The full programme for this year’s symposium is now available ( 2024 Programme ). We hope you can join us Thursday evening at 5:30 for Nick Gadd’s keynote address and for the day Friday to hear our 4 panels of presentations.

The symposium takes place at the University of Otago College of Education, Tower Block Lecture Theatre, G.07, 155 Union Street East, Dunedin.

Looking forward to seeing you.

Two book-oriented opportunities are currently open to receive applications.  The first is the University Book Shop Summer Writing Residency in Dunedin, the second a research fellowship at the University of Western Australia Library in Perth.  Details for both follow.

University Book Shop Summer Writer in Residence, in Association with the Robert Lord Writers’ Cottage Trust

Not only a room of one’s own, but an office at the bookshop and a furnished cottage for six weeks. The residency is open to emerging writers who are normally resident in New Zealand and write for adults, young adults or children. They may write in any genre, including poetry, drama, fiction, narrative non-fiction, graphic novels, biography, autobiography, essays or literary criticism.

Applications close 6 October for a residency in January and February 2025 in line with the University of Otago’s summer term.

Full details and definitions of ’emerging are included in this PDF, with contact to obtain the application form.  Sharpen your quills!

Although the CFP has been previously circulated, we wanted to post it here for easier distribution to anyone you think may wish to contribute or attend.

As Dunedin celebrates its tenth anniversary as a UNESCO City of Literature, the Centre for the Book proposes to think collectively about what books and cities have to do with each other.  As well as considering the epiphenomena of books in cities, and if and how cities support or undermine book-based culture, we also want to think about what it might mean to be a “literary city,” by keeping in mind the city as (Latin) civitas, and asking in broad terms what books have meant and can mean for the lives of cities and their citizens.

Possible topics might include but are not limited to:

• Bookshops in (particular) cities, and their contribution to the ecology of print
• Newspapers, ditto.
• School policies, reading practices and distinctive Dunedin approaches
• Publishers and publishers of works about cities and their literary lives
• Libraries (public, private) in cities
• Other institutional structures supporting authors, writing and reading in cities: Festivals, Fellowships, Residencies
• Scholarship, books and essays in Dunedin
• City-based literary tourism
• Events associated with books: signings, launches, readings, book groups, exhibitions, etc.
• Handpress printing in Dunedin or other cities
• Guidebooks to cities and their writers and publishers
• Depictions in film and literature of books and book-related activities in the life of cities
• Books and urbanity (urbs = [Latin] city, geographical; walled town); books and politeness (polis = [Greek] citadel, city, or community)
• Books and civility /civilisations /citizenship (civitas = [Latin] city, social and political): that is, the values appropriate for life in cities.

Dates and details

Call for Papers issued Mon. 1 July
Proposals for papers by 1 Sept., to books@otago.ac.nz
We hope to send acceptances by 15 September.
The Symposium will be on Thurs (evening), Friday (all day), 21-22 November
The venue will be the Otago College of Education Tower Block, Theatre G07.

“Wind Between the Pages”:
David Elliot Exhibition
Reed Gallery, Dunedin Public Library
22 August to 27 October 2024

 What a Treat!

Award-winning Dunedin illustrator and writer, David Elliot, has delved into the art of 3D drawing, an exciting and original way of ‘lifting illustrations’ from the pages of the books he loves.

David’s re-imaging of illustration showcases a range of well-known titles, including Melville’s Moby Dick, Shakespeare’s The Tempest, and his own, personal response to Lewis Carroll’s The Hunting of the Snark.

Whatever is going on, these models and drawings are essentially about his on-going fascination with books and the imagined worlds they contain. Many of them also celebrate where David lives on the edge of the wild Otago Coast and delve into the literature of the sea. Winds howl through their pages, storms rage against their bindings, tiny ships are flung across their pages and strange creatures are cast up onto their margins.

David will also give a talk on August 22nd at 5.30 p.m. on the genesis of his creations and reveal the hows and whys of this original artform.  All are welcome to attend.

The Bibliographical Society of Australia and NZ is proud to release its newest Occasional Publication, Carlo Dumontet’s Collation, Reference Notation & Statement of Signing: A Workbook, available directly from the Society.

For more details, see this PDF flyer.

Intended for all book lovers who have occasionally been mystified or daunted by collation statements describing the physical structures of books, Dumontet’s volume includes exercises and numerous illustrations to dispel the confusions that sometimes accompany the art of collation statements.  Distilled from the authoritative sources, this book makes the topic approachable in a much more user-friendly format.

For those who love hearing great literature, Reading Allowed offers a monthly treat of two selections, one read by Paul Tankard and the other by Lorraine Johnston.  Whether revisiting an old favourite or wanting a fun introduction to a book you know you should have read, Reading Allowed offers something for everyone.

Readings take place at the Moray Place Dunedin Public Library at 5:30 on designated Wednesdays.

Here’s the schedule:

March 13

Of Mice and Men. John Steinbeck
Possession: A Romance. A. S. Byatt

 April 10

The Pilgrim’s Progress. John Bunyan
A Short Story by Saki

May 8

Boswell’s Life of Johnson. James Boswell
Flight of the Fantail. Steph Matuku (NZ)

June 12

The Changeover. Margaret Mahy (NZ) (Note: It is 40 years since The Changeover won the Carnegie Medal – the second Carnegie won by Mahy/other was in 1982 for The Haunting – (she was second person to win it twice – but first from outside UK and first woman). Also Mahy is the “Theme” for Continued Sense of Wonder on June 19.
A Short Story by P. G. Wodehouse

July 10

The Children of Green Knowe. L. M Boston
The Book of Secrets. Fiona Kidman (NZ)

August 14

The Secret Agent. Joseph Conrad – to be read by Lorraine (100 years since Conrad died)
The Hobbit. J. R. R. Tolkien

September 11

The Golden Key. George MacDonald
Heidi. Johanna Spyri

October 9 

A History of Tom Jones, a Foundling. Henry Fielding
Howl’s Moving Castle. Diana Wynne-Jones

November 6 (1^st Wednesday of the month – to accommodate for second November reading)

The Woman in White. Wilkie Collins (200 years since Collins born)
Inside Dope by Paul Thomas (NZ)

November 27 (in lieu of a December offering)

1066 and All That. W. C. Sellar and R. J. Yeatman
The Lady of Shalott. Alfred, Lord Tennyson

John Quilter, 2015                (Image source: stuff.co.nz)

John Quilter was a great bookman and a thoroughly good bloke. He died on the 19th of February, and his passing is a sad loss to many in the New Zealand book world and those interested in print culture and book history. His bookshops in Wellington were a quiet oasis for many locals and bookish folk passing through the city: his earlier Plimmer Steps premises – the earlier one on the left and then the more spacious rooms on the right – his famed Lambton Quay bookshop, and then the last on Ghuznee Street. After closing his physical shop in 2015, he traded online and enjoyed his excursions north to the Featherston book fairs.

Browsing the shelves in his bookshops was always a delight: you could discover that title you had always been looking for, spot tomes that would spark descents down rabbit-holes, or just casually flick through books and pamphlets. All the while, and even if you did not buy anything, John was extremely accommodating. I might add, the books and pamphlets for sale were always reasonably priced; not bank-breaking. Then there was the book-talk, which was often wide ranging, always interesting, even a little gossipy. John could regale on Irish authors, New Zealand’s Count Potocki de Montalk (always drawing a chuckle), Iris Murdoch, the scarcity of Robin Hyde titles, private press publications, the trade in general, and whether people were still reading and collecting. He supplied some great and long-lasting memories to many.

In March 2012, to celebrate World Book Day and the official launch of the University of Otago Centre for the Book, we were privileged to lure John down from Wellington. To a bumper crowd in the Dunningham Suite at the Dunedin Public Library he talked about his life with books, histories of the trade as he knew it, and his numerous bookselling adventures. His talk, illustrated with evocative black and white photographs of old bookshops, was very illuminating, demonstrating his deep knowledge that will be sadly missed. Wellington’s flags should be at half-mast.

(Thanks to Donald Kerr for this memorial.)

For some additional biographical background, see this Wellington Post story: https://www.thepost.co.nz/nz-news/350194568/wellington-loses-stalwart-second-hand-book-trade

The final Reading Allowed event for 2023 has been brought forward to November 29^th. Come along to hear “The Night before Christmas” read by Lorraine Johnston and an excerpt from “The Go-Between” by L. P. Hartley read by Paul Tankard.  The sessions are held at the Cube on the ground floor of the Central Dunedin Public Library.

We often discuss books as repositories or shapers of culture, most often considering the ways such print is revered, studied or transmitted, without so often pausing to think about all the ways that print, frequently in more ephemeral forms, also objects, resists or reframes our perspectives.  We change that up this year: we have organised a great lineup of speakers for this year’s symposium—you can see the 2023 Symposium Programme here.  Come along to discover some more forceful and challenging uses of print.

Our keynote speaker on Thursday evening is Redmer Yska.  The title of his talk is “Flaming Youth and the Awful Truth: Adventures along the Inky Way,” drawing on two of his books, All Shook Up: the Flash Bodgie and the Rise of the New Zealand Teenager in the 1950s (Penguin, 1993) and NZ Truth: the Rise and Fall of the People’s Paper (Craig Potton, 2009). Both works explore topics around radical publishing, censorship, moral panics, the rise and role of the tabloid press.

Redmer Yska is an award-winning Wellington writer and historian. He began his career as a copy boy on NZ Truth, gaining a reporting job after writing a ‘shock/horror/probe’ story about Auckland punk rockers.  In the 1990s, he produced two books about NZ post-war youth culture: NZ Green: The Story of Marijuana in New Zealand and All Shook Up: The Flash Bodgie and the Rise of the NZ Teenager in the 1950s.  In 2001, Yska explored his identity as a Dutch New Zealander with An Errand of Mercy: Captain Jacob Eckhoff and the Loss of the Kakanui.

In 2004, Yska was commissioned to write a history of Wellington City: Wellington: Biography of a City. In 2008, he was awarded the National Library Research Fellowship to write a history of Truth.  NZ Books reviewer Spiro Zavos called the resulting work “the best book about journalists and journalism in New Zealand I have read.”

Yska was the major recipient of a NZ History Trust Fund Award in 2014, allowing him to write A Strange Beautiful Excitement: Katherine Mansfield’s Wellington 1888–1903. Reviewer Kirsty Gunn wrote: “Yska’s work is like a form of access to the engine-room of the writer’s imagination; a way into that particular world of the past which powered her art.”  In 2019, a grant from Creative NZ allowed him to write Katherine Mansfield’s Europe: Station to Station, published in 2023 by Otago University Press.

The symposium is free, and will be streamed for those who cannot make it to Dunedin.  We look forward to gathering for the public lecture on Thursday evening and the day of presentations on Friday, 16–17 November 2023.  We will provide morning and afternoon tea; please register using this simple Google form (https://forms.gle/d4EnQzYBz2hr89hr8) so that we know how many people to cater for and how to accommodate any dietary requirements.  We need to receive all registrations no later than 5 November (a memorable date) for the catering arrangements.

We hope you can join us to explore another aspect of the power of print, aided by some great speakers and our always lively audiences.