Beyond The Persimmon Tree - Sample Pages

Our fifth publication and fourth anthology, Beyond The Persimmon Tree, has now been published.

This page is an enticement for you to buy the book. It includes the the About the Anthology page, the Front and Back Flaps, the Back Cover and a list of the contributing authors and poets. How to Buy is at the end of this page.

The Front Cover

Beyond The Persimmon Tree

Fiction, non-fiction and poetry
from members of
the International Writers' Workshop

Edited by Sue Courtney and Carol Squires

Published by International Writers' Workshop NZ Inc
November 2010
ISBN 978-0-473-17871-0

About The Anthology

The publication of the fourth IWW Anthology, Beyond the Persimmon Tree, has been made possible by a generous bequest from the Jocelyn Grattan Charitable Trust.

Kathleen Grattan, a journalist and former editor of the New Zealand Woman's Weekly, died in 1990. She was a member of the Titirangi Poets and her work was published in Landfall and Premier Poets. Her daughter Jocelyn Grattan, who also worked for NZWW, shared her mother's love of literature.

Jocelyn left International Writers' Workshop an annual bequest of which 20 percent is to be used to conduct an annual poetry competition for IWW members in memory of her mother. This is the Kathleen Grattan Prize for a Sequence of Poems, first competed for in 2009, and Alice Hooton's winning sequence, America, leads this Anthology.

The remainder of the bequest is for general running of the Workshop. At our Annual General Meeting in 2009, our members voted to use some of the bequest to produce this Anthology.

In addition, two other prizes were established in 2010. They are the Jocelyn Grattan Prize for Fiction, and the Jocelyn Grattan Prize for Creative Non-fiction. The winning entry in the Jocelyn Grattan Prize for Creative Non-fiction, Beverley Newton's Collections, also appears in this Anthology.

Most of the other entries within the Anthology are winning and placed entries from the International Writers' Workshop annual competitions.

The Anthology is named after one of the winning short stories.

Front Flap

The International Writers' Workshop was formed in 1976 by Barbara B. Whyte, noted New Zealand poet and writer.

We are 'International' in that we have had affiliation with writer groups in Israel and Australia while our multi-cultural national membership is diverse with ages ranging from school to retirement.

Aiming to foster and encourage would-be writers, the Workshop caters for those who wish to express themselves confidently and professionally by writing, whether it be a letter to the local newspaper, placing a manuscript for publication, or writing personal memoirs. Members also have the opportunity to read their own work at Workshop meetings.

There are several annual competitions for members of the Workshop to enter with themes covering fiction, non-fiction and poetry, including the Kathleen Grattan Prize for a Sequence of Poems. Much of the work in this Anthology was written for our competitions.

Anyone at all interested in any aspect of writing is welcome at IWW and prospective members may attend two meetings before deciding to join.

Details of our meeting times and venue, currently on the North Shore of Auckland, are on our website www.iww.co.nz.

Back Flap

Barbara Whyte was a steady and guiding light to members of the International Writers' Workshop, which she founded in 1976, acting as Secretary until her death in 1986. Though poetry was her greatest love, Barbara was untiring in her efforts to encourage nervous prose authors to send their efforts for publication. Her inspiration continues within the membership of IWW today and now, 35 years after IWW was formed, Beyond the Persimmon Tree, has come to fruition.

IWW's previous publications are
Silent Symphony                   Anthology of Verse, 1982
Seeds on a Summer Wind     Anthology, 1991
Evolving Ideas                       Anthology, 1987
The Word for Food                Recipes and Anecdotes, 2008

Beyond the Persimmon Tree has been made possible by a generous bequest from the Jocelyn Grattan Charitable Trust.

Cover Design by Alan Squires
On reading the story, Beyond the Persimmon Tree, Alan was affected by the courtyard scene – themes of dripping gold, hidden light, ghosts and the 'black skeleton'. The arresting graphic appears to change shape and focus according to where you address it from and, like a good story, it takes a while to unlock.

The Back Cover

International Writers' Workshop NZ Inc lives up to its name – it is international in membership and international in the stories and poems that its members write.

In Beyond the Persimmon Tree the stories and poems read like a colourful travelogue of adventure and experience.

From travelling around the Coromandel with a crossword to savouring the incense of spices and colourful sensations of Iran, we dine beneath an orange Australian outback sunset – then discover a mountain in Peru that's not all it's cracked up to be.

We meet immigrants arriving to the shores of their new land; go on a hair-raising cyclo ride through the clamouring streets of Vietnam and are fascinated by jive talking on a Greyhound bus. We join a black kitten with attitude on the back of a motor cycle and celebrate a winning team's success on a remote island in Greece.

We walk through the warm-scented rose gardens of Parnell and are immediately transported to the vineyards of Alsace. We read of love lost and found, and rediscovered; of murder and mystery and intrigue; of humorous anecdotes and stories with twists and stings in their tales; of runaway children, scarecrows — and ghoooooooooosts.

We hope you enjoy your journey through these pages, to return again and again to savour the warmth and the camaraderie of our fellow travellers.

www.iww.co.nz
ISBN 978-0-473-17871-0

List of Authors and Poets

Marilyn Ager Barbara Algie Nancy Ashmore Belle Robertson Avery Shirley Ayers Malcolm Bagnall Kathy Berger-Sewell Margaret Joyce Beumelburg Joy Blair Audrey Coubray Leonie Couper Sue Courtney Gillian Dowling Norma Fulton Dianne Gardner Estelle Geddes Bev Gomez Neil Gunderson Alice Hooton

Barbara Lucy Hosken Joyce Irving Leah Padowich Jacobson Gay Johnson Betty Kneller Mary Mark-Brown Fay McKee Nola McRae Beverley Newton Jacqueline Crompton Ottaway Iris Page Roz Percy Peter Sheppard Tom Shiels Elaine Souster Carol Squires Margaret Wilkins Jennie Wilkinson Margaret Wiltshire

How to Buy

Beyond the Persimmon Tree is now just $15.00 for one copy (including postage and packaging within New Zealand) with discounts for IWW members.
Click here to download an order form (PDF format).