Dunedin Fringe News
By Fringe | Posted:
Check out the latest news from Dunedin Fringe covering the NZ Young Writers Festival, 2023 Guest Curator Jennifer Cheuk and Robert Lord Writers Cottage Young Writer in Residence Ruby Macomber
Have you heard about the New Zealand Young Writers Festival?
Here at Dunedin Fringe, we run a wide range of creative programming year-round. The team is well underway with organising the 2023 New Zealand Young Writers Festival, which celebrates the cutting edge of contemporary writing by artists aged 15-35. This year the festival runs from 21-24 September 2023.
Over four lively days, the festival brings some of the country’s brightest young writers to Ōtepoti Dunedin to perform, collaborate, share and celebrate writing in all its forms.
There’s something for everyone - from Zoomers to Boomers: poetry slams, performance, music, theatre, panel discussions and workshops. And the best part is it’s free for all ages to attend. Find out more on our website.
Get to know our 2023 Guest Curator
We are incredibly lucky to be working with Rat World Magazine Founder and Editor in Chief, Jennifer Cheuk, as our Guest Curator for this year’s festival. Jennifer is shaping up a fantastic programme of not-to-be-missed events, including a few that she’s hosting herself.
Jennifer Cheuk is a mixed-Hong Kong Chinese writer, editor, and artist. She is the Founder and Editor in Chief of Rat World - an independent print magazine and collective, based in Tamaki Makaurau. Rat World is all about showcasing underground and underrepresented voices in our community.
Jennifer is also highly involved in the theatre community as a reviewer, and has just staged a reading of her first script as part of Proudly Asian Theatre’s Fresh Off The Page programme. Her creative work is centered on alternative forms of storytelling, uplifting mixed-ethnicity stories, and small press publishing. Jennifer is currently working on a publication and online archive celebrating the creative work of mixed-heritage artists in Aotearoa.
Jennifer is so excited to be a part of the NZYWF team, and her vision as Guest Curator is to bring traditionally underrepresented forms of writing to the forefront. From visual narrative to the Ōtepoti postering community, writing truly is all around us!
Meet our 2023 Robert Lord Writers Cottage Young Writer in Residence
We’re stoked to welcome Ruby Macomber back to the festival as this year’s Robert Lord Writers Cottage Young Writer in Residence. Ruby will spend four weeks in Ōtepoti as part of her residency and will be collaborating on several events for the festival, including facilitating her own hybrid panel and workshop event.
Ruby Macomber (Rotuma, Taveuni, Ngāpuhi; she/they) is a creative non-fiction writer, poet, researcher and teina of Te Moana-Nui-a Kiwa; a daughter of Rotuma, Taveuni ma Kaikohe. Check out Ruby’s work in Pantograph Punch, Landfall, Metro and Starling. She also features in Kete Books, Awa Wāhine and Poetry Snaps Podcast, and she’s been interviewed for Auckland Museum online.
Currently, Ruby's mahi interrogates the intersection between arts and activism and the diasporic experiences of Rotuman youth. Her current obsessions include Pink V, and fried bread dipped in Kokoda.
Ruby's residency is made possible by the generous support of our friends at the Robert Lord Writers Cottage Trust.