Spotlight on Kapiti for Writers Read event
Writers Thom Conroy, Hamish Clayton and Lawrence Patchett will explore Kapiti in history and fiction at the next Writers
Read evening.
The event will be held at the Palmerston North City Library on Wednesday September 11, and at Massey University’s
Wellington campus on Thursday September 12.
Massey Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing Dr Thom Conroy, who is one of the guest readers, says the series this year
has been a great success, with a diverse and exciting line-up across the University’s three campuses.
Next week’s event will feature readings and interactions between all three writers as well as exchanges with the chairs
– Massey lecturer Philip Steer in Palmerston North and senior tutor Tina Makereti in Wellington – and questions and
answers from the audience.
“Usually the Writers Read events have single speakers, but we thought we would mix it up a little for this event and
group three writers together for what we hope is a new mix of reading and conversation on a topic that all of our work
shares — the historical role of the Kapiti and the surrounding region,” Dr Conroy says.
“Hamish Clayton and Lawrence Patchett are two writers whom I admire for their very different approaches to historical
subjects. In the case of Clayton, history is rendered in mythological and deeply poetic terms. Patchett, on the other
hand, seems to be out to ‘normalise’ history and make its characters realistic in a way that resists romanticisation.”
The series, founded in Palmerston North 2006 by Massey senior lecturer Bryan Walpert, supports creative writing and
introduces the public to some of the country’s finest writing. It has since grown to include Massey’s Albany and
Wellington campuses, where it is coordinated by Jack Ross and Ingrid Horrocks respectively.
The 2013 the series has included some of New Zealand’s finest writers, including CK Stead, Emily Perkins, Sue Orr, Anna
Jackson, Helen Lehndorf, Robert Sullivan, and Jo Randerson.
Other notable writers who have taken part in events over the years include Witi Ihimaera, Jenny Bornholdt, Karlo Mila,
Bill Manhire, Elizabeth Knox, Vincent O’Sullivan, James George, Laurence Fearnley, James Norcliffe and Elizabeth
Smither, as well as a number of Massey’s teaching staff.
Event details
Writers Read – Palmerston North
Kapiti in History and Fiction – with Hamish Clayton, Thom Conroy, and Laurence Patchett
Wednesday, September 11, 6pm
Palmerston North City Library
Writers Read – Wellington
Kapiti in History and Fiction – with Hamish Clayton, Thom Conroy, and Laurence Patchett
Thursday, September 12, 6pm
Massey’s Wellington campus, Theatre Lab, 5D14, Wallace Street, Entrance A
About the writers
Hamish Clayton is the author of Wulf, which won the 2012 NZSA Hubert Church Best First Book Award for Fiction. He has
been the writer in residence at the Weltkulturen Museum, Frankfurt, and is a 2013 Buddle Finlay Sargeson Fellow.
Thom Conroy is a Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at Massey. His fiction has appeared in various journals in the US
and New Zealand, including Landfall, Sport, New England Review, Alaska Quarterly Review, and Kenyon Review. His fiction
has been recognised by Best American Short Stories 2012 and won various other awards, including the Sunday Star Times
Short Fiction Competition and the Katherine Ann Porter Prize in Fiction. He is currently at work on a historical novel
set in New Zealand in 1839 and entitled The Naturalist.
Lawrence Patchett is the author of I Got His Blood On Me, a collection of short stories. A winner of The Long and The
Short of It short-story competition, he has a PhD in Creative Writing, and his work has appeared in Sport, Landfall, Hue & Cry, Turbine and on radio. He lives on the Kapiti Coast.
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