What People Have Said

“Thanks for sending me this 23rd copy of Redraft. It is an amazing example of creative consistency as good as ever before. There are some pieces that get through to the reader immediately like, ‘These two pages of my book belong to my mother ‘ – which sums up my own guilt – and ‘eyes like mine’. Then there are those like ‘Black Bird Singing’  which seem beyond the experience of teenagers, but then you remember the vastness of the backgrounds of the people who are writing. Really, ‘The Report’ sums up so well the complexity of the situations they are dealing with.

The cover artwork is a superb, an intriguing choice. Continued, wonderful standard. It implies great health and withitness in you lot, and long may it continue.

— Alan Bunn, Author & former teacher.

“I've always believed that the best resource for young (or any) writers is actually to have something to say. This then motivates the quest for the right words and form to say it with. This is borne out by the many excellent contributions to the latest issue.

Of course, all the contemporary tropes are there – social media, vapes, other drugs, race, national and international conflicts, and the imperilled planet – but underlying these so often are sincere expressions of friendship, love and compassion, as well as humour; impulses which might be summarised as hope.

In prose, the off-centre world views of Elliot Faulkner, Sayumdee Weerasinghe, Amy Cordwell and Kyan Batuwantudawe are matched by the gritty realism of Theresa Johnston and Hilarie Reid. Angus Stanbrook-Mason is at his best with the sophisticated fun of 'Why I am Not a Poet'. Creative non-fiction is well represented by Charlotte Funnell's sensitive and measured essay, 'What are you?'

Among the poets, I'm taken by more grit from Hannah Wilson and Yiyang Cao. Alex Baguley creates uniquely bizarre and sympathetic atmospheres in her two pieces. Ruby Appleby's 'Letter to Milena' is, again, sophisticated in its reading and response. Rose Leighton's 'Notes' and Anushka Dissanayake's 'Not Black. Not White' are outstanding poems, very much of their generation. In other words, infinite variety.”

— Tony Beyer, Poet & former teacher.

Details

Authors
Various
Edited by James Norcliffe, Michelle Elvy, Glyn Strange and Francine Bills

Published
2024

Version
Soft-bound
ISBN: 978-0-9951205-6-3
ISSN: 1176-1806

Availability

Available from Clerestory Press.
$7 postage within New Zealand.