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WORD Christchurch
WORD Christchurch is an organisation which presents a variety of literary events, most notably the annual WORD Christchurch Festival, also known as WORD Festival, established in 1997. Until 2014 the festival was run as the Press Christchurch Writers Festival. About the festival The WORD Christchurch festival is the largest literary event in the South Island of New Zealand, and partners with the Auckland Writers Festival in the North Island each year for an autumn season in May. its directors are Steph Walker (executive director) and Nic Low (programme director). Rachael King was the literary director between 2013 and 2021. The Ngaio Marsh Awards are presented at the festival. Until 2021, the festival was biennial. In the Festival off-year, WORD Christchurch partnered with the Christchurch Arts Festival for a series of ideas-based events, and also presented events at KidsFest in those years. It also ran an annual schools programme showcasing the New Zealand Children's Book Aw ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
South Island
The South Island, also officially named , is the larger of the two major islands of New Zealand in surface area, the other being the smaller but more populous North Island. It is bordered to the north by Cook Strait, to the west by the Tasman Sea, and to the south and east by the Pacific Ocean. The South Island covers , making it the world's 12th-largest island. At low altitude, it has an oceanic climate. The South Island is shaped by the Southern Alps which run along it from north to south. They include New Zealand's highest peak, Aoraki / Mount Cook at . The high Kaikōura Ranges lie to the northeast. The east side of the island is home to the Canterbury Plains while the West Coast is famous for its rough coastlines such as Fiordland, a very high proportion of native bush and national parks, and the Fox and Franz Josef Glaciers. The main centres are Christchurch and Dunedin. The economy relies on agriculture and fishing, tourism, and general manufacturing and services. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Omar Musa
Omar bin Musa (born 9 January 1984) is a Malaysian-Australian author, poet, rapper and visual artist from Queanbeyan, New South Wales, Australia. He has released three solo hip hop records (including ''Since Ali Died'') and three books of poetry. His debut novel ''Here Come the Dogs'' was published in 2014. ''Here Come the Dogs'' was long-listed for the Miles Franklin Award and Musa was named one of the Sydney Morning Herald's Young Novelists of the Year in 2015. Career Musa was runner up in the 2007 Australian Poetry Slam, before winning in 2008 at the Sydney Opera House. He went on to win the Indian Ocean Poetry Slam in 2010. Musa has published three books of poetry: ''The Clocks'', ''Parang'' and ''Millefiori''. Meaning "machete" in Malay, ''Parang'' deals with his Malaysian heritage, migration and loss. He has performed and collaborated with numerous musicians and hip hop artists, including Kae Tempest, Marc E. Bassy, Daniel Merriweather, Kate Miller-Heidke, Lior, Horr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
COVID-19 Pandemic In New Zealand
The COVID-19 pandemic in New Zealand is part of the ongoing pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 () caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (). The first case of the disease in New Zealand was reported on 28 February 2020. , the country has had a total of 2,062,384 cases (2,027,981 confirmed and 34,403 probable). 2,288 people have died as a result of the virus, with cases recorded in all twenty district health board (DHB) areas. The pandemic first peaked in early April 2020, with 89 new cases recorded per day and 929 active cases. Cases peaked again in October 2021 with 134 new cases reported on 22 October. A total of 7,274,347 COVID tests have been carried out . In response to the first outbreak in late February 2020, the New Zealand Government closed the country's borders and imposed lockdown restrictions. A four-tier alert level system was introduced on 21 March 2020 to manage the outbreak within New Zealand. Since then, after a two-month nationwi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Manus Island Detention Centre
The Manus Regional Processing Centre, or Manus Island Regional Processing Centre (MIRCP), was one of a number of offshore Australian immigration detention facilities. The centre was located on the PNG Navy Base Lombrum (previously a Royal Australian Navy base called HMAS ''Tarangau'') on Los Negros Island in Manus Province, Papua New Guinea. It was originally established in 2001, along with Nauru Regional Processing Centre, as an "offshore processing centre" (OPC) as part of the Pacific Solution policy created by the Howard government. After falling into disuse in 2003, it was formally closed by the first Rudd government in 2008, but reopened by the Gillard government in 2012. As part of the PNG Solution by the second Rudd government, it was announced in July 2013 that those sent to PNG would never be resettled in Australia. After Tony Abbott became PM in a change of government a few months later, the government announced its Operation Sovereign Borders policy, aimed at st ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Behrouz Boochani
Behrouz Boochani ( fa, بهروز بوچانی; born 23 July 1983) is a Iranian Kurdistan, Kurdish-Iranian journalist, human rights defender, writer and film producer living in New Zealand. He was held in the Australian-run Manus Regional Processing Centre, Manus Island detention centre in Papua New Guinea from 2013 until its closure in 2017. He remained on the island before being moved to Port Moresby along with the other detainees around September 2019. On 14 November 2019 he arrived in Christchurch on a one-month visa, to speak at a special event organised by WORD Christchurch on 29 November, as well as other speaking events. In December 2019, his one month visa to New Zealand expired and he remained on an expired visa until being granted refugee status in July 2020, at which time he became a Senior Adjunct Research Fellow at the University of Canterbury. Boochani is the co-director, along with Iranian film maker Arash Kamali Sarvestani, of the documentary ''Chauka, Please Te ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gavin Bishop
Gavin John Bishop (born 1946) is an author and illustrator, from Invercargill, New Zealand. He is known for illustrating books from prominent New Zealand authors, including Joy Cowley and Margaret Mahy. Bishop's first published picture book was ''Mrs McGinty and the Bizarre Plant'', published in 1981 by Oxford University Press. Early life Bishop was born in Invercargill. Career Bishop worked as a high school art teacher for thirty years, before writing and illustrating children's books full-time. In 2006, he accused the makers of the Hollywood film '' Mr and Mrs Smith'' of plagiarizing his 1997 school book ''The Secret Lives of Mr and Mrs Smith''. Select honours and awards *2018 – Margaret Mahy Book of the Year Award for ''Aotearoa: The New Zealand Story'' at the New Zealand Children's Book Awards *2013 – Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to Children's Literature. *2013 – Mallinson Rendel Illustrators Award *2013, 2000, 1994, 1983 – New Zeala ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Margaret Austin
Margaret Elizabeth Austin (née Leonard; born 1 April 1933) is a former New Zealand politician. She was an MP from 1984 to 1996, representing first the Labour Party and then briefly United New Zealand. Life Early life, family and career Austin was born in Dunedin on 1 April 1933, and was educated at St Dominic's College, Dunedin, and Sacred Heart College, Christchurch. She studied at Canterbury University College and Christchurch Teachers' College, and graduated with a Bachelor of Science in 1953 and a Diploma of Teaching in 1954. She went on to teach in Christchurch and in 1970 became the head of science at Christchurch Girls' High School and later became senior mistress at Riccarton High School in 1977. She was also a member of the Educational Administration Society and was its president for three years. In 1955, she married John Austin, and the couple went on to have three children. Political career She was first elected to Parliament in the 1984 election as t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Juno Dawson
Juno Dawson (formerly James Dawson; born 10 June 1981) is a British author of young adult fiction and non-fiction. Dawson's notable works include ''This Book Is Gay'', ''Mind Your Head'', ''Margot & Me'', ''The Gender Games'', ''Clean'' and ''Meat Market''. Life and career Dawson was born at Bradford Royal Infirmary in West Yorkshire. Dawson lived in Bingley and was educated at Bingley Grammar School. After graduating from Bangor University, she worked as a primary school teacher and later became a PSHE co-ordinator. While working as a teacher, she began writing books aimed at young adults and became successful enough to leave her job. She wrote a number of young adult fiction books including ''Hollow Pike'' and ''Say Her Name''. Her books often feature LGBT people, and Dawson has advocated for other books to feature more prominent LGBT characters. In September 2014,''This Book Is Gay'', was first published in the UK with subsequent publication in the US in June 2015. The b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ed Husain
Ed Husain (born 25 December 1974) is a British author and academic. He is also a adjunct Professor, professor in the Walsh School of Foreign Service in Georgetown University. As a political advisor he has worked with leaders and governments across the world. He has held senior fellowships at think tanks in London and New York, including at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) at the height of the Arab uprisings (2010–2015). While at CFR, his policy innovation memo led to the US-led creation of a Geneva-based global fund to help counter terrorism. He is also a member of the Editorial Board of the Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, a monthly peer-reviewed academic journal covering research on terrorism and insurgency. Husain was a senior advisor to former British Prime Minister Tony Blair (2015–2018). From 2018–2021 he completed his doctoral studies on Western philosophy and Islam under the direction of the English philosopher Sir Roger Scruton. He is the author of ''The Is ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Auckland Writers Festival
Auckland Writers Festival Waituhi o Tāmaki is the largest annual literary festival in Aotearoa New Zealand since 1999. It has about 200 public events each year featuring local and international writers as guests. History and staff The inaugural festival was in May 1999. Founding trustees were writers Stephanie Johnson and the late Peter Wells (1950–2019). Since 2008 the festival has been a registered charitable trust under the name Auckland Writers & Readers Festival Charitable Trust. The trusts purpose is that it celebrates the work of writers, promotes literacy, a positive public profile for New Zealand writers, ideas and intellectual debate, literature which supports and reflects the partnership ideal of the Treaty of Waitangi, and encourages international understanding. By 2018 it was being described as the 'largest literary showcase in New Zealand'. Anne O'Brien joined the festival in 2011 as director. In 2012 there were four core members and the General Manager was ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robyn Davidson
Robyn Davidson (born 6 September 1950) is an Australian writer best known for her 1980 book ''Tracks'', about her 2,700 km (1,700 miles) trek across the deserts of Western Australia using camels. Her career of travelling and writing about her travels has spanned 40 years. Biography Robyn Davidson was born at Stanley Park, a cattle station in Miles, Queensland, the second of two girls. When Robyn was 11 years old, her mother committed suicide, and she was largely raised by her unmarried aunt (her father's sister), Gillian. She went to a girls' boarding school in Brisbane. She received a music scholarship but did not take it up. In Brisbane, Robyn shared a house with biologists and studied zoology. In 1968, aged 18, she went to Sydney and later lived a bohemian life in a Sydney Push household at Paddington, while working as a card-dealer at an illegal gambling house. In 1975, Robyn moved to Alice Springs in an effort to work with camels for a desert trek she was planning ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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