Paula Morris on the Crystal Arts Trust in support of emerging writers, musicians and visual artists

Saraid de Silva. Photo / Supplied

After a year of gloom about writing in New Zealand — including funding controversies, postponement or cancellation of literary festivals; and new books launched in lockdown — some good news glimmers. The newly formed Crystal Arts Trust has been created to support emerging writers, musicians and visual artists. Founded by novelist Rosetta Allan and her husband James, its board includes AUT pro vice-chancellor Gayle Morris and me, in my capacity as director of the Master of Creative Writing programme at the University of Auckland and founder of the upcoming online Māori literature hub, Wharerangi.

One of the Crystal Arts Trust's first acts was to step into a sponsorship breach at the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards. From 2022, it will support the prizes for best first books — $2500 for each of the four category winners.

The impetus for this, in part, is personal. In 2016 Rosetta Allan received a Creative NZ grant for a residency in St Petersburg, at the Museum of Nonconformist Art, to research her second novel. The Unreliable People — Stalin's name for the exiled Koryo-saram who were seen as neither Russian, Korean or Kazakh — was published by Penguin in 2019.

"I experienced first-hand," James Allan says, "how receiving financial support to develop a creative career provides a sense of validation, encouragement, and empowerment to keep pushing forward. From that moment, I had a desire to make a long-lasting contribution to the arts in Aotearoa New Zealand. That time has finally arrived."

"It was a total thrill to be in contact with this new, philanthropic arts-focused trust," says Nicola Legat, chairperson of the NZ Book Awards Trust. "Books are the enduring achievers of our national culture. They really punch above their weight in telling our stories. Sponsoring one of the national book awards, and attaching your name to it, is one of the most meaningful ways you can make a difference to a writer's career and help sustain New Zealand literature."

To Legat, the Crystal Arts Trust "has made a bold and confident statement of arrival". It's a welcome arrival, and surprising, perhaps—the Allans are not part of any mega-rich Auckland scene: they live in a modest two-bedroom unit in Kingsland. James Allan describes the trust as "a small, humble offering that is derived from our investment income." Wealth, he says, "is not about how much money you have, it's about how much you give away." He's always believed, he says, "that the arts are fundamental to our humanity."

Legat notes that this is another example of individuals making a difference, like Mary and Peter Biggs, who sponsor the poetry category of the Ockham NZ Book Awards, and Jann Medlicott, donor of the annual $60,000+ fiction prize. "Now we are keen to find a believer to support our General Non-Fiction Award and join our funder whānau."

James Allan believes there are others ready to step forward. The Crystal Arts Trust has "a bequest offered by a retired couple and corporate organisations who have already indicated a willingness to jump on board", keen to support "emerging writers, visual artists and musicians at a critical time in their career".

The trust is also funding a new prize for the University of Auckland's Master of Creative Writing — of which Rosetta Allan is an alum — awarded to the best creative dissertation each year. At $10,000, it's the largest student creative writing prize in New Zealand. The first winner, just announced on December 9, is Saraid de Silva, also known as an actor for stage and television and for her series Conversations With My Immigrant Parents.

Her novel Amma is about three generations of South Asian women and the journeys they take away from their homes and towards each other. Its settings include Singapore in the 50s, Sri Lanka (Ceylon) and Invercargill in the 70s, Hamilton in the 90s and contemporary London. Rosetta Allan admires the way the novel shows "three women's vulnerabilities that grow into strengths. It is all at once frightening, vindicating, satisfying, and inspiring."

Selina Tusitala Marsh, an examiner for de Silva's novel, describes it as "a riveting tale about what it means to be 'new' New Zealanders. It's a compelling read, heart-led and beautifully executed." Amma, she says, is a "new story washed up on Aotearoa shores. It will be a must-have on Aotearoa shelves."

"Saraid de Silva is just one example of the promise of emerging Asian New Zealand writers," says Alison Wong, noting that another Asian NZ writer, Angelique Kasmara, won an earlier iteration of this prize (supported by the Wallace Foundation) in 2016. That manuscript became the novel Isobar Precinct, recently published by Cuba Press.

Wong and I co-edited A Clear Dawn: New Asian Voices from Aotearoa NZ, which included work by both Kasmara and de Silva, and she served as external examiner for de Silva's dissertation.

"Over the next decade," she predicts, "there will be a blossoming of Asian New Zealand novels, memoirs, and short story, essay, poetry and hybrid collections. Within 20 years the literature of Aotearoa will be transformed with its vibrancy and diversity."