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Four secondary school students will have the opportunity to be mentored by one of New Zealand’s best professional authors in order to develop their craft and hone their writing skills.
The NZSA Youth Mentorship Programme offers aspiring young writers aged 15-18 a mentorship from May to November. The intent of the mentor programme is to foster and develop emerging writing talent with the support of established authors. There are four places awarded each year in the youth programme.
Dubbed a “game-changing opportunity for young writers”, applications are open until April 6.
NZSA has been running successful assessment and mentoring programmes since 1999 that aim is to nurture, encourage, inspire and develop emerging writers with the support of established writers through mentoring and assessment.
Eleazar Kenese, of Auckland, was paired with award-winning novelist, poet, journalist and editor, Mikaela Nyman.
“I feel that I made a lot of progress under this mentorship as I was introduced to new ways of writing poetry, I progressed as a writer as Mikaela helped me to explore different styles, themes and ideas and under this guidance I was able to write a poem that got published in an anthology.
\“This mentorship was extremely helpful to my progress as a writer as it also gave me a deeper understanding of the standards of poetry in terms of punctuation and purpose (using punctuation as a tool to convey an emotion or thought rather than just for readability)”.
The Youth Mentor Programme is run by the NZSA, the principal organisation representing writers in Aotearoa. They offer memberships for writers at all stages of their careers, including students. Their assessment and mentorship programmes, such as the annual Youth mentorships, are offered with the support of Creative New Zealand.
