Jennifer Sturm: Anna Kavan
New Zealanders live "in temporary shacks, uneasily, as reluctant campers too far from home", wrote Anna Kavan in a London magazine in 1943.
Previously thought to be hostile to New Zealand, in researching the prize-winning English author of 19 books, Dr Jennifer Sturm uncovered letters and unpublished short stories written during Kavan’s 2-year stay, published for the first time in Anna Kavan's New Zealand (2009), which add weight to the argument that Kavan had a more complex and affectionate response.
Sturm discusses the experimental writer and talented artist -- whose life included bouts of depression, heroin addiction and a stream of unconventional love affairs -- with Peter Wells, giving us an intriguing insight into both the writer, and New Zealand in the 1940s.
Presented as a part of the Auckland Writers and Readers Festival.
Aotea Centre, 50 Mayoral Drive, Auckland CBD
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Auckland Writers and Readers FestivalSet up in 1999 by a group including writers Peter Wells and Stephanie Johnson, the Festival is now run by the Auckland Writers & Readers Festival Charitable Trust with a core staff of four led by General Manager Anne Rodda and Artistic Director Anne O’Brien. It is New Zealand’s largest literary festival, annually celebrating reading, writing and big ideas through the presentation of more than 100 international writers and thinkers to over 30,000 strong audience. The 2012 Festival will take place 9-13 May.
