Hagley Writers' Institute

Could this be the year you give your writing the time it deserves?

We still have a small number of places available in our Tuesday evening (online) class for 2026.

Hagley Writers' Institute About Since 2007, the Hagley Writers’ Institute has offered a part-time creative writing course for adults in Ōtautahi/Christchurch. It also hosts one-off public workshops by local and visiting writers.  Sharing the kaupapa of Hagley College, the Institute is non-profit and welcomes adult learne...

Congratulations to our director Melanie Dixon - Writer and HWI tutor Heather McQuillan!

Could 2026 be the year you give your writing the time it deserves?

Applications now open www.hagleywriters.net

Calling all writers! Applications are now open for Hagley Writers' Institute 2026! We offer Saturday in-person classes in the Writers' Block at Hagley College, and Tuesday evening classes online for writers who live outside of Canterbury. For more information, see our website: www.hagleywriters.net
Enrolment forms available on the Hagley After-3 website. www.hagley.school.nz/after-3-enrolment-form-26/

Hagley Writers' Institute

To trash?🥺
To flaunt? Or play down
that flock of
handbag lint / spilt tea / hint of vindaloo
the relief prints might have met
since 2022?

--

Throwback four years ago when our theme was Identity / Tuakiri. This year we have CHANGE / WHAKAUMU.

Subs for Issue 8 are assembling, while the artists carve their woodblocks and linocuts, and the Ferrymead press does mechanical calisthenics. [1] Your words in print might kiss off the bonds of entropy ... for a time ... become possessed of five years' patinae (and hopefully many more).

But not if you miss our deadline!

You have one week to find one moment. 30 lines or 300 words. Something significant, something mundane; wondrous or maybe profane. One moment. And, of course, all of those that led up to it ...

Ever message yourself a character description at midnight? Wish the shower cubicle was a little more friendly to pen and paper?

What about that proto-poem you found midway through sorting your receipts? How many might we have we thrown away like that and do not even remember 🙈 and I include myself in that.

Don't let it get away.

Some things don't bear thinking about (like all the reasons to NOT send us your work)! :)

[1] ... Cover art c/o Hagley Printmaking School ...
https://www.hagley.school.nz/courses/12-printmaking/

Printed under restored mechanical hand-press by

Every Thursday we share something about Change/Whakaumu, our theme for Issue 8.

This week: some fine-sounding tips on dialogue - the change agent that moves every story forward.

"Leave out the parts readers skip"
-- Elmore Leonard, 10 Rules of Writing [1]

"sound your words—read them out loud"
"good dialogue encompasses both what is said and what is not said."
-- Anne Lamott "Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life" [2]

"The best form of dialogue attribution is 'said'"
-- Stephen King, On Writing [3]

As always, these "rules" are there to be refreshing, not to put you in handcuffs. Listen to the greats, and then go write YOUR ting in the space.

A lil secret: Characters reveal themselves by how they try NOT to. As Lamott says, "let these characters hold back some thoughts, and at the same time, let them detonate little bombs." [2]

Quick Brown Dog wants YOUR dialogue bombs for our next issue.

https://journal.hagleywriters.net/

Subs for Issue 8 close Sept 30.

[1] https://fs.blog/elmore-leonard-10-rules-of-writing/
[2] excerpt available https://lithub.com/anne-lamott-on-writing-compelling-dialogue/
[3] I did not find an excerpt of the book online. Browse it on a shelf somewhere though and you might be surprised like I was! This article talks about it in depth https://dreamerswriting.com/stephen-king-dialogue-and-adverbs-on-writing/

The Quick Brown Dog - Journal of the Hagley Writers' Institute Submissions Submissions are now open for Issue 8 of the Quick Brown Dog! Theme: Change / Whakaumu Think about change in all its forms: transitions, transformations, metamorphoses, changes of mind and of heart, change in location, and changes in ways of being. We are looking for poems (up to 30 lines...

And then their name becomes just letters on an envelope again.

Whakaumu change.

Submissions for Quick Brown Dog open until Sept 30th.

Submissions for Issue 8 are open now until Sept 30th!

The theme for this issue is 'Change / Whakaumu'.

From shower thoughts to blank paper (if you're OG). Chasing that blinking cursor down the screen. Ideas change quickly. The sudden desire to sweep behind the fridge ... writing out your unique vision in any format is a win!

We see you, and your finished-for-now piece is exactly what we want to read.

What's the strangest thing you've ever done to put off writing? Share your procrastination stories with us!

Submissions are now open for Issue 8 of the Quick Brown Dog!

Theme: Change / Whakaumu

Think about change in all its forms: transitions, transformations, metamorphoses, changes of mind and of heart, change in location, and changes in ways of being.

For more info visit

The Quick Brown Dog - Journal of the Hagley Writers' Institute Submissions Submissions are now open for Issue 8 of the Quick Brown Dog! Theme: Change / Whakaumu Think about change in all its forms: transitions, transformations, metamorphoses, changes of mind and of heart, change in location, and changes in ways of being. We are looking for poems (up to 30 lines...