GST
Applications close: Friday August 16, 2013
For an application form, programme details and speaker profiles, please visit our web site or contact the centre
(details below).
Applications will be confirmed by August 23; a 50% non-refundable deposit on fees will be required on registration (due
by September 6) and full payment will be required by September 27, 2013.
Michael King Writers’ Centre, PO Box 32629,
Devonport, Auckland 0744
ends