Whitireia creative writing tutor publishes new novel

Whitireia creative writing tutor publishes new novel

Escalator Press has published the fourth novel from Whitireia Creative Writing tutor and Titahi Bay resident Adrienne Jansen.

A Line of Sight follows her acclaimed third novel, The Score, which was the first to be published by Escalator Press, an imprint set-up by the Whitireia Creative Writing programme to publish work by new and established writers associated with Whitireia.

Escalator Press also works with the highly-regarded Whitireia Publishing programme on the production and marketing of its publications. The programme commissions artists to design the covers for Escalator Press publications, and commissioned well-known graphic artist Sarah Maxey for the cover for A Line of Sight.

The novel tells the story of the fatal shooting of a cannabis grower on farmland in a small community. “It takes its start from a real-life incident,” said Jansen, “which makes it particularly vivid.”

The story took root in Jansen’s head a few years ago but she wasn’t sure it was her story to tell. She sat on the idea for a long time before eventually deciding to use it as a starting point for a novel. “I was very interested in what happens to communities when they’re faced with this sort of situation, how they’re either driven apart or pulled together by it.”

“I’ve written it over a long period of time as it’s been a difficult novel to get right,” said Jansen. “You start writing a novel and it often goes somewhere else, and this story certainly did.”

Jansen was the founding coordinator of the Whitireia Creative Writing programme and now teaches fiction and editing on the programme. Her first two novels, Spirit Writing and Floating the Fish on Bamboo, were adapted for broadcast on Radio New Zealand, and she has twice been short-listed for the BNZ Literary Awards.

ENDS

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