Home-made Poetry Part 4
The Sportsman Drops a Goal, written by James Norcliffe, read by Errol Brain
James Norcliffe has published 10 collections of poetry and several award-winning novels for young people. A new novel for children, ‘Mallory, Mallory’, will be published this year and his first novel for adults next year. He co-edits the annual ‘ReDraft’ anthologies of writing by young people, and with Michelle Elvy and Paula Morris has edited ‘Ko Aotearoa Katou / We are New Zealand’, an anthology of art, prose and poetry (forthcoming from Otago University Press). James lives on the southern side of Lyttleton Harbour.
Errol Brain played more than 100 games for Counties, captaining them to back-to-back NPC finals in 1996-97, and led the Māori All Blacks to a famous win over England in Rotorua in 1998. He has also played for the Blues and the Chiefs, in France and in Japan before becoming head coach for Portugal from 2010-13. On his return to New Zealand Errol, his wife and three daughters settled in Tauranga. He is co-owner of The Drug Detection Agency. Errol was a guest speaker at the 2015 Tauranga Arts Festival.
Child, 5.30am, written by Alison Wong, read by Claire Mabey
Alison Wong grew up in Hawke’s Bay, lived in Wellington and now lives in Geelong, Australia. She writes poetry, novels and creative nonfiction. Her novel, ‘As the Earth Turns Silver’, won the 2010 NZ Book Award for Fiction, was shortlisted for the Australian PM’s Literary Award and in 2018 was selected by Booksellers NZ as one of the bestsellers of the decade. Together with Paula Morris, Alison is editing an anthology of creative writing by new Asian NZ voices.
Claire Mabey, who grew up in Tauranga, lives in Wellington with her partner Andrew Laking and their 2-year-old son. She is director of Verb Wellington, which runs literary events year-round in Wellington and includes an annual Festival + LitCrawl. Claire, who is curator of the NZ Festival of the Arts' Writers programme, worked for the Tauranga Arts Festival from 2013 to 2015.
