New Zealand Book Month launch

Ladies and Gentlemen, may I commence by greeting everyone in the languages of the realm of New Zealand—English, Maori, Cook Island Maori, Niuean, Tokelauan and New Zealand Sign Language.

Greetings, Kia Ora, Kia Orana, Fakalofa Lahi Atu, Taloha Ni and as it is the afternoon (Sign)

May I specifically greet you: Owen Marshall, shortly to give the inaugural Janet Frame Memorial Lecture; Liz Allen, Director of the New Zealand Society of Authors; Phil Twyford, Project Director, New Zealand Book Month; Distinguished Guests otherwise, Ladies and Gentlemen.

Thank you for inviting my wife Susan and I to attend the Janet Frame Memorial Lecture.  I have been given the privilege of introducing Owen Marshall  and the inaugural lecture.

Perhaps it would be better to introduce first the namesake of this lecture.  The late Janet Frame who died in 2004 was one of New Zealand's most famous contemporary writers, having published eleven novels, four collections of short stories, a book of poetry, a children's book, and a three-volume autobiography.  The numerous honours she received include New Zealand's highest honour, the Order of New Zealand, an honorary doctorate from Otago University and having been made an honorary foreign member of the American Academy of Arts & Letters.

Columnist Gordon McLauchlan described her style well when he said in an obituary that her:

"novels departed from the traditional realism of our literature with its well-constructed plots and defined characters. Her stories are shaped magically and frequently defect from novelistic conventions. They are borne aloft on lyrical, bewitching prose. She may have been shy in person but in the private life of her words she was worldly, unsentimental, brusquely analytical, and tellingly ironic."

I like the passage from the Pamela Gordon foreword to Janet Frame's book The Goose Bath Poems that goes:

"My writing is deeply involved with my life and my dreams.  When I write I'm not writing to be published.  Publication is always a shock and an embarrassment.  I still think posthumous publication is the last form of literary decency left."

If one of the aims of New Zealand Book Month and this inaugural lecture is to raise the profile of New Zealand's authors and provide a better understanding of what it means to be a writer in this country, then I cannot think of anyone better to name it after than Janet Frame.  I am advised this was a move supported by her literary trust.

It seems to me to be entirely appropriate that Owen Marshall should give the first lecture and to provide what might be described as a "state of the nation" address on literature and writing in New Zealand.  Owen is an appropriate choice for two reasons.  First, he has been a strong supporter of work to restore the Janet Frame House in Eden St in Oamaru.

Secondly, Owen is an accomplished writer in his own right with many volumes of short stories and several novels to his credit.  Born in Te Kuiti in 1941, he was the third son of a Methodist minister.  The Oxford Companion to NZ Literature described the environment as one "where his father read aloud to his family, scholarship was revered, and the value of books unquestioned."  What better background from which to promote NZ Book Month.

However, most of his childhood was spent in a number of provincial towns in the South Island. Completing a Master of Arts with Honours from Canterbury University and a Diploma in Teaching, as a sideline to his teaching career, he began writing novels, but not then attended by acclaim.  The result was that he turned away from the novel and instead concentrated on writing short stories, although again, initially without much success,

However, in 1977 his first published story appeared in The New Zealand Listener.  Two years later, his first volume of short stories—which he took the gamble of publishing himself—was praised by New Zealand's master of the form, the Frank Sargeson, in his last published review.

Since that time he hasn't looked back and eventually gave up teaching for a full-time career as an author.  He has since published many more volumes of short stories to critical acclaim with many placing him alongside Sargeson and Frame as one of New Zealand's best writers in this genre.  I have read a number of Owen's short stories, which I have particularly enjoyed because they have an instant resonance in the New Zealand psyche and landscape.  As one reviewer accurately said, the key to his success lies in his "dextrous examination of the ambiguities of relationships."

In more recent years, he has returned to the novel, with his second published work in this genre, Harlequin Rex (1999), winning the Deutz Medal for Fiction at the 2000 Montana Book Awards. Owen's writing has been recognised by an Honorary Doctorate from Canterbury University and numerous prizes and fellowships, including the inaugural Creative New Zealand Writers' Fellowship in 2003, the largest fellowship available in this country.  His latest novel, Drybread, has just been published.

New Zealand writing seems, from my perspective, to be in good heart.  Despite the international success of authors such as Janet Frame, there was until relatively recently, a cultural cringe about Kiwi authors. There was a time when you would have to search to find a New Zealand author's work for sale in an airport bookshop. That, thankfully, is no longer the case as authors, such as Elizabeth Knox and Lloyd Jones to name just two, have gained  national and international audiences. 

And those efforts have been supported by Fellowships, such as the Creative New Zealand Michael King Writers' Fellowship, and prizes and scholarships for new and emerging writers.  A number of reputable courses have also been established at our universities to assist budding authors in mastering the craft.

Before I invite Owen to the podium and to deliver his lecture, I will formally close by speaking in Maori issuing greetings and wishing everyone good health and fortitude in your endeavours.

No reira, tena koutou, tena koutou, kia ora, kia kaha, tena koutou katoa.

Reception remarks

Tena koutou katoa.  I've been asked to make a few brief remarks at this closing reception.  I'm sure that after listening to such a thought-provoking lecture as we've just heard, that we all have lots to discuss, so I'll keep my remarks brief.

I want to congratulate the industry—from writers and publishers to bookshops and libraries—on promoting New Zealand Book Month.  This is an opportunity celebrate those who have gone before and also to promote the New Zealand's latest literary talent.

As I mentioned in my earlier address, the cultural cringe that saw New Zealanders shy away from reading New Zealand authors, lies in the past.  But it is still important to get more New Zealanders reading New Zealand books. 

First, there is the economic argument.  Our creative industries from movie making and theatre to live and recorded music and published books, are an important part of our economy that employ significant numbers of people. There is no more ultimate form of backing "New Zealand Made" than to read a book by a New Zealand writer or buy a CD by a Kiwi musician.

Secondly, and equally importantly, our creative industries are an important touchstone for our society.  Artists—and I use that word in its widest sense to describe creative people across the spectrum—can make us laugh, cry and sometimes they can make us angry.  Their work is often a window on our nation's soul. They help us understand who we are as a people, where we come from and provide signposts as to where we might go in the future. That some countries harass and imprison supposedly "dissident" writers not only reminds us of the power of words but also the hard fought freedoms we enjoy. 

Thirdly, NZ Book Month is an opportunity to celebrate the joy of reading.  In an age when there are more options for entertainment than ever before, that many of us see reading a good book as a way to relax, speaks highly of how literate we are as a people.

As the American academic Charles Eliot, the man who transformed Harvard into one of the world's leading universities said:

"Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of counsellors, and the most patient of teachers."

Of course many sanguine comments have been made about the wisdom of books and some can emerge from unexpected places.  The comic actor, Groucho Marx, once said:

"I find television to be very educating.  Every time somebody turns on the set, I go to another room and read a book."

I believe that reference to both items, one serious and the other piquant, may be a good note on which to close.  Kia ora, kia kaha, tena koutou katoa.