Young writers from across Aotearoa, of all writing forms and backgrounds, are coming together in Ōtepoti this weekend for the New Zealand Young Writers Festival. With accessibility at the core of the festival’s kaupapa, all events are free to attend. These events showcase talent and storytelling in all different forms – from conversational panels and writing workshops, to musical and theatre performances and slam poetry comps. Writer or not, all are welcome to join in the festivities.
Critic Te Ārohi spoke with NZYWF 2024’s Guest Curator, Ruby Macomber, and Young Writer in Residence, Sherry Zhang, for a rundown on the festival.
“What are ways that we can honour the various reasons why we got into writing?” asked Ruby Macomber (she/they) when putting together this year’s festival programme. Ruby, a poet, essayist and researcher based in Tāmaki Makaurau, explained there were two aims at the forefront of all curating decisions.
The first was to give writers and their practice a well-deserved reprieve from the capitalist cycle that artistic work must exist in, where productivity and output is prioritised. “I really wanted to take a step back from that and lean into the joys of the process of creating in the first place,” says Ruby. This year’s programme traverses themes and tensions of love, grief, and identity – big feelings that can be at odds with the demands of mainstream writing spaces. “Those are often the reasons why young writers get into writing, to put words to those [feelings]. How do we really intentionally hold space for that and do so safely?”
Equally, Ruby wanted to amplify Indigenous and POC voices and story-telling in this year’s festival. Ruby herself is a descendent of Te Moana-Nui-a Kiwa (Rotuma, Taveuni, Ngāpuhi) and often writes on the topics of diaspora, Indigeneity and Rotuman hanuju (tale), in work that has appeared in a number of publications, including Pantograph Punch, Starling, Awa Wāhine and the anthology, Everything That Moves, Moves Through Another.
Ruby began writing as a way to remember her nan after she passed away; to “immortalise” her, as Ruby describes it, documenting her mannerisms and personality in words, rather than memory alone. Her nan spoke mainly Rotuman while Ruby spoke English, so this act in itself became the words shared between them. Naturally, this led Ruby to navigate her identity through writing. It was a social worker in high school who shifted Ruby’s perspective to more internal and introspective forms of writing, telling them that the stories worth telling often came from our own experiences. “There’s power in writing your own truth and sharing stories that might not otherwise make it to traditional media or popular media spaces,” explains Ruby.
As Guest Curator, Ruby is also presenting three of their own events. ‘Moana Speaks from the South’ is a conversation with other diasporic writers of Te Moana-Nui-a Kiwa on what it means to be writing back to, and into proximity with, their whenua. It involves “reimagining what it means to be a Pacific person away from the land that we’re indigenous to.” She hopes to “bring Ōtepoti Pacific writers, but equally anyone identifying as a diasporic writer, into conversation with one another.” In ‘Writing Grief,’ Ruby is joined by Ōtepoti literary icons Rushi Vyas and Iona Winter. “How beautiful it would be for young people to learn from these two tuākana,” Ruby says of Rushi and Iona. “Their words empower others. ”
Her workshop ‘Everything Pressing, Everything Pertinent’ brings together writing and activism: “[I want] to honour the fact that a lot of our creativity doesn't necessarily come out in poetry or in essays, but comes out in written submissions, poster, and in various other forms, that are more or less directed towards advocacy.” Ruby also works at Te Kāhui, a rōpū that facilitates equitable arts opportunities in Corrections and communities. “Unintentionally, all three of [the events] mark different components of my own writing practice. It’s really special to be able to be a part of all three of them, and to do so really intentionally.”
Events that are “core to my own practice” is also how this year’s Young Writer in Residence, Sherry, also describes the three events she’s involved in. Sherry Zhang (章雪莉/Xue Li Zhang) (she/they) has worked in journalism, poetry, creative nonfiction and theatre. It should come as no surprise, therefore, that her events span dialogue-writing in ‘Spinning Yarns’, journalistic practice in ‘Journalism as an Act of Community Building’ (with current and former Critic baddies Nina Brown and myself), and the power of breaking free of the suffering minority trope in ‘Writing Beyond Tragedy’. “I feel like we put these arbitrary containers around these different forms,” says Sherry.
It is the breaking of these forms and genres that is of interest to Sherry and informs her own writing. “It speaks to the bounds of the experience,” she says. “I also think sometimes [being] of a particular cultural background, you feel like you can only talk about your experience from a really specific corner. Maybe I desire to see messy Asian characters in sci-fi or a spaghetti western.” Sherry is a second-gen Chinese New Zealander. They were also the kaiwāwahi/Editor at The Pantograph Punch, an online arts and cultural journal that uplifted urgent and exciting voices in Aotearoa’s creative communities, particularly BIPoC and queer work.
As the festival’s Writer in Residence, Sherry spends a month living in the Robert Lord Writer’s Cottage. The cosy cottage was once home to Lord, who was Aotearoa’s first professional playwright, and now acts as a haven for writers. Sherry feels supported by the cottage’s history as a queer safe space and, although instructed to “just chill and vibe out,” she’s using the time to put as much mahi into her first manuscript as possible. Explaining that the residency is about “giving time and space to dream around a project,” Sherry is specifically working on a choose-your-own-adventure book about killing your landlord (she’s so real for this) and revenge fantasies. It’s their first deep dive into fiction, inspired by Carmen Maria Macho’s radical memoir In The Dream House. “The structural setup speaks to broader themes of feeling trapped or the futility of things; decision-making, choices and the illusion of that, which really struck a chord in me when I was thinking about my own project,” Sherry shares.
Ruby was last year’s Young Writer in Residence. It’s also her third year being part of the festival, when in 2022 they were a micro-resident with Starling, a journal that specifically works with writers no older than 25. During her residency, she also connected with different spaces in Ōtepoti: Te Hou Ora Whānau Services, Yours Ōtepoti, Te Rōpū Māori, and the Pacific Islands Students’ Association. “My writing practice is very community-oriented. It would feel unnatural to just be sitting by myself,” says Ruby. This time in residency gave them insight into the different creative communities in Ōtepoti and “the need for those communities to have agency over their own narratives, and how best the festival can support that.”
“If you think about what’s literature or what’s proper writing, it’s very classist,” says Sherry, “It’s very racist. It alienates a lot of communities.” As a self-described “blogger girl at heart” and not having studied a creative writing degree, Sherry says they can sometimes feel insecure in the writing space. It is in creating writing spaces, like the ones facilitated by NZYWF, that are key to overcoming this. This was core to Ruby’s approach as Guest Curator: to address “the need for real, intentional community building space” for young writers outside of the literary mainstream and to build support systems. As Sherry says, “Some spaces and frameworks are still being dominated by the same kind of ‘looking people’. We need to band together as young people and strategically put our minds together. How do we overtake them?”
NZYWF is really special, as reflected on by both Ruby and Sherry. “It’s a really tender festival that’s been created with a lot of care,” says Ruby. “There’s no other place in Aotearoa where you’ve got that distinct focus on young writers.” And what comes with young writers are new perspectives on what “writing” is, challenging the traditional expectations of the ‘literature’ medium. In this year’s festival, Ruby’s work as curator continues the legacy of last year’s Guest Curator, Jenn Cheuk, while also placing more emphasis on the emotion and intention underpinning content. This feeling is echoed by Sherry, who says, “I hope that people who come to the festival see storytelling, writing or creativity as a more fluid formless hub.”
Although labelled ‘Young Writers’, the festival is open to attendees of all ages to listen, learn, and develop their skills in workshops. It can be an induction point for those who may not have considered themselves as writers before, or those who simply wish to enjoy others’ work. As noted, accessibility is also very important to the kaupapa of the festival, manifesting in all the events being free, as well as the physical layout of the festival venue. “The Aotearoa writing scene is small,” says Ruby. “[But] that shouldn't be a reason to lean into a scarcity mindset[;] rather [let’s foster] a mindset of how do we create abundance within ourselves and empower each other?”
The New Zealand Young Writers Festival is on from September 13 - 15 at Te Whare o Rukutia and other venues across central Ōtepoti Dunedin. All events are free to attend. For more information and to book tickets, head to their website.