For further information and book orders visit the Cloud Ink website at www.cloudink.co.nz / or email info@cloudink.co.nz

In this issue

Cloud Ink Christmas giveaway

Hold the Line by Kerry Harrison coming in 2021

Call for submissions for Fresh Ink 2021

Meanwhile in other news ...

A case of dates

Competition dates

Cloud Ink Christmas giveaway

Hold the Line by Kerry Harrison coming in 2021

The next book Cloud Ink will launch is a really interesting and topical one.

In 1981 – forty years ago next year – New Zealand invited the South African rugby team to tour. At that time South Africa was stubbornly holding fast to the Apartheid policy and the Springbok Tour caused a rift in New Zealand society. Rugby was the main sport and touring international sides the highlight of the year for many stalwarts. Against this there were thousands who considered that holding the Tour was showing support for a racist nation. The groundswell of protesters grew and the opinion of the rugby fanatics hardened.

Against this setting, Kerry Harrison has written a novel involving the various different sides of the situation. Beth has returned home from the London to Auckland to watch over her father, Baz, a war veteran and rugby fanatic. At Law School, she meets and falls in love with fellow student, Viktor, a member of the Red Squad, an elite police unit wielding batons against the protesters. Beth is torn between supporting her rugby-loving family and her protester brother who becomes embroiled in street violence. What will happen to Beth and Viktor's polarised relationship in a country where the very survival of civil order is at risk? In this fast-paced novel the nuances and tensions of the infamous 1981 Springbok Tour are probed and laid bare.

Hold the Line is Kerry’s second novel and will be launched in March.

Call for submissions for Fresh Ink 2021

Cloud Ink will be publishing a new edition of Fresh Ink in 2021 and is open for submissions until 28 February 2021.

The year 2020 has been – among many significant experiences – the year of the Coronavirus. What are we as both individuals and as collective society to make of the wider and deeper effects, beyond the health crisis itself? How can writers and storytellers, across multiple forms, address the human aspects of the Covid-19 crisis, its effects, both personal and societal, and its legacy? Can we make sense of this traumatic experience through the creative use of language, characterization, and images?

Cloud Ink Press is calling for submissions to the 2021 Fresh Ink anthology of new writing - short fiction, novel extracts, poetry and art work - themed in response to the pandemic that has touched us all in some way. The pieces may be personal writing from life, memoir, prose fiction or poetry, an essay or personal reflection, or a mix of media forms including graphic writing and visual arts.

Please send your submissions to info@cloudink.co.nz. Please submit your entry in a Word document (for stories and poetry) using 12 point Times New Roman, 1.5 spacing. Artwork needs to be black and white and sent on a jpg or pdf. Please include your name, email and contact details.

When we receive your submission you will be automatically added to our newsletter mailing list. You will be able to unsubscribe.

We look forward to reading your work.

Meanwhile in other news ...

Books of Aotearoa

An initiative launched on 15 September sees new books getting an audience.

Kete Books shares reviews of New Zealand books with Stuff to bring the latest releases to readers of Sunday Magazine, Your Weekend and online. Kete: New books from Aotearoa features details of recently published local titles as well as best seller lists and a calendar of events and awards. Go to ketebooks.co.nz for more information.

Creative Rights = Creative Reads

The NZSA, the Publishers Association of New Zealand and Copyright Licensing New Zealand have launched Creative Rights = Creative Reads, a campaign to put creative rights and their importance - for the local book sector and the country - in the spotlight.

The campaign intends to help New Zealanders to understand the ways in which creative rights fuel the sector and contribute to the community more broadly, fostering meaningful public conversation.

The campaign messages highlight that when value is placed on creative rights the result is more creativity, more local stories, more inspirational ideas and access to more local knowledge.

NZSA New Zealand Literary Heritage Awards

The winners of this year's literary heritage awards have been announced. The Heritage Literary Awards celebrate historical writing in fiction and non-fiction, short prose and poetry and this year new categories for a children's book and a book in te reo Maori.

This year's winners were:

non-fiction - Ripiro Beach: A Memoir of Life After Near Death by Caroline Barron.

fiction - All the Way to Summer: Stories of Love and Longing by Fiona Kidman

Re reo - first equal Whakarongo ki ō Tūpuna (Listen to Your Ancestors) by Darryn Joseph and Haare Williams: Words of a Kaumātuaedited by Witi Ihimaera.

Children's - The Adventures of Tupaia by Courtney Sina Meredith and Mat Tait.

Graeme Lay Short Story Competition Winners announced

The Graeme Lay Short Story competition was won this  year for the first time in its ten year history by a writer from the South Island.

The winner was Susan Cambridge for 'The Meeting'. Second place went to Cynthia Todd for 'After' and third to Suzie Watt for 'Free Falling'. Richard Montford, Kate Ridley and Andrea Pollard were highly commended.

Graeme Lay said that he was heartened by the continued interest in the short story form. This year there were over 60 entries, more than ever before. 'It's very heartening to see that in spite of all the other problems in the world, and in the face of dwindling publication opportunities, people are still being moved to write short form fiction.' 

A case of dates

Competition deadlines