This is a post for New Zealand Speculative Fiction Blogging Week, though I’m pushing it a bit because it’s really about speculative poetry.
With the lights barely down on Fantastic Voyages, it’s time to announce the next bit of book promotion I’m going to be involved in — although I am not responsible for organising it, which is a mercy.
Interactive Publications, the publishers of Voyagers: Science Fiction Poetry from New Zealand, which I co-edited with Mark Pirie, are organising a book tour for it, and for their other titles by New Zealand authors (such as Liquefaction by Iain Britton). Not all the dates and details are finalised yet, but here’s what we have so far:
DUNEDIN
Dunedin Library from 5:30 pm on Wednesday 14 Oct
Circadian Rhythm Café from 7 pm on Thursday 15 Oct
CHRISTCHURCH
Madras Café from 5pm on Friday 16 Oct
WELLINGTON
Wellington Library, 5:30pm on Monday 19 Oct
(Note: this is a couple of hours before Helen Rickerby is the guest reader at that night’s New Zealand Poetry Society meeting. Make a poetry night of it!)
Kapiti Library, 5:30pm on Tuesday 20 Oct
21st: Other North Island events
AUCKLAND
Auckland City Library, 5:30? pm on Thursday 22 Oct
Depot Arts Gallery, Devonport, 6:30pm on Saturday 24 Oct
PLEASE NOTE: Details are subject to change without notice, although I’ll keep this list as current as I can.
The events are concentrated on the venues where there are substantial numbers of Voyagers poets available to read, but there are two tantalising days between the Wellington and Auckland events. If anyone thinks that a Voyagers event might be a starter in their town on those days, please get in touch a.s.a.p. and I’ll pass this on to Interactive Publications.
I am taking a week off work to go on the South Island leg of the tour, and will also be at the Wellington event. I’d love to accompany the whole tour, but family and work commitments won’t allow that this time.
It'll be great to see you in Christchurch, Tim. Keep me posted on progress for the 16th so I can put the word out through my poetry e-notices.
So you won't be at the Auckland event? That's a shame – I owe you a beer 🙂
How late can I be before it is too late to be worth turning up? Since I actually have a job, and work till 5pm or later, and work is twenty to thirty minutes from the MCB end of town, then I have to find a park, I'm thinking 5 pm is going to be a little early for me
Thanks for your comments, Helen, Grant and Catherine. I'd love to go on the whole tour, but it wouldn't be fair to my family, or to the state of my leave balance at work! Sorry the 5pm timing isn't convenient for you, Catherine; it was recommended as the best start time on a Friday by the bookshop. I will ask the publisher how long the event is likely to run for, and get back to you.
A follow up to my previous message: the word from the publisher is that the actual reading session probably won't start until about 5.30pm, so you should be able to get there after work without missing the readings. Also, in those centres where time permits, we may invite poets not included in Voyagers to bring and read SF poems of their own – I'll confirm this as soon as I can, but in the meantime, poets can regard this as a new writing challenge!
Thanks for that, Tim – sounds like I will be able to come. I have just received the MCB newsletter in which they publicise three events starting at 5.30, and one (yours) starting at 5.00. I suspect that \”best start time on a Friday\” means \”best for the owner and staff\” (he has to pay his staff to work late)