Anyone who knows me well knows that I’m addicted to writing. And like many professionals who work in the writing space – communications professionals, journalists, content marketers – I’ve always had a creative writing project going ‘on the side’.

Portrait painter Jane Litten once told me artists are all alike. We dance around our dreams. Painters will work as graphic designers, novelists work as PR professionals. Until one day, they slip into the phantasmagoria of their art and they find a way to make it work alongside their reality.

While I love my reality of professional writing, I’ve found it hard to make the dream work alongside the reality. I’m always working on poems, short stories and even have most of a novel in a drawer – but taking these projects to the next step, making them real by revealing them to the world, is so difficult for me.

So, to be chosen as one of thirteen emerging writers who’ll be mentored as part of the 2021 NZSA mentorship programme is a dream turned reality. I’m stoked to have been picked from a record field of entries – I know there’s so many incredible emerging writers out there in Aotearoa.

I feel it’s time to wake up, step into the dream and bring my short story collection from ‘pet project’ to ‘real life work’.

Here’s the media release from the NZSA…

NZSA 2021 Mentorships announced from record field of entries

Thirteen emerging writers have been selected for the The New Zealand Society of Authors Te Puni Kaituhi O Aotearoa (PEN NZ Inc) Mentorship Programme 2021, from what the judges described as: 'an incredible and unprecedented 132 applications. These came from across the literary spectrum. Poetry, speculative fiction, creative nonfiction, literary novels, genre fiction and stage plays were all represented in the applications'. This made it a difficult task for judges Siobhan Harvey, Kiri Piahana-Wong and Paddy Richardson.

NZSA 2021 mentees from all across Aotearoa are emerging writers with unique voices and we congratulate:Sally Franicevich (Auckland), Nicole Colmar(Auckland), Carolyn Cossey(Pukekohe), Kristene Cristobal(Melrose), Michael Gould(Wellington), Emma Hislop(New Plymouth), Lily Holloway(Auckland), Mandy McMullin(Auckland), Airana Ngarewa(Patea), Talia Parker(Auckland), Bethany G Rogers (Queenstown), Rochelle Savage(Amberley),and Ariana Sutton(Gisborne).

They will spend the remainder of 2021 honing their skills and developing their craft under the mentorship of some of New Zealand’s finest professional writers.

Selection panel convener Siobhan Harvey commented: ‘ Our congratulations to these authors. We trust your journeys through the 2021 NZSA Mentorships will prove creatively fruitful. We look forward to seeing your names on the covers of forthcoming books. We believe that the exceedingly healthy growth in applications (nearly double 2020 applications) reflects a thriving emerging authorship in Aotearoa'.

Mentorships are offered by the NZSA every year with the intent of fostering and developing emerging writers with the support of established practitioners. The NZSA has run a highly successful mentoring programme for writers since 1999. Many previous mentees have gone on to win awards and receive accolades for their work. The NZSA Mentor programme is supported by funding from Creative New Zealand.