From the 21st to the 24th of September, Ōtepoti is lucky enough to be hosting the New Zealand Young Writers Festival. Produced by Dunedin Fringe Festival, the event is a free, four-day celebration of our creative community across all literary forms: poetry, fiction, zines, journalism, podcasts, and everything in between. Across the four days are a series of panels and workshops open to anyone aged 15-35 to attend, writer or not. Critic Te Ārohi was sat down with guest curator Jennifer Cheuk and Ōtepoti natives Jamiema Lorimer and Olivia Wright, who are both panelists in the festival.
Jennifer Cheuk, the festival’s guest curator, is a Hong Kong-Chinese writer, editor and artist who is the Founder and Editor in Chief at Rat World Magazine, based in Tāmaki Makaurau. Jennifer has been a writer her entire life, so much so that as a child she wrote a book called ‘The Dragon Who Lost His Parents’. “I was really cute and funny, and I always talked about wanting to be a writer, so it makes sense I ended up here,” she says. After pursuing a degree in English Literature and Linguistics, Jennifer’s love for writing and creativity continued to expand, but she struggled with the nature of the modern writing landscape. “I started focusing on who was left out, and what stories were left out,” she explains. Her passion for writing and desire to create an inclusive environment for historically marginalized communities led to her founding Rat World Magazine, which is entirely focused on highlighting the underground. “I wanted a space for people who might not have contacts in those worlds, and I was like, ‘Why don’t we just make something for ourselves?’”
As guest curator for the festival, Jennifer has been responsible for putting together eclectic panels and creating workshops which highlight the emerging talent in Aotearoa’s literary spaces. Her panels, which include Prescriptions and Prose: Where Medicine and Creativity Meet and Stick It To The Man: The Power of Street Postering, are innovative, and focus on how writing and literary craft can be found in spaces we may not assume. “I’m really interested in writing from spaces that people don’t expect there to be writing from, because people have such a certain way of thinking about creativity,” Jennifer explains. “People think they can’t be a writer if you’re a doctor because they can’t go together, but I wanted to show that you can be a writer and be creative no matter your background. It really is for everyone.” Jennifer notes that this attitude can often stem from people thinking that they can’t have both a creative mind and a logical mind; that instead they have to exist independently. “There are so many things that connect together to make you a writer, and I think people feel like they’re taking away their creativity from their daily practice. You can just be an artist, but you can be even more passionate if you connect those two things together.”
Writers fest panelist Olivia Wright is perhaps a perfect example of the magic that can happen when logic and creativity meet. Being part of the panel on Prescriptions and Prose: Where Medicine and Creativity Meet, Olivia is both a keen writer and former English Literature major turned medical student. “I always had an artsy background, I was into writing at school, but I felt like the instability of the creative disciplines made me anxious,” she says, reflecting on how she came to terms with picking her current path. Olivia says that while medicine provided her a sense of comfort and stability (perhaps the first and only time you’ll hear that from a med student) she was surprised how much the creative world crossed over into medicine. “We do lots of tutorial based learning, and it’s all about patient care. We reflect on our practice and we have to journal how we feel and the experiences we have which is creative non-fiction,” she says.
Olivia shares that it can be difficult treading both the creative and the scientific world, as people can have a tendency to stick to one or the other. “I hate telling people I’m a medical student because I lose all this other stuff I’ve got going on, but really, we’re a collection of all these different ideas and hobbies,” she says. Olivia says that as a medical student, she’s found embracing writing and her creative side has helped her improve her skills, and could see the benefits it has to doctor-patient relationships. “You can get sequestered into your science or arts corner, but I really champion the jack of all trades, master of none approach,” she says.
The panel Stick It To The Man: The Power of Street Postering features Ōtepoti writer, Jamiema Lorimer, who is also Critic’s very own Local Produce columnist. Initially coming from a musical background, Jamiema first became interested in writing while studying her Bachelor of Music. “That was where I started to see writing as something I wanted to pursue, and I saw the scope of how exciting it can be outside of academia when it wasn’t about writing dissertations or essays,” she says. Wanting to pursue this new creative outlet, Jamiema started looking into different media platforms and discovered the world of street postering, which she published a story on in Rat World earlier this year. Through printing in Rat World and keeping in touch with Jennifer, Jamiema explains that her ideas kept expanding, and she felt an urge to promote the postering world as a form of expression.
Jamiema says that the city of Ōtepoti has helped inspire her creativity. “Being here for a long time, I’ve been engaged with many different communities, working life, and different music scenes. I'm around a lot of artistic people, and with all the small circles, everything seems to overlap,” she says. Jamiema also mentions that Ōtepoti is the perfect place for emerging creatives to share their work. Being creative is hard, and sharing your art with others can definitely be intimidating. “I was in a position when I was younger where I’d see events like young writers festival and I didn’t feel like it was relevant to me, but there is such an amazing array of writers and creators and these events make you realize how close they are to you and are so important in the development of young writers,” she says.
For those who may feel on the fence about attending this year's festival because they don’t consider themselves ‘writers’, or those who are totally out of the loop on why events like this are important, the panelists have some words of wisdom to share. “These events are perfect for those who want to be writers. They’re there to be attended, they’re open, and everyone you meet is a professional writer in a sense,” says Jamiema. “You’re going to be surrounded by people from different skill levels and experiences, but being in a community like this re-legitimates the kinds of writing that are going on.” For Jennifer, she says that writing is an integral part to every facet of study, and that events like this help foster that much needed sense of community we all seem to be after in this day and age. “You need to write to be a good doctor or architect, you need to write to be a better STEM practitioner, and when you look at our literacy rates, we really need to focus on language, writing and creativity, and this community is so important for that.”