Robyn Bargh

Writing about the Māori World – a key concern of the writer and historian Michael King – will be the focus of a writing workshop to be held next February.

Tā te Ao Māori: Writing the Māori World is the third  writers’ residential workshop run by the Michael King Writers’ Centre. The centre was established in 2005 in memory of King who died in 2004, and aims to support New Zealand writers and to promote all aspects of New Zealand's literature, including fiction and non-fiction. Trustees say the writing workshops complement the residencies provided for working writers at the Writers’ Centre.

Booksellers New Zealand was delighted to learn of the Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit honour bestowed on Huia Publisher and former chair of our organisation, Robyn Bargh,  in the New Year’s honours list.

“Robyn has played a very important role in New Zealand publishing and she has also given much to the  New Zealand’s book  industry as a whole,” said Booksellers Chairman, Hamish Wright.

The following has been reprinted by kind permission of the Dominion Post. Report by Sophie Speer, photo by Kent Blechynden

Companion Backing Maori Literature

Hamish Wright: an accidental bookseller despite book trade in his blood... by Jillian Ewart, writer for The Read.

On Wednesday 16 May 2007 the New Zealand Post Book Awards ceremony was hosted at Parliament by Hon. Judith Tizard, Associate Minister of Arts, Culture & Heritage.

It was one of the gala events of the year!

View photos of the event in the gallery below.

The awards ceremony for the 2008 New Zealand Post Book Awards was held on the evening of Wednesday 21 May at the Wellington Town Hall.

The entrance to the Wellington Town Hall was transformed into an enchanted forest, complete with toadstools, fairylights and a pathway made from the jacket covers of the 2008 finalist titles.