Secondary school writers win mentorships with authors

Secondary school writers win mentorships with professional authors
28 APRIL 2016

Three talented secondary school students have been selected as winners of the NZ Society of Authors Youth Mentorship Programme 2016. NZSA’s Youth Mentorship Programme is offered to three young writers (15-18yrs) every year and the selected youths will spend the next few months honing their writing skills and developing their craft under the mentorship of three of New Zealand’s finest professional authors.

The 2016 recipients are Hannah Turnbull from Gisborne Girls High School, Joanna Li from Diocesan School for Girls in Auckland and Cameron Johnson from Tauranga Boys College. Cameron will be using his mentorship to develop a project exploring isolation, human nature, and why secrets are secrets. Hannah will be working on her novel Saviour, while Joanna's project Never Felt Like Home focuses on the experiences of two teenagers, one Chinese and the other Iraqi.

Mentors for these talented emerging writers are Renee Liang, James George and Anna Mackenzie.

Selection panel convenor, author Tina Shaw, commented that “The panel found it extremely difficult to select only three mentorships from the 25 applications: the submissions were so strong and talented, and supported by very positive school endorsements".

The Youth Mentorship Programme was established to foster and develop emerging writing talent with the support of established authors. It is part of NZSA's successful mentoring programme for adult writers and is supported by Creative New Zealand.

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