MORPH NON-FICTION WRITERS WORKSHOP 21st August

A workshop aimed at aspiring non-fiction writers and future Morph contributors. Led by Graeme Lay and Graham Reid.

WORKSHOP OVERVIEW

 “Inform like a journalist…entertain like a novelist” Lee Gutkind

The aim of the Morph Non-Fiction Writers Workshop is to help writers bring greater focus to their non-fiction writing and to provide aspiring writers with the literary tools and techniques that will assist them in writing informative, engaging and compelling work for publication in magazines, newspapers, journals or online.   Opportunities to submit work to Morph Magazine www.morphmagazine.co.nz are available.

The morning session (9am – 12.30pm) will be taken by Graeme Lay. 

He will focus on two aspects of non-fiction writing; the travel story and how to research and write the history of a New Zealand settlement.

• Travel writing - looking at the different approaches the writer can take when aiming to create a feature which goes beyond the mere description of a destination; the history, the characters and the cultural environment which make a place unique. References for this part of the course will include Graeme’s travel books The Miss Tutti Frutti Contest and Inside the Cannibal Pot.
• Writing about local history - with discussion on the resources, both visual and written, which the writer can use, techniques for sorting and structuring the material obtained into a coherent body of work. References for this part of the course will include Graeme’s books Whangapoua – Harbour of the Shellfish and In Search of Paradise – Artists and Writers in the colonial South Pacific.

The afternoon session (1pm – 4.30pm) will be taken by Graham Reid. 

Using relevant examples and articles from his own writing career, Graham will be presenting the fundamentals of non-fiction writing with the focus on three major areas:

• Profile writing - how to gather facts through skilful interviewing and research.
• Feature writing based on in situ research - feature stories give print media dynamism and flavour. Graham will discuss feature writing techniques and philosophies, including slice-of-life and narrative.
• Review writing - performance, film, book, band. Learn reviewing techniques and how to craft welcoming leads and satisfying endings.

WORKSHOP DETAILS

Date/Time:  Saturday, 21st August 2010

                      9.00pm – 4.30pm with a half hour for lunch (not provided)
    
Where:         Kerr Street Artspace, Devonport

Cost:             $50 full day

To attend the Morph Non-Fiction Writers Workshop please:

1. Email or phone (details below) and let us know you would like to attend as there are limited spaces.
2. Make payment no later than Thursday 5th August.  See registration form for payment options.
3. Download the registration form from www.morphmagazine.co.nz  complete and return asap to:

Morph Magazine
c/- Depot Artspace
28 Clarence Street
Devonport
Auckland

For any enquiries or to register, please contact Emma Whitlock on:

Telephone: (09) 963 2331

Email: emma.whitlock(at)depotartspace.co.nz

ABOUT GRAEME LAY

Graeme is a prolific writer of stories and magazine articles, television plays and fiction and non-fiction books.

He began writing in the late 1970s, and his first novel, The Mentor, was published in 1978. Since then has published or edited forty works of fiction and non-fiction, including novels for adults and young adults, collections of short stories and books of travel writing.  Many of his books, both fiction and non-fiction, are set in the islands of the South Pacific. For example his young adult trilogy, Leaving One Foot Island, Return to One Foot Island and The Pearl of One Foot Island, are set mainly on Aitutaki, in the Cook Islands.

His recent works include an historical novel, Alice & Luigi, a travel memoir, Inside the Cannibal Pot and The New Zealand Book of the Beach and The New Zealand Book of the Beach 2. His latest books are two works of non-fiction, In Search of Paradise – Artists & Writers in the colonial South Pacific and Whangapoua – Harbour of the Shellfish – A History, and an anthology which he compiled and edited, Way Back Then, Before We Were Ten – New Zealand writers and childhood.

Married with three adult children, Graeme Lay writes full-time from his home in Devonport, Auckland. He also works as an editor and manuscript assessor, and is secretary of the Frank Sargeson Trust.

He writes for numerous publications including NZ Herald, Dominion, Otago Daily Times, Evening Post, the Metro, Landfall, the Listener and North and South.

ABOUT GRAHAM REID

Because of his wide personal interests and his ability to file stories on everything from international politics to the arts and pop culture (as well as writing restaurant, film, book and music reviews) Graham was described by the Herald's editor-in-chief as a "true renaissance man".

 
Graham founded and edited magazine Passages, was for five years the New Zealand correspondent for America's Billboard magazine, had feature articles and short stories published in Metro, written on the arts for the Listener and was a senior journalist at the New Zealand Herald for 17 years.  In 2003 he won the prestigious Media Peace Award for his articles on the volatile politics of the Solomon Islands.  

His current writing appears in The Listener, the Herald, Art News, Idealog, Life and Leisure, Weekend magazine, the Herald on Sunday, Real Groove, Let's Travel and elsewhere. His recent work has also appeared in The Australian.

He is author of two travel books Postcards from Elsewhere(2005) and The Idiot Boy Who Flew (2009) which won respectively the Whitcoulls Travel Book of the Year award and the Reader's Choice prize at the annual Cathay Pacific travel writing awards.

Graham is an experienced public speaker and lecturer, who is frequently interviewed on radio, television and in print about media, travel and the arts. He currently has a weekly radio programme on Kiwi FM as well as regular interview slots on Radio Live and Radio New Zealand's Concert programme.