New Zealand Society of Authors to run a Write Your Voice workshop at Palmerston North Central Library

In 2020, Mikaela Nyman was awarded a PhD in creative writing from the International Institute of Modern Letters in Wellington. Photo / Ebony Lamb Photography

What determines your voice as a writer? Are there ways you can further develop it?

Is it a matter of recognising and reflecting on all the influences that have shaped your identity? Or do you begin with an idea for a piece of writing and decide what voice this piece requires?

The Central District committee of the New Zealand Society of Authors is producing one-day workshop Write Your Voice on Saturday, November 11 to help participants identify and strengthen their writer’s voice.

Whether you write poetry, novels, non-fiction, short fiction or essays, the voice of a piece of writing is what makes your work special, powerful and influential, although it can be a puzzle to achieve.

Mikaela Nyman and Thom Conroy will lead the workshop, combining teaching with writing and feedback opportunities.

Nyman is a Taranaki-based poet, novelist and non-fiction writer of Finnish heritage from the autonomous Åland Islands, born into the Swedish linguistic minority. She writes in Swedish and English.

Her novel Sado, climate fiction set in Vanuatu, was published in 2020. In 2021 came the ground-breaking Sista, Stanap Strong! A Vanuatu Women’s Anthology, which she co-edited with Rebecca Tobo Olul-Hossen, both published by Te Herenga Waka Press.

In 2021, she was the writer in residence for Massey University.

Thom Conroy is a senior lecturer in creative writing at Massey University. He will co-lead a one-day writing workshop in Palmerston North. Photo / Alexander Hallag

Conroy is the author of The Salted Air and The Naturalist (Penguin Random-House) and the editor of the personal essay collection Home (Massey University Press). He has published short fiction widely in literary journals in the United States, New Zealand and Australia.

Conroy teaches creative writing from first-year through to PhD at Massey University and serves as editor-in-chief of the literary journal Headland.

The workshop at Central Library will run from 10am to 3pm. Email robyn.salisbury@xtra.co.nz to book.