A book display in a corner of the Dunedin City Library bustles with life, the sound of quiet footsteps and ruffling paper drifting in the air as people browse the display. Proudly showing off a round purple sticker, all the books in this collection are special: they are books by writers from Ōtepoti or with a connection to the city. This is a small rotating sample from the Dunedin Public Libraries’ City of Literature Collection, a collection of over 3,000 books curated by the Dunedin Public Libraries team. This collection is just one item in the extensive list of projects that the City of Literature team carries out, in an effort to support and nurture local writers here in Ōtepoti and around Aotearoa.
Ōtepoti has been part of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network for 11 years. UNESCO Creative Cities cover several creative fields, and we have others in the country. Auckland, Whanganui and Wellington are Cities of Music, Design and Film respectively. As Aotearoa’s City of Literature, Ōtepoti works closely with 62 Cities of Literature from around the world, providing local writers with access to exciting initiatives both locally and internationally. There’s opportunities like writing residencies, collaborative projects and writing competitions.
Ōtepoti City of Literature is unique in the sense that it operates differently to many other arts organisations you would see in Aotearoa. Rather than having largely fixed projects or events, it takes a step back to act as a hub for connections and opportunities. The small Dunedin City Council department works to facilitate Ōtepoti’s creative landscape by bringing innovative initiatives to local writers and is a support system that brings the writing community together, celebrating local writing in all languages, across all genres.
Ōtepoti City of Literature Director Nicky Page says, “We’re proud to showcase titles by Aotearoa’s extraordinary new and established writers, and to encourage readers to turn to them first – we welcome ideas for collaboration on this mahi with open arms!”
The city even has a South D Poet Lorikeet – an unofficial title given to award-winning poet and teacher Jenny Powell, who was born in South D(unedin) and spreads her wings promoting the city and poetry. In her role, Jenny hosts free poetry workshops for adults and children. Among these workshops are the highly popular Teddy Poems workshops for primary school students in Ōtepoti, that focus on reading and writing. The resultant poems are published as books or posters for the poets, school and whānau to enjoy.
Last year, Jenny, along with WellSouth Health Improvement Practitioners Sarah Redfearn and Rohana Weaver, ran the City of Literature’s Writing for Wellness workshop series, exploring writing skills for self-care. This received overwhelmingly positive feedback from participants.
“I’m delighted to be doing this,” Jenny says. “We all learn from each other. It’s an honour to be part of something that combines creativity with wellbeing so meaningfully.”
Another project run by Ōtepoti City of Literature, in partnership with the Caselberg Trust, is the Caselberg Trust Margaret Egan Cities of Literature Writers Residency. This six-week residency, offered to a writer from Aotearoa and to an international writer in alternating years, provides writers with an opportunity to work on a piece of creative writing and fosters connections among writers from Cities of Literature around the world. Applications for this year’s residency for a writer from Aotearoa closed on 31 March.
Last year’s Caselberg Trust Margaret Egan Cities of Literature Writers Resident was Sihle Ntuli, a poet from Durban UNESCO City of Literature. During his residency, he spent time working on a series of poems inspired by his time in Ōtepoti, and immersed himself in Ōtepoti’s writing community by taking part in the Dunedin Writers & Readers Festival, OAR FM’s Write Spot and Ara Toi on Air podcasts and Octagon Poetry Collective’s poetry nights.
Recently, Ōtepoti City of Literature partnered with Québec City of Literature to organise a Poetry Pen Pals programme. Handwritten poems are exchanged between cities, and displayed in Québec’s Morrin Centre and Dunedin City Library’s City of Literature space. This is a wonderful opportunity to build connections and networks between new and established writers from the two cities. The first poetry exchange took place in-person, with Hee-Won Son from the Morrin Centre visiting Ōtepoti as part of a coincidental personal trip, to exchange poems written at Québec City’s Dear Dunedin: Poetry Letter Writing Afternoon event and poems written at SuperGrans Dunedin poetry workshops. The poetry exchange programme will continue with future poems being exchanged via mail.
As part of the UNESCO Cities of Literature network, many Ōtepoti writers have had the opportunity to take part in exciting projects with other Cities of Literature. Last year, for example, Waiariki Parata-Taiapa (Kāi Tahu, Ngāti Hine, Ngāti Porou) participated in Today, Yesterday, Tomorrow, Melbourne’s online international exchange programme between indigenous writers in Melbourne, Ōtepoti, Québec City, Seattle and Taipei, while Isla Thomas took part in Exeter City of Literature’s Poetry Scrum project, a collaboration for women poets to share work about empowerment, bodies in movement and sport. The poems were screened during the Women’s Rugby World Cup in Exeter last year.
On another front, Ōtepoti City of Literature is collaborating with OAR FM, the not-for-profit Access Media station, to encourage and celebrate the voices of local rangatahi in its Layers of Identity podcast. This offers the opportunity for young writers to record their writing and share their stories of whakapapa, identity and culture. The podcast series has been a huge success with 15 podcasts broadcast, featuring rangatahi from a range of different backgrounds. Ōtepoti City of Literature will soon publish the writing as a book too.
As I select some books from Dunedin City Library’s City of Literature Collection and head back towards the self-checkout machines, looking forward to my weekend reading, I think about how this collection of books traces Dunedin’s past, present and future. From books dating back to the 1800s to books published just a couple of weeks ago, this collection is a written record of Ōtepoti’s journey through time. It is inspiring to see the effort that Ōtepoti City of Literature has put into creating this valuable collection, among the many other projects it carries out to support writers in Ōtepoti and around Aotearoa.
