Wānaka workshop facilitators 28-29 October 2023

Claire Lacey

Claire Lacey (they/them) is a writer and performer from so-called Canada who currently lives and works in Ōtepoti, Aotearoa New Zealand. They have authored a book of poetry, Twin Tongues, a graphic novel, Selkie, and an essay in the anthology Impact: Women Writing After Concussion. They hold a PhD in poetry and brain injury from the University of Otago.

Claire’s workshop will focus on sound poetry. A recent participant in one of their workshops with Ōtepoti Poetics commented on their “amazing embodied reading.”

https://poetactics.blogspot.com/

Eliana Gray

Eliana Gray is a poet and arts facilitator. They have been widely published in journals and anthologies including: Out Here: An Anthology of Takatapui and LGBTQIA+ Writers from Aotearoa, No Other Place To Stand: An Anthology Of Climate Poetry, Landfall, Poetry Aotearoa Yearbook, Cordite, The Spinoff and others. They are working on their first full-length poetry collection. They have been awarded residencies in Finland and Ōtepoti, and were a member of the International Lamplight Residency on behalf of Michael King Writers’ Centre and Varuna Australia. They have represented Otago at the National Poetry Slam and have taught writing in schools, music programmes, at the New Zealand Young Writers Festival, and digitally. Eliana is a workshop facilitator with Ōtepoti Writers Lab (along with Liz and Rushi). They are also Chairperson of Girls Rock Aotearoa. Eliana’s workshop will focus on nature writing.

Laura Williamson

Laura Williamson is a writer based in Central Otago, New Zealand.Laura is editor of 1964 journal: mountain culture aotearoa. She is the co-writer of The Blue Moments Project song and spoken word cycle, and her poems have been featured in books, magazines and journals around the world, including the Poetry New Zealand Yearbook 2019 and three New Zealand Poetry Society anthologies.

Laura’s first book, The Bike and Beyond: Life on Two Wheels in Aotearoa New Zealand, is out now as part of the BWB Text series from Bridget Williams Books. She is also the former editor of Spoke, a national New Zealand mountain bike magazine, a frequent contributor to Kia Ora: The in-flight magazine of Air NZ, and is the author of four textbooks on media writing for senior high school students, published by Essential Resources.

Laura’s workshop will focus on personal essay writing.

Liz Breslin

Liz Breslin is a writer, editor and performer of Polish and Irish descent, now living in Ōtepoti Dunedin. Liz’s poem collections are In bed with the feminists (Dead Bird Books, 2021), winner of the Kathleen Grattan Prize for a Sequence of Poems 2020, and Alzheimer’s and a spoon (OUP, 2017, 2021), one of the NZ Listener’s Top 100 books of 2017. Liz’s poems can also be found in places including Landfall, The Spinoff, The Friday Poem, takahē, Peach Fuzz, Wild Honey: Reading New Zealand Women’s Poetry, Rapture: An Anthology of Performance Poetry from Aotearoa/New Zealand (forthcoming) and Ōrongohau Best New Zealand Poems.

Liz’s short story ‘baba jaga’ was highly commended in the 2022 Sargeson Prize. ‘Not the fucking pineapple’ was shortlisted for the Bridport Prize 2021 and ‘the very bones’ won the Queenstown Festival Short Story Competition 2020.

Liz has edited books by Ockham winners in both fiction and poetry and Liz’s workshop will focus on editing.

www.lizbreslin.com

Rushi Vyas

Rushi Vyas is the author of the poetry collection When I Reach For Your Pulse published in both Aotearoa New Zealand (Otago University Press) and the USA (Four Way Books) in 2023, and the collaborative chapbook Between Us, Not Half a Saint with Rajiv Mohabir (Gasher, 2021). Born and raised in the US, Rushi now lives in Ōtepoti Dunedin where he is currently a PhD candidate at the University of Otago studying the use of creative ritual in poetic practice. Rushi has poems forthcoming or published in The Georgia Review, Indiana Review, Pigeon Pages, Adroit Journal, Tin House, The Offing, Landfall (NZ), the anthology A Clear Dawn: New Asian Voices from Aotearoa New Zealand (AUP, 2021), and elsewhere.

Rushi’s workshop will focus on the use of ritual in writing.

https://www.rushivyas.org