Neil Johnstone
“It was a Friday night and Newtown Library was lively…
Writers Carl Shuker, Rachel Kerr, Michalia Arathimos and Jackson Nieuwland, and an audience of readers and Newtown locals, were discussing Newtown as a setting. Newtown is a suburb with its own distinct identity. It’s rare to be able to create an event so perfectly synchronised to a location. But that night, in the library, we were so close to the places the writers had put on the page. We were a short walk from Wellington Regional Hospital, where Dr Elizabeth Taylor works in Carl Shuker’s A Mistake; around the corner from the clothing bins Michalia Arathimos’ characters dive into in her short story ‘Summer of Love’; a few streets from the public housing Rachel Kerr imagines for her characters in Victory Park; and inside the walls of the destination in Jackson Nieuwland’s poem ‘Walking to Newtown Library’. The conversation was led by Makaro Press publisher and journalist Mary McCallum and the evening was interesting, entertaining and a great example of how writers, publishers and libraries work together to share books, stories and information with local communities. My background is in book events. I’ve worked on the Edinburgh International Book Festival and as an event manager with UK bookseller Waterstones. Now, with Wellington City Libraries, I plan and manage fiction events and write articles for our library blog. The best, most memorable events create a discussion that engages the audience and, when books are at the centre, tap into the broader ideas around the work.
Local books are part of the cultural fabric that New Zealand libraries bring to our communities. Ideas, conversation, issues, interests – these are what we’re all about and libraries rely on authors to create good books. When we organise events with New Zealand authors we’re nurturing writers, supporting local publishers and engaging readers, library users and our communities. The general library is for everyone in the community, and our events need to reflect a full and broad range of interests. Within the programme of events that libraries offer, it’s particularly important to support a diverse range of local voices. Since COVID, we’ve been hosting more online talks and recording live events for the blog. This gives events an afterlife and makes them available to a wider audience than the people who attend on the night. The other benefit here is archival, these recordings can act as historical documentation of a specific moment in a writer’s career. At the Newtown event, Rachel Kerr said that it can be ‘a source of joy’ for people to see the place they live described in a book. That’s also true when you attend a talk and our library users are interested in stories and writing about local places. Ultimately, our events are for our local communities and need to benefit them.”
Neil Johnstone creates and manages the fiction events for Wellington City Libraries, he also contributes the fiction articles to the library blog.
Watch recordings from the Four Writers Writing about Newtown on Wellington City Libraries blog.