Two of my favourite writers have been in the news in the last few days.
The other night Lloyd Jones and friends launched the Bougainville Library Trust at a cocktail party in Wellington’s Botanic Gardens. Lloyd says he has done well out of Mister Pip, his Booker-shortlisted novel about a young girl growing up in war-torn Bougainville during the 1990s. If you haven’t read it, it is a great yarn about memory and identity and stories. I loved it partly because it captures the magic of Bougainville and the wildness of the place during a decade of conflict. I visited several times for Oxfam as we provided humanitarian aid during the war, and then Oxfam built a post-conflict recovery programme which incidentally my colleague David Shearer helped us to start.
The Trust is working with a Bougainvillean group to build a library on the island dedicated to story telling which will double as a cultural archive. It is an inspired way for Lloyd to give something back. Congratulations to him and the others working on the project (including my colleague Winnie Laban who serves on the trust). If you want to donate go to www.bougainvillelibrary.org.nz You can hear Lloyd talk about the project on Kim Hill.
C.K. Stead is another favourite of mine. Superb story teller, poet and always ready with an opinion. I loved what he had to say about the Auckland super city in an interview with The Aucklander:
I must say I haven’t followed closely in the way a concerned citizen should, but I’m deeply suspicious of Steven Joyce and Rodney Hide and what they seem to be doing.
It’s always said outside of Auckland that Aucklanders can’t agree on anything. The Auckland government had agreed there should be a fuel tax to meet public transport costs, and then Steven Joyce said, ‘You’re not going to have that’.
I”m worried about the direction Auckland is being given and the degree of power being handed to Rodney Hide. I think it’s a bad thing.
A great NZ writer but not a bloke has a wonderful new short story out, several years after her death. Janet Frame in the latest New Yorker http://www.newyorker.com/fiction/features/2010/04/05/100405fi_fiction_frame
Thanks for the link Hilary. Has it been published before?
Good on ya Phil and David
Good to see Red Alert is back online 
No Phil, my understanidng is it is from the collection found after her death of a number of items including some she didnt want published while she was alive.
C K Stead’s comments don’t appear in the Westie version of the Aucklander, [unless I've missed it] but has anyone had a look at the latest Listener which arrived with the N Z Herald this morning. Have a look at Slane’s cartoon on page 15 – an absolute cracker. I often despair at some of their articles – probably since APN took it over.
Phil, that story hasn’t been published before and that is one more reason why it is such a treasure. A little reminder from Janet about acceptance of diversity and the value of books.
The Sunday Times ran a piece on Stead last weekend – he won their short story competition and £25k to boot. Was this picked up in NZ?
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/article7074772.ece
Happy Easter Jilly Bee and Ethan Tucker