kirstiwhalenwrites.wordpress.com
Literary Legacy: Marvellous Marian | Words at Work
https://kirstiwhalenwrites.wordpress.com/2014/09/30/literarylegacymarvellousmarian
Literary Legacy: Marvellous Marian. September 30, 2014. My mum and I used to read Marian Keyes together. All the ice creams! But that I had all the tools within to fight back, and all the power to receive the kind of love I deserved. That I would earn. By being me, and being unique and bold and kind. That the world had ended? Thank you, Marian. For everything. There are some divides that only literature can cross. There are some things my mother and I could not say. You said them for us. My Year in Books.
kirstiwhalenwrites.wordpress.com
About | Words at Work
https://kirstiwhalenwrites.wordpress.com/about
I recently moved back to New Zealand after a four year stint in Melbourne, where I worked as a support worker and creativity-facilitator for young adults with disabilities and was active in the performance poetry scene. This blog is the outward expression of what it means to be an emerging writer at work in Aotearoa. 2 thoughts on “ About. October 23, 2013 at 12:42 pm. You are also an amazing phenomena of all things fantastic and I love you dearly! November 18, 2013 at 11:07 am. Nice Kirsti . . .
kirstiwhalenwrites.wordpress.com
On Activism, And The Man Who Came In My Eye. | Words at Work
https://kirstiwhalenwrites.wordpress.com/2014/02/18/on-activism-and-the-man-who-came-in-my-eye
On Activism, And The Man Who Came In My Eye. February 18, 2014. Seated on Mumbai’s bloated shoreline, a man called Omar told me he wanted to be a Bollywood star. But not all wishes become true, he said sadly, already afflicted by the soap-opera insincerity of his supposed vocation. A fish was strangled in a plastic beer-ring barnacle and its swollen and blanched body was beating itself against the rocks that a mobster ordered the government to purchase. Or so he said. Category : Creative Non Fiction.
kirstiwhalenwrites.wordpress.com
For Ian Gordon | Words at Work
https://kirstiwhalenwrites.wordpress.com/2014/08/26/for-ian-gordon
August 26, 2014. It was via a text message earlier in the week that I was informed of the passing of Ian Gordon. I only met Ian once. It was only a few months ago when I spoke on Radio New Zealand about poetry, and discovered that he was the ‘nep. Hew sleeping in the basement room’ from my most beloved poem, Rain on the Roof by Janet Frame. He laughed about the incident, claiming that she read more poetry into the occasion than he intended (as we poet types tend to do! But i do, i do. You do, you do.
kirstiwhalenwrites.wordpress.com
Kirstibot Strikes Again | Words at Work
https://kirstiwhalenwrites.wordpress.com/2014/09/07/kirstibot-strikes-again
September 7, 2014. I’m interested in memory. We all are, I suppose. I think I feel a lot (too much? How do we hold our memories while letting them go? I’d love to know if anyone out there has had a revelation through their own ‘bot.’ And I’d love to know how other people remember. Does it ache for everyone? By Kirsti and kirstibot. Here is a soul, finally thinking ahead. here’s one i prepared earlier. what, a life? Category : Creative Non Fiction. Literary Legacy: Marvellous Marian. Follow Blog via Email.
kirstiwhalenwrites.wordpress.com
I Should Have Said I’m Sorry | Words at Work
https://kirstiwhalenwrites.wordpress.com/2014/04/10/i-should-have-said-im-sorry
I Should Have Said I’m Sorry. April 10, 2014. And one night, Mum stood within her swamp of laundry. It was summer, so the light was thin through the window. The wallpaper crept with ivy; it was the Epsom house, 29 Empire Road, where we all lived together before they tried to break away from each other. Maybe all the bad things Dad says about you are true. She fell into the washing pile. She lay her body down and she cried, and I walked out the door. Category : Creative Non Fiction. Enter your comment here.
kirstiwhalenwrites.wordpress.com
These Fires | Words at Work
https://kirstiwhalenwrites.wordpress.com/2014/02/10/these-fires
February 10, 2014. We have been cold to the bone. And even under the hot stream of the shower, we don’t know how to get warm again. So it is, with love. We have been loved to the marrow. We are learning how to be loved again. But in the absence of a cut-grass sky, fresh and severed, it is still raining. I have met many men who I could love like that. Should I dreadlock my hair and take hold of the life in Goa that I could have so quickly fallen into, a life of forget? There are shacks across the world lo...
kirstiwhalenwrites.wordpress.com
Maman. | Words at Work
https://kirstiwhalenwrites.wordpress.com/2014/03/05/maman
March 5, 2014. I write this entry the day after my mother’s birthday, on which I, as so often, begged her back. My mother was not only the first woman I loved, she was also the first I lost, and I miss her. For my first ball, she told me I could have any dress I wanted. And I know she couldn’t afford it, but she didn’t care. She found a way. And I have inherited her recklessness with money, but I also know that there are some things more important than bills. She sought the sun. She loved ice cream.
kirstiwhalenwrites.wordpress.com
In Memory of Sarah Broom | Words at Work
https://kirstiwhalenwrites.wordpress.com/2014/05/19/in-memory-of-sarah-broom
In Memory of Sarah Broom. May 19, 2014. It was with a mild hangover and a brimming heart that I greeted the day following my first writers festival reading. I attended a great many luminous events, but read as part of the celebration of the inaugural Sarah Broom Poetry Prize. I feel incredibly honoured to have been shortlisted for this very special award, especially alongside such distinguished poets as Emma Neale and C.K. Stead, the winner, to whom I offer my utmost, and sincere, congratulations. The su...
kirstiwhalenwrites.wordpress.com
My Year in Books | Words at Work
https://kirstiwhalenwrites.wordpress.com/2014/12/16/my-year-in-books
My Year in Books. December 16, 2014. It’s been a big year of everything for me this year, but particularly literature. I spoke at my first (and second) literary festivals, completed my second year of a creative writing degree, met some of my heroes and was shortlisted for a big award. But more than anything else, it was a great year in words because I read. A lot. Not enough (it’s never enough! But enough that it seems fitting to do a roundup of my year’s reading! Gleam by Sarah Broom. I’ve raved a...