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SCI-FI GUY An unassuming tax inspector who breaks the law by night experiments with a virtual-reality headset in dystopian novel Chevalier & Gawayn. It’s the 11th science-fiction book by internationally known author Phillip Mann, still writing aged 80. He’s also a theatre director and academic who founded New Zealand’s first university drama-studies course (at Victoria University in 1970). Winner of the Sir Julius Vogel Award for services to science fiction in 2010, Mann’s also patron of the Phoenix Science Fiction Society – a group of Wellington sci-fi fans, who meet monthly (new members welcome).
GOOD CALL
CAPITAL CRIME
KING-MAKERS
Wellington author Sally J Morgan, who grew up in Yorkshire, had a close call – she nearly accepted a ride with serial killers Rosemary and Fred West. This inspired her debut novel Toto Amongst the Murderers, in the background of which the Wests roam the countryside. In a live online announcement with six finalists including Booker-nominated novelist Andrew O’Hagan, Sally was awarded the £10,000 Portico Prize 2022, for the book that “best evokes the spirit of the north of England”.
As a fourth-generation Wellingtonian with roots in the city dating back to 1850, Alistair Luke is passionate about sharing its history through his writing. The architect (who is also married to an architect, Sharon Jansen) has written debut novel One Heart One Spade, which tells the story of Detective Lucas Cole negotiating the capital’s criminal scene in 1977. His relationships at home and work, a missing woman, and a deceased drug dealer add to his troubles.
Calling eager young writers: the Michael King Writers Centre is running its second Signals Young Writers Awards, which offers writers aged from 16 to 23 the chance to be published in the centre’s journal Signals. The fiction, creative non-fiction, and poetry winners each win $150 and the overall winner an additional $150, thanks to Penguin/Random House publishers. Entries close 29 July.
