On Wednesday 22 March from 1.30pm to 2.30pm, join our live videoconference
WordSpace: Fiction
Join Bernard Beckett and David Hill in a discussion about fiction. WordSpace is a series of videoconference discussions between secondary school students and leading New Zealand writers, brought to you by the New Zealand Book Council and CWA New Media. To participate, your school will need to be a member of the Book Council.
This session will consider questions like what makes good fiction writing, and where do writers draw inspiration from. The writers will relate their own experiences and provide insight into what makes a good book.
Bernard Beckett
Bernard Beckett is a children’s writer and secondary school teacher whose knowledge of teenage culture is reflected in his believable adolescent characters.
His titles include Lester (1999), Red Cliff (2000), Jolt (2002), which was a finalist in the Senior Fiction category of the New Zealand Post Children’s Book Awards 2002, No Alarms (2002), 3 Plays: Puck, Plan 10 from Outer Space, The End of the World As We Know It (2003), Home Boys (2003) and Malcolm and Juliet (2004), which won the Young Adult Fiction category of the New Zealand Post Book Awards for Children and Young Adults in 2005, as well as The Esther Glen Award at the LIANZA Children’s Book Awards 2005. He has also co-authored Deep Fried (2005) with Clare Knighton, a former student of his. Deep Fried is a finalist in the Young Adult fiction category of the 2006 New Zealand Post Book Awards for Children and Young Adults.
David Hill
David Hill is a versatile journalist, reviewer, fiction writer, playwright and children’s writer.
His books include See Ya, Simon (1992), which won the 1994 Times Educational Supplement Nasen Award and a Gaelyn Gordon Award for a Much-Loved Book in 2002. In 1995 he wrote Kick Back, Take It Easy, Curtain Up and The Winning Touch (1995). Other titles include Second Best (1996), The High Wind Blows (2001), The Sleeper Wakes (2001), The Name of the Game (2001), Right Where It Hurts (2001) and Where All Things End (2002). Right Where It Hurts was short-listed for the New Zealand Post Children’s Book Awards 2003 and won the 2003 LIANZA Esther Glen Medal. He also wrote My Story: Journey to Tangiwai, The Diary of Peter Cotterill, Napier 1953 (2003), No Safe Harbour (2003) and Coming Back (2004), which was a finalist in the Young Adult Fiction Category of the New Zealand Post Book Awards for Children and Young Adults 2005. His latest novels from 2005 are Running Hot and Bodies and Soul. Running Hot is a finalist in the Young Adult fiction category of the New Zealand Post Book Awards for Children and Young Adults.
TO REGISTER FOR THIS VIDEO-CONFERENCE, CONTACT digitalconversations@cwa.co.nz BY MONDAY 13 MARCH 2006.
Telephone: (04) 382 6506
The Book Council will be creating a DVD of this session, which will be available for schools to purchase. If your school takes part in the session, please be aware that we will need signed permission forms from all participating students.
