Friday, December 9, 2011

"I want to send a special thought to all writers in New Zealand"



Janet Frame shared a joke with the University Chancellor after she received the Massey University Medal, 1993 (Manawatu Standard, Photo Dionne Ward)

Janet Frame received one of Massey University’s most prestigious awards, the Massey Medal, in 1993 in recognition of her extraordinary and outstanding contribution to New Zealand literature. In her acceptance speech Janet Frame said:

"... In my mind I see the map of New Zealand and during the grim, rewarding and often lonely pursuit of words to match the vision, I am always inspired and encouraged by the inward view of the map of New Zealand (and the world too of course) and my being able to think — Ah, there, by that cape or mountain, so and so is writing poems, and there — by the snowgrass, so and so concludes a novel, and there, in the city of sails and fury, so and so begins a new novel. And these writers inspire by their very being and their act of writing, of beginning, continuing, and concluding their projected work..."

Janet Frame's speech notes are published for the first time in Janet Frame In Her Own Words (Penguin NZ, 2001) selected & edited by Denis Harold & Pamela Gordon.

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