As usual, the Centre for the Book’s annual symposium will open with a public lecture on Thursday night, followed by a day of stimulating papers. Thursday night’s lecture at the Dunedin Public Library will be given by Neville Peat, author of numerous books about Southern New Zealand (http://www.nevillepeatsnewzealand.com/). Come listen to this well-known author reflect on his sense of book and place as he describes, in words and pictures, some of New Zealand’s most remote and precious areas and landmarks, and his ideas for an autobiography that explores an array of New Zealand islands spanning 8,500 kms of latitude, from the tropical to the frozen.
Friday will consist of panels of 20-min papers, with a plenary lecture by Dr. Ingrid Horrocks of Massey University after morning tea. Ingrid is one of the editors of the forthcoming Victoria University Press title, Extraordinary Anywhere: Essays on Place from Aotearoa New Zealand, as well as an online anthology about a particular place, Pukeahu (http://pukeahuanthology .org/).
We are also delighted that Nicky Page will be joining us. Recently appointed Director to Dunedin’s City of Literature program, Nicky will have lots of thoughts about our topic and will also look forward to hearing the insights of others.
We would welcome papers dealing with this theme from any angle. Possible topics might include:
- Regionalism in NZ literature Guidebooks
- Travel writing about NZ Local libraries
- Movement and traffic of books
- Printers and/or publishers and place
- Book events (festivals, auctions, Regent Book Sale)
- Newspapers and place
- Book towns (Hay-on-Wye, Wales; Bredevoort, Netherlands; Clunes, Victoria, Australia; Greytown, NZ; and others)
- Magazine circulation
Abstracts of 250–300 words should be sent to the co-directors of the Centre for the Book, Dr. Donald Kerr (donald.kerr@otago.ac.nz) and Shef Rogers (shef.rogers@otago.ac.nz) before the end of July. Decisions about panels and participants will be confirmed and registration will open in mid-August. We look forward to welcoming you to our fair City of Literature.
If you wish to put up a poster about the event or would like an easily printable copy of the above details, please download the PDF version.