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Media Comment and interviews ...
Click here to read about the 2012 Summer School in The Aucklander, 30 December 2011.
Read an article on the Sunday Star-Times Short Story Awards, in which Creative Hub tutors share their favourite writing exercises, August 2011.
Sunday Star-Times Short Story Award (618.21 KB)
Click here to read about The Creative Hub and its courses in a September 2010 article in The Aucklander; voted best Community Newspaper in the Qantas Media Awards, 2008,2009
To listen to a National Radio interview with Creative Hub director John Cranna, and students on the Advanced Fiction Course, click here
Click here to read about The Creative Hub in Graham Beattie's Book Blog, Aug 2010 and here for the latest posting on Beattie's Blog in October 2011.
Click here to read about the launch of the Creative Hub on The Big Idea, the leading website for New Zealand's creative community. August 2010.
For a podcast interview on Kiwi FM's Wallace Chapman show with our founder John Cranna and Travel Writing tutor Graham Reid click here
Creative Hub students have said ...
Introduction to Creative Writing with John Cranna, December 2011
"A five-star course!"
"Very useful and enjoyable. It helped to clarify a number of issues I was unsure about, or only subconsciously aware of."
"Excellent. Really enjoyed it. Challenging, fun, exploratory. Enjoyed the fact that things were revealed slowly, week by week."
"Informative, enlightening - huge learning curve."
"Found writing in class daunting, but appreciated the challenge. The 'homework' helped establish a writing routine I plan to continue."
"I really enjoyed it. Loved the dialgoue workshop and the instruction on scene structure, which I found really helpful."
"I liked having weekly projects to work on as it encouraged me to sit and write when I have a tendency to procrastinagte otherwise."
"Really enjoyed hearing the other students' work!"
Travel Writing with Yvonne van Dongen, August-September 2011
"I really enjoyed this course. Yvonne is engaging and knowledgeable. It has given me a good insight into what is required for being a travel writer. It is hugely beneficial to hear other people’s writing as well, because you learn about your own writing voice as well as other’s. I would certainly recommend this course."
"Very informative, good structure, new skills each week. I enjoyed Yvonne’s real-life experiences – knowledge from working hands-on in the industry. I'm not normally comfortable/confident speaking out loud, but it was the best way to get feedback and learn from mistakes."
"I found the travel writing component stimulating, enjoyable and interesting. Yvonne’s enthusiasm is infectious, obviously her wide experience benefits us, and she is willing to share everything."
"Brainstorming sessions really helpful, and fun. Gained most insights through group discussion with lots of input from Yvonne."
"Yvonne was extremely open with information and provided a lot of info on structure of stories, what was expected within industry etc. I found the course challenging because I haven’t written ‘creatively’ for a while and I loved that about Yvonne’s course. I really liked that we all read out the work we had written as this helped with the learning process and challenged me even more."
30 Week Fiction Course with John Cranna
“The visiting writers were great. I also really enjoyed working with the group, and the process of reviewing and being reviewed. The group feedback was extremely useful. We quickly established trust."
“Exposure to a number of NZ writers was not only a highlight - just meeting them - but the ideas they imparted were of great interest. This gave great depth to the course.”
“The critiquing process was helpful in my development as a writer. Reading others work and seeing how they structure their work and attack problems has been invaluable. It was very helpful to see working writers and hear their insights and to benefit from their skills.”
“I liked the discipline of continuing to write and critique work. I find that process valuable and illuminating. Group feedback was very valuable, and I gained a lot of insights into my work, and it kept me motivated to progress my writing. I wouldn't have acheived much without it!”
“Everything worked. The best thing is the people in the group. We are so lucky. I think the trips to the pub afterwards (and other socialising) is an important part of it ... it builds trust and team spirit. The group to me is like 'The Inklings' - Tolkien and CS Lewis's group. What a model to base us on! We have the same structure ... but of course they had no email, so they read aloud their work!”
“I feel empowered by what I learned on the course ... There is no substitute for the Commendation, Recommendation, Commendation method we got on this course. You can't get that from any book ..."
“The weekly critiquing of work was brilliant. I liked the way theory was interspersed with this ... it was a good refresher. Although I was at first put off by the test idea, it was actually a good way to see what we retained - a surprisingly great deal!”