IIML
@modernletters.bsky.social
680 followers 350 following 1.1K posts
The home of creative writing at Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington. Undergraduate courses, MA and PhD. Also: harbour views and baking.
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modernletters.bsky.social
Also delighted to hear that Tasmin Pritchard (MA25) has won the 2025 Landfall Tauraka Essay Competition with an essay about gender-affirming top surgery. Congrats also to third-equal place getter Ariana Tikao (MA22) and highly commended entrant Katie Lane (MA24).
oup.nz/library/land...
Landfall Tauraka 250 - Otago University Press
Aotearoa New Zealand’s iconic and longest-running arts and literary journal honours its milestone 250th issue with a new name.
oup.nz
modernletters.bsky.social
Thrilled to hear that PhD grad Lynn Jenner has won the 2025 Kathleen Grattan Poetry Award for her manuscript ‘The Gum Trees of Kerikeri’, described as 'a collection set in Te Tai Tokerau Northland that reflects on place, history and belonging through finely observed details.' Congratulations, Lynn!
modernletters.bsky.social
Great to see our colleague Kate Duignan taking 3rd placing in the hotly contested (14720 entries!) Sargeson Prize judged by Elizabeth Knox and won by Becky Manawatu, with PhD student Sam Keenan and MA grads Leah Dodd and Harriet Salmon on the Highly Commended list.
www.waikato.ac.nz/news-events/...
From shattered to shining: Becky Manawatu wins Sargeson Prize for story of a broken vase :: University of Waikato
www.waikato.ac.nz
Reposted by IIML
thebaffler.com
“Trumpism’s pitch to young white men is thus a stirringly amoral sort of syllogism: we can’t give you anything material, because we stole it all and are hoarding it, but we can create a world in which you can regularly act on your worst impulses.”
thebaffler.com/salvos/teena...
Reposted by IIML
meandmybigmouth.bsky.social
If you're an unpublished author and your WIP is speculative or dystopian fiction in which AI becomes sentient, takes over the world, controls our lives or something like that – then you need to know that, as a freelance editor, I am approached with four or five similar novels every month.
modernletters.bsky.social
Come and hear US writer and current PhD student Katrina Carrasco in conversation with Morgan Bach at Unity on Sunday at 3pm! Katrina’s novel Rough Trade was named a Best Crime Novel of 2024 by the NY Times Book Review and won a Lambda Literary Award this year. www.unitybooks.co.nz/news-and-eve...
Both shops hold literary events. We specialise in New Zealand and international literature, poetry, history, and nonfiction as well as stocking the best new releases by award winning authors of both fiction and non-fiction in all genres.
www.unitybooks.co.nz
modernletters.bsky.social
Ahead of the launch of Landfall's 250th issue on Thursday, here's a conversation between current editor Lynley Edmeades and former editors Emma Neale, David Eggleton and Chris Price about the ghost of Charles Brasch, the spectre of AI, and other questions
thebigidea.nz/stories/did-...
‘Did the ghost of Charles Brasch haunt you?’: A chat among four Landfall editors
Lynley Edmeades, current Landfall editor, interviews three previous editors: Emma Neale, Chris Price and David Eggleton.
thebigidea.nz
Reposted by IIML
bwbnz.bsky.social
Vincent O’Malley has received a 2025 Distinguished Alumni Award from Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington.

🎥 Highlights incl. kōrero with Carol Hirschfeld: www.youtube.com/watch?v=ub18...

📚 His new book The Meeting Place is out now — join us tonight at The Royal Society, Wellington!
The Storyteller—Vincent O’Malley | 2025 Distinguished Alumni Awards
Growing up without Aotearoa’s history on the syllabus, alumnus Dr Vincent O’Malley FRSNZ set out to uncover the stories that shape our nation.In this convers...
www.youtube.com
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outspokenpress.bsky.social
Are you a writer of Arab heritage with a poetry MS?

Check out this opportunity open to writers in English located anywhere - win $2000, US & UK publication

Deadline: 15 Oct
Send your MS, share widely >> noemipress.submittable.com
Are you a writer of Arab heritage with a poetry manuscript?
DEADLINE EXTENDED - ENTER BY 15 OCTOBER
$2000 PRIZE
plus
US PUBLICATION
with Noemi Press
and
UK PUBLICATION with Out-Spoken Press
NOEMI
{
GUEST JUDGE:
Farid Matuk
SERIES EDITORS:
Fady Joudah, Hayan Charara
OUT SPOKEN PRESS
Etel Adnan Poetry Prize
For a first or second book by a writer of Arab heritage
NOEMIPRESS.SUBMITTABLE.COM
modernletters.bsky.social
NZ writers (and current MA students!), this is your reminder that the deadline for submissions to the 2025 edition of Turbine | Kapohau is coming up on 1 November. Please check out our submission guidelines and send us your work! turbinekapohau.org.nz
Current Issue - TURBINE | KAPOHAU
EDITORIAL Welcome POETRY Jessica ArcusFrancis AschoffRebecca BallNathaniel CalhounDavid EggletonRebecca HawkesJacksonLilly KelleherBrent KininmontRata Lee 🔈Winshen LiuMargo Montes de Oca 🔈Mikaela Nyma...
turbinekapohau.org.nz
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muguetdebois.bsky.social
For its centenary year's final issue, NZ's oldest student magazine profiles its oldest living editor, the inspirational Paul Oestreicher. Originally meant for the centenary issue, the story was held over because it 'deserved the time to write it properly'. They did. www.critic.co.nz/features/art...
Critic’s Oldest Living Editor: Paul Oestreicher
Long before he was a peace campaigner, a priest, or a friend of Desmond Tutu, Paul Oestreicher was an enemy alien. His family had fled fascism, seeking refuge in Dunedin – a city that offered safety, ...
www.critic.co.nz
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sanjanah.bsky.social
Relatedly, was reading Naomi Beinart's piece in the Guardian this morning, & thinking about how (increasingly) true it must be for NZ too. | As boys shift to the right, we are seeing the rise of the ‘new chill girl’ www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
modernletters.bsky.social
Wellington Repertory Theatre is celebrating the 100th anniversary of F Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby with Ken Duncum's stage adaptation and a cast of 14. Opens at the Gryphon Theatre, 29 October: tickets here

www.wellingtonrepertory.org.nz#shows
Wellington Repertory Theatre – Wellington Repertory Theatre Homepage
www.wellingtonrepertory.org.nz
Reposted by IIML
billkristolbulwark.bsky.social
Pope Leo quotes Hannah Arendt:

“The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the convinced Communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction and the distinction between true and false no longer exist."

www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news...
Pope Leo calls for news agencies to stand as bulwark against "post-truths," lies and manipulation
Pope Leo XIV has encouraged international news agencies to stand firm as a bulwark against the "ancient art of lying" and manipulation.
www.cbsnews.com
modernletters.bsky.social
‘The decision cements New Zealand as one of the handful of countries (alongside Trump’s America and perhaps Javier Milei’s Argentina) set on worsening the climate crisis.’