Presented by the Queenstown Writers Festival, Auckland-based Dominic Hoey — author of the darkly comic, punch-in-the-guts 2022 novel Poor People With Money, which introduced readers to poverty, gangsters and P-dealing north of the Bombay Hills — will run the workshops next Friday and Saturday.
Hoey, in many ways, is an unlikely novelist and creative writing teacher.
He’s dyslexic, couldn’t read or write until he was 8 or 9, and didn’t attend university until his 30s.
He came to novel writing through rap, performance poetry and theatre, but wants to show that "writing is something that’s open to anyone who’s willing to put in the mahi".
"I always try to be the teacher I wish I had when I was young.
"I break down not only how to write, but also show them that becoming a writer isn’t magic.
"I love giving people the tools to be able to tell their stories, and seeing the excitement when young people start to put their life into words."
Next Friday’s workshop’s for rangitahi from Wakatipu High, Mount Aspiring and Cromwell colleges.
It’s timed to ensure year 11 to 13 students can attend, given this year’s festival, running from November 1 to 3, clashes with the NCEA exam period, while the rangitahi category of this year’s writing comp will also run earlier to make it easier for high schoolers to participate.
Then, next Friday night, Hoey will perform with local poets Bethany Rogers and Julian Noel at Queenstown’s Sherwood from 7pm, before an open workshop next Saturday at the Beach St Mountain Club.
That’s described as a welcoming, highly-practical session that explores how to write believable characters, and make them sound like real people.
"My style is relaxed and fun, but at the same time, I’m very serious about what I’m teaching," Hoey says.
"I only teach tools I use all the time and break down really simple ways to apply them to your work.
"So the class is very practical, but also welcoming and not intimidating at all."
He’s also passionate about seeing all kinds of lives represented in words — through his small press, Dead Bird Books, he publishes work by talented people outside the traditional literary community.
"I want to read work by poor and working class people, people who didn't go to uni, people with disabilities, people who don’t come from the main centres, people who have been to prison.
"To my mind, that's where all the stories I want to read come from.”
The workshops are supported by a Central Lakes Art Support Scheme Grant, and Mountain Club.
Tickets for next Saturday’s ‘Learn to Write Good with Dominic Hoey’, which runs from 9am till noon, cost $40, while tickets for the ‘Dominic Hoey Poetry Night’, which goes from 7pm till 10pm next Friday, cost $20 — both are available via Humanitix.
