Books
On this page you will find information about our two most recent publications.
Those be Rubies - a history of 40 years of IWW. Fascinating reading of our writers through the decades with anecdotes, poems and very short stories. Published November 2016.
Beyond the Persimmon Tree - fiction, non-fiction and poetry from members of the International Writers' Workshop NZ Inc, was published in November 2010.
Those be Rubies
Our sixth and most ambitious book to date, Those be Rubies, has now been published.
In 1976, four women banded together to create a writing group. Their vision was to encourage aspiring writers. Forty years on, the International Writers’ Workshop NZ Inc. celebrates its ruby anniversary with Those be Rubies, the first documented history of the organisation and its members.
This meticulously researched chronicle of triumphs and challenges outlines how the organisation has developed through four decades of social and technological change. It reveals how one small group of dedicated poets and writers brought opportunities to many.
There are four parts to the story and each represents one decade alive with fascinating information. Form small beginnings in the seventies to the current celebrations, IWW has attracted members with the same aim: to enjoy and promote writing. Those be Rubies is a cornucopia of history, recollections and anecdotes.
Published by AM Publishing New Zealand for International Writers' Workshop NZ Inc, November 2016
ISBN 978-0-9941413-1-6
How to Buy
Please contact
iww-writers@outlook.com to enquire how to buy a copy.
Beyond The Persimmon Tree
Our fifth book and our fourth anthology, Beyond the Persimmon Tree, has now been published.
Fiction, non-fiction and poetry
from members of
the International Writers' Workshop
Edited by Sue Courtney and Carol Squires
Published by International Writers' Workshop NZ Inc, November 2010
ISBN 978-0-473-17871-0
Photograph of leaf skeleton used by permission. Copyright Royce Bair / The Stock Solution
International Writers' Workshop NZ Inc lives up to its name – it is international in membership and international in the stories and poems that its members write.
In Beyond the Persimmon Tree the stories and poems read like a colourful travelogue of adventure and experience.
From travelling around the Coromandel with a crossword to savouring the incense of spices and colourful sensations of Iran, we dine beneath an orange Australian outback sunset – then discover a mountain in Peru that's not all it's cracked up to be.
We meet immigrants arriving to the shores of their new land; go on a hair-raising cyclo ride through the clamouring streets of Vietnam and are fascinated by jive talking on a Greyhound bus. We join a black kitten with attitude on the back of a motor cycle and celebrate a winning team's success on a remote island in Greece.
We walk through the warm-scented rose gardens of Parnell and are immediately transported to the vineyards of Alsace.
We read of love lost and found, and rediscovered; of murder and mystery and intrigue; of humorous anecdotes and stories with twists and stings in their tales; of runaway children, scarecrows — and ghoooooooooosts.
We hope you enjoy your journey through these pages, to return again and again to savour the warmth and the camaraderie of our fellow travellers.
Beyond the Persimmon Tree has 100 stories and poems, from 38 talented past and present IWW members, mostly from winning and placed entries in the Workshop's annual competitions from the last few years.
It is named after a moving short story by up-and-coming writer Gay Johnson, and also includes Alice Hooton's 'America', the winner of the inaugural Kathleen Grattan Prize for a Sequence of Poems, in 2009.
Click here for Sample Pages -
About The Anthology, the
Front and Back Flaps and a list of contributing authors and poets.
How to Buy
Please contact
iww-writers@outlook.com to enquire how to buy a copy.