Over the next few years I will clock up plenty of air miles as I travel from Dunedin to the International Institute of Modern Letters at Victoria University of Wellington where I am enrolled in a PhD in Creative Writing programme. I meet regularly with my two supervisors, Bill Manhire and Pamela Wood, and I also take part in student discussions and presentations. It’s a privilege to study and write in such a supportive environment.
I am currently working on my creative component which is a novel entitled 'Let Your Heart Be Afraid', focussing on the experiences of a group of New Zealand nurses on active service in Egypt and France during the First World War. This novel will be published by Penguin Group (NZ). My critical component explores nurses’ firsthand experiences as represented in their memoirs, historians’ representations of this material, and fiction written by several of the nurses after the war which draws on and also fictionalises their experiences.
I am currently working on my creative component which is a novel entitled 'Let Your Heart Be Afraid', focussing on the experiences of a group of New Zealand nurses on active service in Egypt and France during the First World War. This novel will be published by Penguin Group (NZ). My critical component explores nurses’ firsthand experiences as represented in their memoirs, historians’ representations of this material, and fiction written by several of the nurses after the war which draws on and also fictionalises their experiences.
