News and Opportunities
Short Story Conference
The New Zealand Short Story had its very own conference in Invercargill in early September and Athenaeum committee membe...
Posted: Thursday October 5, 2017
Guest Speaker: Melanie Kidd
Creative Cities Southern Hui warmly welcomes MELANIE KIDD from Norwich UNESCO City of Literature. Melanie will be speaki...
Posted: Thursday October 5, 2017
Mystery guest: David Loughrey
Creative Cities Southern Hui warmly welcomes DAVID LOUGHREY as delegate and mystery guest. David will be participating i...
Posted: Wednesday October 4, 2017
Guest Speaker: Karen McAulay
Creative Cities Southern Hui warmly welcomes KAREN McAULAY as guest speaker. Karen will be speaking at Centre for the Bo...
Posted: Tuesday October 3, 2017
Guest Speaker: Alexandra Newman
Creative Cities Southern Hui warmly welcomes ALEXANDRA NEWMAN as guest speaker. Alexandra will be speaking at Centre for...
Posted: Monday October 2, 2017
Guest Speaker: Guy Ryan
Creative Cities Southern Hui warmly welcomes GUY RYAN as delegate and guest speaker. Guy will speaking at Creative Conne...
Posted: Sunday October 1, 2017
Guest Speaker: Victor Rodger
Creative Cities Southern Hui warmly welcomes VICTOR RODGER as delegate and guest speaker. Victor will be participating i...
Posted: Sunday October 1, 2017
Guest Speaker: Elaine Webster
Creative Cities Southern Hui warmly welcomes ELAINE WEBSTER as guest speaker. Elaine will be speaking at Centre for the ...
Posted: Saturday September 30, 2017
Guest Speaker: Moira White
Creative Cities Southern Hui warmly welcomes MOIRA WHITE as guest speaker. Moira will be speaking at Centre for the Book...
Posted: Friday September 29, 2017
Guest Speaker: Iona Winter
Creative Cities Southern Hui warmly welcomes IONA WINTER as delegate and guest speaker. Iona will be speaking at Creativ...
Posted: Thursday September 28, 2017
Guest Speaker: Sue Wootton
Creative Cities Southern Hui warmly welcomes SUE WOOTTON as guest speaker. Sue will be speaking at Centre for the Book: ...
Posted: Wednesday September 27, 2017
Telling tales
Our lives are all made up of many stories and everyone has a tale to tell.
Posted: Friday September 22, 2017
LIM - LESS IS MORE 2018
International call for projects
“Created by filmmakers for filmmakers”
Posted: Thursday September 21, 2017
Festival of Colour hit The Blue Moments Project to perform in Dunedin
It’s a show that brings new meaning to the phrase “music and lyrics”. The Blue Moments Project, an evening of jazz, blue...
Posted: Friday September 8, 2017
Navigator by Anne Moir
NAVIGATOR, Anne’s first novel, was inspired by her experiences as a child during the post-World War Two era, when many m...
Posted: Tuesday September 5, 2017
September 2017 Script Call
Short Film Otago has a new funding round open for new writers and filmmakers.
It is calling for scripts/film ideas/outl...
Posted: Sunday September 3, 2017
The third New Zealand Young Writers Festival to be held in Dunedin - UNESCO City of Literature.
Sex, dairy farming and feminism are among the unlikely bedfellows at this year’s New Zealand Young Writers Festival, fif...
Posted: Wednesday August 16, 2017
City author wins book awards
Port Chalmers author and illustrator David Elliot has won the Margaret Mahy Book of the Year Award at the New Zealand Bo...
Posted: Monday August 14, 2017
Announcement of the Janet Frame Literary Trust Award 2017
Waikato novelist Catherine Chidgey has been named as the recipient of a Janet Frame Literary Trust Award worth $5,000.
Posted: Thursday July 20, 2017
Bird Dog Hot Dog
‘Tītī hotdog with horopito pickled onions and mānuka smoked chilli relish’.
Posted: Wednesday July 19, 2017
Reed Gallery exhibition showcases diverse examples of bookbindings
The latest Reed Gallery exhibition at Dunedin Public Library explores the outer covers of books - their bindings.
Posted: Tuesday July 18, 2017
Savoir Faire
Posted: Monday June 26, 2017
Spotlight on colonial feminist ‘fanatic’ Mary Ann Colclough 1836–1885
Polly Plum is a biography of one of New Zealand’s earliest feminists, Mary Ann Colclough, whose publicly voiced opinions...
Posted: Monday June 12, 2017
Dunedin author and illustrator shortlisted in prestigious awards
Dunedin author and illustrator David Elliot is a finalist in 2017 New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults ...
Posted: Wednesday June 7, 2017
How We Survive: A Feminist Poetry Show
Lift Women’s Voices. Burn The Patriarchy Down.
Posted: Tuesday June 6, 2017
Rescued moggie kickstarts children’s book
When I found the rat on the ground I had no idea it would change my life.
Posted: Monday May 29, 2017
Playwright Robert Lord to be honoured with Dunedin Writers Walk Plaque
Playwright Robert Lord (1945–1992) is to be honoured with a plaque in the Dunedin Writers Walk in the Octagon.
Posted: Thursday May 11, 2017
Hall of Fame (and Fortune)
Posted: Tuesday May 2, 2017
Landfall celebrates 70th anniversary with new prize for young writers
Landfall, New Zealand’s leading journal of arts and literature, has announced the winner of the inaugural Charles Brasch...
Posted: Thursday April 27, 2017
An Interview With Laurence Fearnley
Landscape is the most exquisite aspect of our country, and Laurence Fearnley’s writing is influenced by it. An author of...
Posted: Thursday April 27, 2017
Satire, Celebrity, and Politics in Jane Austen By Jocelyn Harris
In Satire, Celebrity, and Politics in Jane Austen, Jocelyn Harris argues that Jane Austen was a satirist, a celebrity-wa...
Posted: Monday April 24, 2017
‘Capturing Light – Roy Miller – New Zealand Stained Glass artist’,
‘Capturing Light – Roy Miller – New Zealand Stained Glass artist’, has just won a bronze medal in the Australasian non-f...
Posted: Tuesday April 18, 2017
Taking our Children's Books to Bologna
UNESCO City of Literature Dunedin were offered an opportunity they couldn't ignore: to bid to have a stand at the Bologn...
Posted: Thursday April 13, 2017
Bologna showcases local writers
Dunedin is stealing the show in Bologna this week after the Dunedin UNESCO City of Literature won a stand at the iconic ...
Posted: Wednesday April 5, 2017
Getting the Play Right
Bios for the panel of Fringe Festival playwrights
Posted: Wednesday March 15, 2017
Students living up to literary reputation
With Dunedin’s designation as a UNESCO City of Literature and its well-known legacy in publishing, it should come as no ...
Posted: Monday March 13, 2017
Writers Residency Opportunities in 2017 / 18 in Dunedin - City of Literature
The Robert Lord Writers Cottage Trust, Dunedin announces the closing dates for residencies available at the historic Rob...
Posted: Tuesday February 28, 2017
Poetry Trail launches in Port Chalmers
Posted: Monday February 27, 2017
A tribute to Catriona Ferguson
Statement from Peter Biggs, Chair of the New Zealand Book Council
Posted: Monday February 20, 2017
Poems on the Street: Dunedin’s Poetic Parking Machines
In response to Dunedin’s status as a UNESCO City of Literature, lead designer Benjamin Alder and the team at Poetick est...
Posted: Monday February 13, 2017
Many steps involved in launching new Literary Walking Tours
Developing a new venture conducting literary walking tours through the University of Otago campus took the best part of ...
Posted: Monday February 13, 2017
Issue 8 of Down in Edin Magazine is now online
Posted: Tuesday January 31, 2017
University of Otago to offer City of Literature scholarship
The University of Otago and Dunedin City Council are excited to announce the launch of a new doctoral scholarship in lit...
Posted: Wednesday January 25, 2017
Best Books 2016
What will you be reading in 2017? Choose from our library staff’s Best Books of 2016 list.
Posted: Wednesday January 18, 2017
Poems in the Waiting Room
Poems in the Waiting Room (NZ) distributes 8000 free poetry cards every season to medical waiting rooms, rest homes, hos...
Posted: Sunday January 15, 2017
The University of Otago City of Literature PhD Scholarship
The Department of English and Linguistics at the University of Otago invites applications for a new doctoral scholarship...
Posted: Friday January 13, 2017
A town trod by Poets: The search for truth on Dunedin streets
A paper by Roger Hickin delivered at the University of Otago Centre for the Book 2016 Symposium: Book and Place
Posted: Monday January 9, 2017
Stories from our Vibrant Dunedin UNESCO City of Literature
Posted: Monday January 9, 2017
A Tale of Two Cities (Of Literature)
‘Chance is a fine thing’, the title of my 2009 memoir would have it, and chance had it that the start of our 2016 travel...
Posted: Monday January 9, 2017
That Blind Woman said "Why Not?!" to the 7-day challenge!
When the 7-day challenge was first mooted, my ears pricked up...
Posted: Sunday January 8, 2017
The Star Regent 24-hour Book Sale: a Great Literary Event
A City of Literature is not something Dunedin has just become: Dunedin has been a city of literature for a long time. Wh...
Posted: Sunday January 8, 2017
Opening Doors in Rockfaces: David Howard’s poetics
David Howard is a prominent New Zealand poet and co-founder of the literary journal takahē. After 13 years at Purakaunui...
Posted: Sunday January 8, 2017
Heritage Matters on Otago Access Radio
Twenty episodes of "Heritage Matters", the programme produced on behalf of Southern Heritage Trust for Otago Access Radi...
Posted: Friday December 23, 2016
Aotearoa Summer Reads to inspire nation to choose home-grown talent
A cast of New Zealand writers have selected their top picks from the Aotearoa-grown bookshelves to help guide kiwis in t...
Posted: Friday December 9, 2016
Cast of storytellers to delight with tales in many tongues
Dunedin (Thursday, 8 December) – The organisers of Dunedin’s inaugural International Storytelling Festival have been ove...
Posted: Friday December 9, 2016
Dunedin, New Zealand
Posted: Thursday December 8, 2016
Airini Beautrais wins Landfall Essay Competition 2016
Airini Beautrais has been named the winner of the 2016 Landfall Essay Competition for her essay ‘Umlaut’.
Competition j...
Posted: Thursday November 3, 2016
First complete edition of Katherine Mansfield’s poems
Oh God! I am divided still. I am bad. I fail in my personal life. I lapse into impatience, temper, vanity & so I fail as...
Posted: Thursday November 3, 2016
Announcing the 2016 Blue Oyster Summer Writing Resident:
Robyn Maree Pickens
With support from the Quarantine Island Kamau Taurua Community, Dunedin-based writer Robyn Maree Pickens will be spendin...
Posted: Monday October 17, 2016