Monday 10 November, 2008

The courage to write

This week marks not one but two remembrance days: Armistice Day is Tuesday, and marks the end of hostilities during World War I. This Thursday is the international day to remember imprisoned writers. In New Zealand this day is named Courage Day, after Sarah Amelia Courage and James Courage, writers whose books were burned or banned.

The New Zealand Society of Authors, (PEN Inc. NZ) supports this day in New Zealand, along with Amnesty International. These groups are two excellent examples of international organisations with local branches in our community information directory, CINCH.

Celebrate Armistice Day at your library

November 11 is Armistice Day, and 2008 is the 90th anniversary of the end of hostilities in World War I. To mark this occasion visiting Flemish historian Johan Van Duyse, will share details of the Our Soldiers Group Exhibition, a collaboration exploring the connection between Belgium and New Zealand at the Central Library at 11am on Tuesday 11 November.

This event is one of many ways that Christchurch City Libraries is participating in the national comemmorations, known as Coming Home. From October 2008 to March 2009, the return of soldiers to New Zealand is celebrated in a series of events, talks, movie showings, exhibitions and recitals throughout the country.

Christchurch City Libraries has digitised a range of material as part of this comemmorative effort:

Diggers' poems A small collection of poems by returned soldiers published after World War I
Winning through from war to peace: New Zealand, 1919 edited by L.S. Fanning
City of Christchurch, N.Z. : peace celebrations
Cecil Malthus: World War I papers [letters, telegrams, documents]

Be a star on our website

Christchurch City Libraries is now featuring images of its customers on our website home page. If you and your whanau enjoy using the library, please send us your photo.

We recommend: Writing resources

Our online resources:

Courage Day
Coming Home
Writers' Festivals - our guide to recent NZ festivals
Literary Prizes and book awards
Getting published - a guide for teens
Writing Prizes:
- Bank of New Zealand Katherine Mansfield Awards
- Landfall Essay Competition
- Pikihuia Awards for Māori writers
- Redraft (open to any teenage writer in New Zealand)
The Christchurch Writers' Trail
Our If you likes - recommended reading organised by author and genre
Press Display - 650 fully-digital replica newspapers online
The Margaret Mahy pages
Writing groups from CINCH, our Community information directory
Readers and writers on localeye, you online guide to Christchurch and Canterbury
Technical writers from localeye
WW1 Links to our material regarding the First World War
Armistice Day Our backgrounder
1918 Influenza Epidemic - How Christchurch Coped

Our Internet Gateway recommends:

New Zealand authors links
Children's authors links
Human rights websites
Reporters Without Borders - read their profile of New Zealand
New Zealand Society of Authors
WEA runs a creative writing programme
New Zealand Writers Guild - for scriptwriters
Coming Home Events from NZLive.com
First World War from NZHistory.net.nz
Armistice Day in New Zealand NZHistory.net.nz
The 1918 Influenza Pandemic NZHistory.net.nz
First World War - 90th Anniversary Imperial War Museum

Browse the resources in your library:

Writing fiction and Fiction techniques
Writing non-fiction and Journalism
Interviews with authors
Interviews with teen authors and links to author websites
New Zealand Journalism
New Titles
New Audio-Visual
New Children's
New Fiction
New Non-Fiction
New Young Adults

This week in Christchurch history

What interesting things happened in Christchurch this week? Find out with the help of the Christchurch Chronology on the library website.

November 8, 1956 Last trolley bus runs.
November 8, 1983 Opening of Canterbury Centre. The building (55m) becomes the city’s tallest, above the Police Station (53m) and the University Hight Library (51m). But the Cathedral spire at 62m remains the highest structure.
November 9, 1933 Mrs E.R. McCombs (Lyttelton) becomes the first woman MP in New Zealand.
November 9, 1965 Opening of the city’s first parking building on the corner of Manchester and Gloucester Streets.
November 11, 1880 Christchurch Amateur Swimming Club formed (the first in New Zealand).
November 11, 1924 Bridge of Remembrance opens.
November 11, 1978 Radio Rhema, New Zealand’s first religious radio station, begins regular transmission.
November 12, 1988 Richard Hadlee takes his 374th test wicket at Bangalore, India, setting a new world record.

What's new online?

New on the blog

New on the library website

Next week: Doing it yourself

The approaching summer is a great time to get those DIY projects underway. Find inspiration and how-to guides in next week's edition.