South Pacific and Asia Book Chat: An Appreciation

 
South Pacific and Asia Book Chat is a weekly book chat that takes place on Twitter on Thursday evenings (New Zealand time). To join it, all you need to do is (a) join Twitter and (b) send out tweets at the appropriate time which include the #spbkchat tag. I take part about once a fortnight, on average.

(You don't have to live in this region to participate - it's just that the chat was set up to be at a time that people in the region could make. Most book chats on Twitter are US-based, and the timing doesn't work for many other parts of the world.)

Recently, #spbkchat celebrated its first anniversary. During the past 13 months, a huge range of topics has been covered - there are general book chats every month or so, chats about particular genres, and chats about the national literatures of various countries in the region.

I find these latter chats especially interesting. Despite New Zealand's geographical position, New Zealanders - or at least (largely) monoglot New Zealanders like me - learn far more about books and writers from England and the US than we do about writers from Asia and the Pacific - or even Australia. I really value hearing about the writers to watch out for, and the shape of the writing and publishing scene, in the Philippines, and Indonesia, and - tonight's topic - Malaysia, and it is great that readers, and sometimes writers, from so many countries get involved.

So this is to say thanks to Marg, Maree and Tanabata, the organisers of #spbkchat, and to all the enthusiastic, knowledgeable folks - readers, writers, readers and writers - who take part. Long may it continue!

Tuesday Poem: Impertinent To Sailors - Now Set To Music

 

Curved over islands, the world
dragged me south in a talkative year

slipping Southampton
as the band played a distant farewell.

It was better than steerage,
that assisted passage: ten pound Poms

at sixpence the dozen, promenading
in sun frocks, gathering for quoits,

angling, in an understated way,
for a seat at the Captain's table —

while I, a child, roamed decks, became
impertinent to sailors.

And the heat! My dear, there never were
such days — rum, romance,

the rudiments of ska. Panama beckoned,
locks pulsing like the birth canal.

We passed through, to be rocked
on the swells of the quiet ocean,

its long unshaded days
of trade winds, doldrums, Equator —

then a cold shore,
a bureaucratic harbour,

and the half of a world
it would take to say goodbye.

Credit note: "Impertinent To Sailors" was published in JAAM 27 (2009), edited by Ingrid Horrocks, under the title "Over Islands", and is included in my new collection Men Briefly Explained.

Tim says: I've run "Impertinent to Sailors" as my Tuesday Poem before, and I don't usually repeat them - but there is a special reason to do this week. "Impertinent To Sailors" has been set to music as a choral work, "Brighton to Bondi", which will premiere at a concert of the same name at the Sydney Town Hall on Friday 16 September.

Here is composer and conductor Brett Weymark's account of how he wrote "Brighton to Bondi".

I was delighted when Brett got in touch, having found my poem online when it was previously posted as a Tuesday Poem - so thanks go to Mary McCallum too, for getting the Tuesday Poems rolling in the first place!

I hope the concert is a great success, and I also hope that this will not be the last time "Bright to Bondi" is performed.

You can check out all the Tuesday Poems on the Tuesday Poem Blog - this week's hub poem in the centre of the page, and all the other Tuesday Poems on the right.

The First Asian AB - Renee Liang's New Play Comes To Auckland And Wellington

 
Renee Liang is a poet, playwright, short story writer, and librettist. You can find out more about her work on her excellent blog and in my interview with her almost exactly a year ago.

Renee's latest venture is very timely indeed: a play called "The First Asian AB", which has Auckland and Wellington seasons coming up. Here are all the details from Renee's announcement:

Introducing The First Asian AB, a hilarious new comedy from Kiwi-Chinese writer Renee Liang...

What would you do to represent?

Willy’s a homestay Asian student. Mook’s Samoan and he’s been here for ages. They’re best mates at Timaru Boys High. But when Willy decides his dream is to try out for the All Blacks, mateship — and everything else — is up for grabs.

A warm feel-good comedy with serious undertones, The First Asian AB examines the question ‘what makes someone Kiwi?’ Is it rugby, racing and beer – or being true to oneself and one’s friends?

At breakneck pace, Benjamin Teh (The Bone Feeder, Odd Socks) and Paul Fagamalo (Rent, Where We Once Belonged) capture multiple characters – a Samoan aiga, a bored class of thirteen year olds, two entire rugby teams playing each other, and one sassy girl called George.

Directed by Edward Peni (Samoa Mo Samoa, The West Auckland Cardigan Appreciation Society) with live music by Andrew Correa, and dramaturgy by Oscar Kightley, The First Asian AB debuts as part of the Real NZ Festival (the 'arty' side of the Rugby World Cup!).

Where You Can See the First Asian AB

Basement Studio, Auckland, 6pm, 13-18 Sep 2011,
Tickets http://www.iticket.co.nz/events/2011/sep/faab/, (09) 361 1000
Q+A after the show on the 14th

BATS Theatre, Wellington, 6pm, 22 Sep-1 Oct 2011,
Tickets http://www.bats.co.nz/content/first-asian-ab, (04) 802 4175
Q+A after the show on the 23rd

Tickets $18 full, $13 concession (seniors/students), $15 groups 6+

Renee adds:

For rugby diehard fans: where else could you pay 2% of the cost of a RWC opening ticket and watch 3 rugby matches in 90 minutes?? The show contains plenty of rugby hero moments!!

For people who couldn't care less about the RWC: this is not really a play about rugby, but about the immigrant experience. (Shhhhh.)

Judging And Presenting The Dan Davin Literary Awards

 
In April, I took part in the Readers and Writers Alive! Literary Festival in Invercargill, and had a great time. Hamesh Wyatt, Rebecca Amundsen and the Dan Davin Literary Foundation really know how to look after visiting writers - in a way that makes them feel a part of the community they are visiting - and if you ever get the chance to attend the Festival, my advice is: take it!

But my association with the Dan Davin Foundation didn't end there. I also took on the job of judging the Open and Student short story competitions, and I returned to Invercargill on 1 September to present the prizes.

I didn't know it when I chose the winners, place-getters and honourable mentions, but the identity of the winners turned out to be stories in themselves, one sad and one happy.

As the student section winner, I chose "A Day at the Beach" by Pooja Pillay. What I didn't know was that Pooja was seriously ill by the time I made my choice. She learned of her victory the day before she died, a few days before the presentation ceremony, as reported in the Southland Times.

As the Open section winner, I chose "The Journey of the Magi" by Claire Buckingham. While the Student competition is confined to senior high school students from Southland schools, the Open competition is open to entrants from throughout New Zealand, and this appears to have been the first time that a Southlander has won the Open section. (Not that I knew this when judging - the entries were anonymous.)

There were a number of other very fine stories among the placegetters and Honourable Mentions, and as I said in my Judge's Reports, both the present and the future of Southland writing appear to be in good hands.

Given the circumstances, the presentation ceremony (at which Bill Manhire also delivered the annual Dan Davin Lecture) was a bittersweet affair. I presented the open competition awards first - there was a lot of applause at the news a local writer had won, but Claire is away on her travels and wasn't able to receive the prize in person - and the student competition awards second.

This meant that Pooja's award was the last announced, and having announced her as the winner, I then handed over to representatives from Pooja's school, Aparima College. One of Pooja's fellow students gave a moving eulogy that focused on the difference Pooja's presence had made to the school and to her fellow students, then her English teacher read Pooja's winning story before we settled back to listen to Bill's lecture.

Some of us were still chatting away over food and drinks the best part of an hour after the formal parts of the evening finished, and this discussion only reinforced my feeling that the main thing holding writers back in Southland is not any lack of ability, but isolation, both real and perceived. I know the Dan Davin Literary Foundation has some big plans to help ease that isolation, and I am looking forward to seeing those plans come to fruition.

Tuesday Poem: The Wall, by Tony Malone

 
The sole guardian of the citadel is he,
the last hope of a billion souls and a billion hearts,
a warrior towering in front of his own Thermopylae -
through him, they must pass.

He stands, waiting, as so many times before,
with the calm of the warrior,
for the approach of the foe…

which comes again
with a fiery catapult
of blazing red
thundering down the pass
finally breaking his resolve,
shattering his defence,
ending his resistance.

The white-clad warriors cheer,
their victory dance mocking the memory
of the heroic struggle. The people roar
as the warrior disappears from view, yet…

In their joy is respect, and the truth that
with the falling of the Wall,
victory is inevitable - and complete.

Credit note: "The Wall" is published here for the first time by permission of Tony Malone.

Tim says: A couple of weeks ago, my Tuesday Poem was Ponting's Genius by Meliors Simms. Meliors' poem was about Herbert Ponting, the photographer who accompanied Scott's expedition to Antarctica, but as I expected, some of my readers saw the title and though that Meliors' subject was Ricky Ponting, Australian cricket captain.

One such was Tony Malone, an Australian writer, reader, reviewer and blogger who, like me, is a participant in the weekly South Pacific and Asia Book Chat (#spbkchat) on Twitter. I told him he was welcome to send me a poem about Ricky Ponting (and he still is!), but instead he sent me one about a cricketer I greatly admire, Rahul Dravid.

England and India have just finished playing a Test cricket series during which England overtook India as the #1 team in the world. In fact, England beat India 4 tests to 0. India were hugely disappointing, and only one of the great Indian batsmen stood up against the English bowling attack: Rahul Dravid, the man they call The Wall. Tony's poem is a fitting testament to his skill and determination.

If you'd like to read some more cricket poems, check out New Zealand cricket poetry anthology A Tingling Catch, edited by Mark Pirie, and the blog he maintains that has carried on the work of the anthology.

You can read all the Tuesday Poems on the Tuesday Poem blog - the featured poem is on the centre of the page, and the week's other poems are linked from the right-hand column.

October Book Tour To Launch Men Briefly Explained and Tongues Of Ash

 
It's all on! The Interactive Press book tour for my third poetry collection, Men Briefly Explained, and Keith Westwater's prize-winning debut collection Tongues of Ash, starts in Dunedin on Tuesday 25 October and ends in Auckland on Tuesday 1 November. Here is the tour poster:

For the benefit of Google and of those, like me, whose eyesight is not what it was, here are those details again in text format:

• Dunedin: Tuesday, 25 October, Circadian Rhythm Café, 72 St Andrew Street, 8pm
• Christchurch: Wednesday, 26 October, CPIT, Madras Street, 5:30pm
• Wellington: Thursday, 27 October, Wellington Central Library, 5:30 for 6pm
• Lower Hutt: Friday, 28 October, Rona Gallery/Bookshop, Eastbourne, 6pm
• Auckland: Tuesday 1 November, Poetry Live, Thirsty Dog, 469 Karangahape Road, 8pm

You can also see these, and signal your attendance, on our Facebook events page: http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=188416554563635

To celebrate the occasion, Keith Westwater has launched his own website.

Dr David Reiter, the publisher of Interactive Press and a noted poet in his own right, will also be in attendance and reading from his new collection My Planets. As he is an international poetry publisher who has a track record of publishing collections by New Zealand poets, he may be someone you want to get to know.

We will be doing lots more to publicise individual events over the next seven weeks, but if you just can't wait that long to get your copy of these books, or if you live where you can't get to a launch event, you can already purchase both books from Amazon in paperback and Kindle ebook formats, as follows:

Tongues of Ash: paperback and ebook
Men Briefly Explained: paperback and ebook

Oh, All Right, If You Insist

 
I wasn't going to. But after spending the past two days reading nothing but pleas from leading media outlets for me to change my mind - "He must tell us!" (New Orleans Times-Picayune), "This has become an urgent matter of national security" (Washington Times), "All Blacks something World Cup something" (Dominion Post) - I have decided to give in. The rumours are true: the three titular brothers of my Tuesday Poem Tres Hermanos are indeed that trio of Hollywood hot-shots, Zack, Jed and Joss Whedon.



Here they are with Maurissa "Mo" Tancharoen at some San Diego Comic Con of distant memory - that's Mo, Joss, Zack and Jed in that order. Since the brothers Whedon got their (uncredited) chance to shine in Tres Hermanos and hence Men Briefly Explained, here is Mo Tancharoen with Fran Kranz in the music video for her and Jed Whedon's song "Remains". It's a video that manages to be beautiful, creepy, sad and feminist all at once.