Celebrating 50 years of the Katherine Mansfield Menton Fellowship, five writer read their letters to New Zealand's most famous author. A highlight of Word Christchurch 2020.

To celebrate 50 years of the Katherine Mansfield Menton Fellowship, five New Zealand writers read their letters to our most famous author.

Listen to Bill Manhire, Carl Nixon, Fiona Farrell, Vincent O'Sullivan and Paula Morris deliver their letters to Katherine Mansfield

Now administered by the Arts Foundation, the Katherine Mansfield Menton Fellowship has just celebrated fifty years' existence.

Set up to provide a haven for New Zealand writers in the grounds of the Villa Isola Bella, the house in Menton on the French Riviera where Mansfield lived during her final years, the fellowship has attracted many big names in our literary scene over the decades.

One of those names was the historian Michael King, and his daughter Rachel (the director of Word Christchurch) is also in the chair for this session which was the climax of the 2020 Word Christchurch Writers Spring Festival.

Five letters to Katherine Mansfield are read aloud by their authors. The letters are as varied as the writers - some funny, some reflective, some about the experience of the Côte d'Azur, some about the business of writing - and all found an appreciative audience in Christchurch.

The first author to read is Bill Manhire, who recalled his months in Menton in 2004:

Dear Katherine,

It was a remarkable time for me. The first time I'd worked as a proper full-time writer. I wrote most of the poems in a collection called Lifted. Work that benefited from memory. I'd thought of course that I'd produce Mediterranean sunshine and olive trees, but I wrote work full of New Zealand.

Which is something that you might find familiar.

I'm going to read you the first poem I wrote, and it's in the memory of Michael King the historian. When my wife and I were flying up to Auckland to make our connection to Europe, we were puzzled for a moment by the number of people on the plane who we knew.

Then we quickly realised they were all heading north for a memorial service for Michael, who had died very suddenly. The poem I write is called Opoutere, and Opoutere in the Coromandel is where Michael and his partner Maria lived.

And where Michael always seemed to me most contented and relaxed.

But he and Maria died in a most terrible car crash. Anyway, what I wanted to do is give Michael a more gentle and peaceful departure.

Opoutere (abridged here)

This is the place of posts.

A man in a boat is checking his lines.

...While behind him the estuary fills

with its acres of shine.

...January nineteen-ninety-something,…

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details