Media Releases

The view from the Writers' Centre

03 June 2009 – Jam Radio features Michael King Writers' Centre authors

Devonport’s Jam Radio has been successful in their bid for funding a three part radio series with Vincent O’Sullivan, David Eggleton, and Barry Brickell. The celebrated members of the New Zealand arts scene are also writers-in-residence at the Michael King Writers Centre during 2009, and will be interviewed by North Shore’s very own Graeme Lay.

Louise Evans, the station’s coordinator, is glad that the funding will make the project possible. ‘We are extremely pleased to have secured the support of the Creative Communities Scheme to help us in our endeavours to build a comprehensive audio resource. The Michael King Writers Centre has the fortune of housing some truly iconic New Zealanders this year, and together we hope to capture and document their work and ideas, to give reference and inspiration to a new breed of writers.’

Jam Radio has been in operation for two years now, a brainchild of the Depot Artspace in Devonport. A not-for-profit online radio station, its vision is to create an alternative approach to broadcasting, by having locally made programming about arts and culture available for on-demand streaming. Collaboration such as this is proving a valuable way of informing the community of the wealth of talented arts practitioners in their midst.

The North Shore has had a long and illustrious history of writers living and producing work in the region. Graeme Lay, a prolific writer himself, is also well known in the community for his mentoring, teaching and work with the literary community. Louise asked him to be involved with the project as producer and interviewer. ‘Graeme has previously created an amazing programme series for Jam Radio called Writers of the North Shore. The series covered a wide spectrum of writing genres and featured such people as Kevin Ireland, Geoff Chapple, Shonagh Koea and many more. These programmes are some of Jam Radio’s most popular to date, so we are certain of the success of any future literary series.’

Karren Beanland, administrator of Michael King’s Writers Centre, also appreciates the significance of the project. ‘The recordings will become an important resource in many respects. They will provide a record for future research and literary debate. They will provide an insight into the writer and his or her work.
They will also help to build a literary oral archive and are an important extension of our project, as they give people in the wider community the opportunity to hear about the authors who are resident at the Michael King Writers’ Centre. As they are based on the internet, they help to make our project more accessible to the community. They may help readers gain a better understanding of New Zealand writing and may inspire potential new writers.’

The series will continue to be produced in the coming months, with two interviews – that of Vincent O’Sullivan and David Eggleton, already online on Jam Radio’s website.

For more information about Jam Radio and to listen to programmes,
visit Jam Radio

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