Ray Shipley
Ray Shipley is an Ōtautahi-based comedian, writer, and book-pusher. In 2019, they were nominated for the Billy T Award. Ray is a repeat Christchurch Poetry Slam winner, placing third nationally in 2018. Ray Shipley's Late Night Poetry Hour is a a regular showcase for poetry and comedy.
Joanna Preston
Joanna Preston (she/her) is an Australian-born, dual citizen poet, editor and freelance writing tutor, who lives in a small rural town in Canterbury, New Zealand. Her second collection, tumble, won the Mary and Peter Biggs Award for Poetry at the 2022 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards.
Desna Wallace
Desna Wallace is a librarian, blogger, book reviewer, author and poet. She loves short form writing, verse novels and teaching young writers.
Your Summer School 2023 Workshop Tutors
Heather McQuillan
Heather writes for young people as well as writing flash fiction and poetry. She loves both the playful and problem-solving elements of writing.
Josiah Morgan
Josiah Morgan is a poet based in Ōtautahi. He is the author of two poetry collections, 'Inside the Castle' and 'Circles' as well as the forthcoming hybrid text 'Sola Virgo'. He believes in the power of words to transform things. We like to think that Josiah learned some of that as a student at Write On.
Gillian St Kevern
Gillian realised she wanted to be an author when, as a teenager, she got annoyed that the characters in the books she read didn't do what she wanted. Now she's a writer, they still don't. Gillian writes a variety of genres, ranging from short and silly contemporary romance, to urban fantasy and historical mystery.
Melanie Dixon
Melanie Dixon writes short stories, flash fiction, novels for children, poetry and creative non-fiction. A New Dawning: The Edge of Light Book 1 is available from October 2022.
Philomena Johnson
Philomena is poet and teacher of writing. Her work with poetry in two voices has been exciting our young writers at Saturday classes so we are delighted that Philomena is bringing it to Summer School. We will get a photo here soon!
