Bay authors part of day of writing workshops

Hawke's Bay author Aaron Topp is part of the special day of workshops in Napier on Saturday, August 20. Photo / Supplied

Most people have heard the line "everyone has a book in them".

If you think this applies to you, the Ahuriri Roadshow is your chance to do something about it.

Run by the New Zealand Society of Authors (NZSA) Te Puni Kaituhi O Aotearoa (PEN NZ Inc), Ahuriri Roadshow is a series of professional development workshops available to all writers — beginning or experienced — covering both fiction and non-fiction.

Hawke's Bay fiction writers Aaron Topp and Shelley Burne-Field are part of the special day of workshops in Napier on Saturday, August 20, featuring writers from around New Zealand.

The event, held at the Napier Sailing Club and organised in partnership with the local NZSA branch, will cover the craft of writing fiction, non-fiction, poetry, short-story writing, editing and the business of writing, publishing, marketing and applying for grants.

Topp will lead a session titled "YA is dead, long live YA". His most recent novel Nor'east Swell published this year by One Tree House is the story of teenager Witi, and has been a top 10 bestseller on New Zealand's Children's and Teens list.

Topp's first book, Single Fin, won numerous awards while a mountain-biking novel published in 2015 Hucking Cody: A Tale of Betrayal, Jealousy, Brotherly Love and Freeriding was a finalist for the 2016 Young Adult Fiction Award in the New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults.

He has also written Creating Waves: How Surfing Inspires our most Creative New Zealanders, an exploration of the relationship of the role surfing and the sea plays in the creative lives of a selection of leading musicians, painters, sculptors, poets and fellow writers.

Burne-Field (Ngāti Mutunga, Ngāti Rārua, Sāmoa, Pākehā ) will co-lead a session on writing short stories. Her short story Speaking in Tongues was the only NZ finalist shortlisted for the Commonwealth Prize in 2022 and another one, Pinching Out Dahlias, is the most read short story so far published on Reading Room.

She will share her session with John Prins; both have an MA in creative writing from Auckland University (2020), and for an hour and a half, they will help you to edit your current short story into the best version of itself.

Other sessions held throughout the day, with lunch provided, include a masterclass on Making 3-D Characters with Wellington novelist and lawyer Brannavan Gnanalingam, and workshops on poetry with Rob Hack, who among many roles facilitates creative writing workshops at Te Ara Korowai, a mental health wellness centre in Raumati Beach; The Business of Being a Writer with Elizabeth Kirkby-McLeod and Tell It Slant; Melding and Merging Fact and Fiction with Wellington novelist Tracy Farr.

Writers Anna Mackenzie from Hawke's Bay and Mikaela Nyman from Taranaki will be in a discussion titled Getting Through the Hoops about applying for funding and grants and chaired by Elizabeth Kirkby-McLeod.

For more information and to book go to https://nzsa-regionalroadshow-ahuriri.lilregie.com/booking/attendees/new