He kupu whakataki / Introduction

 

 

Kia ora, hello

 

Tēnā tātou katoa. Piki mai, kake mai ki runga i te kaupapa nei. Ko te kaupapa ko te kupu, ko te tuhi, ā, ko te titiro me te whakaaro atu i Aotearoa ki ngā take o te ao. He karanga tēnei ki ngā kaituhi katoa.

 

This is a call to established and new writers to submit poems for a new anthology of Aotearoa New Zealand poetry about global issues. The anthology will feature poems about events and situations in the world that challenge, anger or excite us, that we fear or long for. From privatisation to peace, from human rights to global warming, from violence against women to trade to famine, there are important poems to be written.

 

The Dev-Zone Poetry Anthology is a project of Dev-Zone, a programme of the Development Resource Centre. The DRC is Aotearoa’s independent resource centre on global and development issues, and works to inform New Zealanders to take action to create a just world.

 

First and foremost this will be a literary volume of top-notch, well-crafted poems. We want writing that raises awareness without resorting to rhetoric, touches on enormous subjects without being heavy-handed, poems that somehow move us and/or inform us without being didactic.

 

Hard call? We believe it can be done. Think of this as a book of ‘politerature’ – a place where politics meets literature and each brings out the best in the other.

 

Kia kaha, kia māia koutou – kua takoto te manuka. Step up to the challenge and tackle the Big Issues. You can be oblique, you can be your writerly self. Surprise us, surprise your readers. Move us, inform us, educate us, uplift us. Prove us right.

 

 

He whakamōhio / Hints for submissions

 

If you are new to writing you may want to familiarise yourselves with these publications and websites to give you an idea of the kinds of writing we’re looking for:

 

SPORT magazine

Turbine online literary magazine

Trout online journal and press

Poetry NZ

Best New Zealand Poems

Landfall literary magazine

Takahe literary magazine

The Page: Poetry, essays, language, ideas

Granta magazine

 

Global issues impact everyone, everywhere. They are the issues and events that connect us to one another and connect Aotearoa to the Pacific and to the world.

 

A global theme is sometimes best illustrated through a personal story. You can focus on large ideas through a smaller lens. For inspiration and research, you could ask yourself some questions like:

• Which Pacific Island was mined for the phosphate used to fertilise your parents' farm?
• What is George Bush’s war on terror really about?
• What does a woman selling oil paintings done by her nephew on a street in Bali have to do with our daily lives here in New Zealand?
• What has happened to the indigenous literature of Aotearoa/New Zealand, the waiata tawhito?
• Why is it a global phenomenon that some women live in fear of their husbands?
• Who owns the sky?
• You know that favourite shirt of yours, the one with the Māori koru patterns that your cousin gave you for your graduation...? Where was it manufactured? Why does that matter?
• Why is it safer to eat just about anything other than coconuts on some Pacific Islands today?
• Why do girls in Pakistan stay at home while their brothers go to school?

These are just examples to get you thinking – not instructions. Don’t feel the need to explicate every aspect of a huge subject in the first stanza, or even the entire poem. There will be brief notes in the back of the book to point the reader to the wider issue.

 

If you want some other ideas about what constitutes a global issue, take a stroll through the Dev-Zone knowledge centre.

He tikanga mō te tukunga mai / How to make a submission

 

Submissions close Saturday, June 30th 2007.

 

Email submissions (preferred)

• send submissions to poetry@dev-zone.org
• poems should be included in the body of the email and also as Word or.rtf attachments

Postal submissions

• send submissions to:

  The Editors

  Poetry Book

  Dev-Zone

  PO Box 12440

  Te Whanganui-a-Tara/Wellington

  Aotearoa New Zealand

   

• Please include a self-addressed, stamped envelope (see below).

ALL submissions must include:

1. your full name, postal address and email address (if you have one)
2. a brief bio about yourself (two sentences) and one sentence about the topic your poem addresses
3. the title(s) of your poem(s)

Submissions must be your own original work.

 

Please don’t send us your only copy of the poem/s – we can’t return them.

 

If your poem is chosen for the anthology we will send you one complimentary copy of the book plus a small honorarium. We’re unsure at this stage how much this money amount will be, because we are a non-profit organisation and we’re dependent on funding for this. Please don’t contribute if you’re relying on a large pay-out if your poem is chosen. Please do contribute if you’re passionate about poems and the planet.

 

Issues of copyright and permissions can make it problematic to re-publish work. For this reason, we invite you to send your new, unpublished writing. Previously published work may be accepted for this anthology at the editors’ discretion. It’s very important that you indicate clearly if any of your poems has been published before, and in what form (print, broadcast, internet etc).

 

Please make it clear in your submission if you have sent these poems to anyone else for publication, and when. We prefer it if you don't make simultaneous submissions - it just makes our job easier.

 

We will send acknowledgment that we’ve received your poem/s as soon as they arrive. If you need to be notified by post please send us a stamped self addressed envelope. So we come to the poems fresh, the editors will not be looking at them until after submissions close on June 31st. A further notice about whether your work has been accepted will be sent to you by August 2007.

 

Ngā āhuatanga o tēnei kaupapa / Background

 

The Dev-Zone Poetry Anthology is a project of Dev-Zone, a programme of the Development Resource Centre. The DRC is Aotearoa’s independent resource centre on global and development issues, and works to inform New Zealanders to take action to create a just world.

 

Dev-Zone is part of an active community of non-governmental organisations in Aotearoa and the Pacific. Among other things Dev-Zone runs a library and a website, provides email updates and publishes a magazine, Just Change.

 

The Editors

 

Hinemoana Baker (Ngāti Raukawa, Ngāti Toa Rangatira, Te Āti Awa, Kāi Tahu, Ngāti Kiritea nō Ingarangi / Tiamani) is a graduate of the International Institute of Modern Letters Masters programme in Creative Writing. Her work has been published in literary journals SPORT, Trout and Tinfish, and in online literary journals Turbine and Best New Zealand Poems. Her first collection of poetry, mātuhi | needle, was co-published in 2004 by Victoria University Press (Wellington) and Perceval Press (Santa Monica, USA).

 

Maria McMillan (born and raised in Ōtautahi / Christchurch with English, Scottish and Irish ancestry) is the manager of Dev-Zone. She has a long-standing commitment to local and international social justice and has researched and campaigned on feminist issues, globalisation, water privatisation, peace and human rights. Maria is also a published poet, and has attended formal workshops at Victoria University’s International Institute of Modern Letters.

 

Maria and Hinemoana are active participants in an ongoing Wellington poetry workshop.