The 2009 issue of online literary journal Turbine (www.vuw.ac.nz/turbine) is now live, featuring the best and freshest in New Zealand writing.

Turbine 09 includes the title essay from Can You Tolerate This? the personal essay collection by newly-announced Adam Foundation Prize winner Ashleigh Young, alongside work by 2009 Montana Best First Book of Poetry recipient, Sam Sampson, award-winning ex-pat New Zealand writer Kirsty Gunn and leading UK poet Christopher Reid.

Creative New Zealand/Victoria University 2009 Writer in Residence Paula Boock discusses the year behind her and what’s to come. Turbine 09 has fiction and poetry by writers from the renowned Iowa Writers Workshop, who will be teaching at Victoria University over the summer months. In some cases audio files bring the words to the ear as well as the eye.

Turbine 09 also offers a glimpse into the future of New Zealand writing with work from members of the 2009 MA in Creative Writing workshops at Victoria’s International Institute of Modern Letters. Victoria University’s creative writing graduates include many writers who have become prominent in the world of New Zealand literature, including Eleanor Catton, Elizabeth Knox, Jenny Pattrick, Catherine Chidgey, Tim Corballis, Paula Morris, Jenny Bornholdt, William Brandt, Barbara Anderson and Tusiata Avia.

The Reading Room delves into the mind of the emerging writer with excerpts from the journals of the 2009 intake. These include notes from ‘the reading recovery programme’ (Emma Martin), the question, ‘why do I like this book so much?’ (Carol Cromie) and the concept of ‘palaeolithic transcendence’ (Melissa Day Smith).
2009 MA workshop convenor Chris Price says, “Turbine offers a unique mix of exciting new writing and a look behind the scenes at the writing process”.

Turbine 09 (www.vuw.ac.nz/turbine) is published by the International Institute of Modern Letters, hosted by the New Zealand Electronic Text Centre, and is edited by Claire Brunette and Bill Nelson.