Fresh Ink Book Launch

Fresh Ink 2019 will launch in Dunedin at The University Bookshop at 5.30pm, Wednesday 2 October – and the anthology of fiction, poetry and visual art is bursting with talent from Ōtepoti Dunedin.

From the historical to the fantastical, the real to the surreal, this enchanting new anthology from boutique publishing house Cloud Ink Press presents the varied voices of Aotearoa’s writers. It exhibits work from established authors, as well fresh new literary talent.

Award-winning novelist and Fresh Ink 2019 project manager Thalia Henry says she's thrilled to launch the book in Auckland as well as her hometown, Dunedin.

"Several of the anthology's contributors are from Dunedin - which is no surprise given the city's designation as a UNESCO City of Literature. We're looking forward to sharing stories, artwork, and of course drinks and nibbles with readers in the wonderful University Bookshop."

Dunedin-based contributors Madeleine Child, Febriani Idrus, Henrica Schieving and Kathryn van Beek will present sparking new works at the launch. Local printmaker Manu Berry, who contributed artwork to the anthology, will also speak at the free event.

Following on best-selling anthology Fresh Ink 2017, Fresh Ink 2019 provides readers with a sampler box of treats from some of Aotearoa’s most exciting writers. Whatever your mood or taste, there is a story, poem or image to match or to challenge it.

Siobhan Harvey, author of Cloudboy (Otago University Press) and Lecturer in
Creative Writing at AUT says, “In these pages, we discover new, exciting voices of the
future.”

Kārearea, the endemic New Zealand falcon featured on the cover, is Aotearoa’s most threatened bird of prey. To help ensure the voice of kārearea continues to be heard by future generations, $1.00 from the sale of each book will contribute to falcon conservation.

About the Ōtepoti Dunedin contributors:
- Madeleine Child is an award-winning visual artist, who says writing is not so very different from making things in clay.
- Febriani Idrus is a music teacher, freelance musician, and arts administrator. Her work has been published in takahē and Headland, and the anthology Horizons 2.
- Henrica Schieving is a teacher and a member of the Dunedin Writer’s Group. Her writing delves mainly into the perspectives of children and memoir.
- Kathryn van Beek’s award-winning short stories have appeared in the Sunday Star-Times, Takahē and Mindfood Magazine.
- Manu Berry is a Dunedin printmaker. He co-runs a family art gallery on the Otago Peninsula with his mother, stepfather, and sister.