Writing workshops at Otahuhu library...

 This week I took some time out of my busy schedule and delivered some writing workshops for some local schools at Otahuhu library. It's a beautiful complex opened only a few years ago with a gym, swimming pool and cafe, physio, CAB (Citizen's Advice Bureau) all enclosed within the complex.

I was able to share a few ideas about writing but also about the new book called 'Sense of belonging' that we hope to have some youth voices as well as adult writers about their sense of belonging within their communities.

This was the title of my first PhD proposal at Auckland Uni back over 30 years ago when I first started but then didn't finish it as it didn't feel right plus getting married was a big event that helped to ensure that there were more pressing matters to attend to.

Now if 'feels right' in asking people from the community to writer about their 'sense of belonging' and if feels as if it has come into fruition. We're hoping for poetry and short story submissions to be sent in by 30 June and then to begin the book process through to 25 August proposed book launch.

Looking forward to this as yet another step forward to bringing local voices to a literary platform/space that allows them to speak. So much to do and so little time but never a dull moment in the scheme of things...