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David Geary to take up residence at Victoria University
Playwright and author David Geary, the 2008 recipient of the Victoria University Creative New Zealand writer-in-residence programme, will be working on a play based on Mark Twain's 1895 lecture tour of New Zealand.
Geary says he is particularly interested in an incident in Wanganui when a man broke into Twain's hotel room to warn him of an assassination plot. He is keen to hear from anyone with information, especially family stories, about Twain's nationwide tour.
A dual citizen of Canada and New Zealand, Geary will return to New Zealand from Vancouver Island to take up the 12-month residency at Victoria University's International Institute of Modern Letters. The residency is co-funded by Victoria University and Creative New Zealand, with Creative New Zealand contributing $26,500 toward the 2008 residency.
As well as writing the play about Mark Twain, Geary will work on a number of other projects, including a play for children based on the university's internationally acclaimed tuatara breeding programme.
A Victoria University graduate, he is looking forward to working with students and staff of the International Institute of Modern Letters. Professor Bill Manhire, Director of the Institute, says he is delighted that a writer of David Geary's calibre is taking up the 2008 residency.
"One of the great things about David is the range of what he does. He's an example to us all. Not only is he one of our leading playwrights, he's also a fiction writer and poet of real distinction."
Of English, Scots, Irish and Māori descent, Geary grew up in the Manawatu and is the author of numerous successful plays, including Pack of Girls and Lovelock's Dream Run. He has also written for television and his short story collection, A Man of the People, was published by Victoria University Press in 2003. In 2006 and 2007, David ran the Indigena Lab, a scriptwriting workshop for First Nation writers in Vancouver.
The 2007 writer in residence was playwright and novelist Dave Armstrong.
