. . . does not a poet make.
But this morning’s session with Kate Camp was helpful.
I learnt about the importance of nouns and the rationing of adjectives.
Nouns help to show not tell, in contrast to those describing words which are also telling words.
So easy to learn, so hard to apply.
Kate was interviewed by Kim Hill today. She came live from Burnside Homestead and spoke about Janet Frame’s autobiographies.
It was Janet’s birthday yesterday. After the workshop the class decamped for lunch and inspiration at 56 Eden Street where she was brought up.
Great to see poetry still thriving in NZ.
Up here in ChCh we had Phil Garland’s book launch Thursday evening, well attended by a great crowd of folkies and poets.
Phil has researched the yarns, characters and history of rural NZ from the earliest times, and his latest book ‘Faces in the Firelight’ captures it all. It is also nostalgically autobiographical, for those of us who remember the 60s.
Check out Phil on
http://www.philgarland.co.nz/index-main.html
I know, this is an unabashed plug for someone north of the Waitaki, but maybe just for once…….!
You’ve sold it well, will definitely check it out. It might be the wrong side of the Waitaki but it’s the right Island 🙂
Didn’t Phil write a song about Totara Estate?
Phil Garland probably NZ’s No 1 folk singer, with a raft of CD’s to his credit. ‘The Stable Lad’ and ‘Wind in the Tussock’ are songs which stand comparison with the best of the Australian bush ballads.
South of the Waitaki, Otago’s own Martin Curtis is still going strong at Cardrona
http://www.martincurtis.co.nz/
and also has some excellent songs to his credit.
Sadly lacking are NZ women folk singers and balladeers in the same genre. Maybe they moved on, and became country singers instead. But there is a rich vein of human interest to be explored there – high country stations are not all men, merinos and mustering!
The ChCh Folk Club has recently celebrated its 40th birthday
http://www.folkmusic.org.nz/
and regularly gets top folkies from NZ and overseas.
I think you are right about the Totara Estate number HP, no doubt somewhere in Phil’s CD song list.