Julie Kennedy
Author, poet, editor and historian Julie Kennedy lives in Picton and is inspired by the Marlborough Sounds and local landscape. Her book Katherine Mansfield in Picton was published in 2000 and selected by the New Zealand Society of Authors to be on display at the Frankfurt Book Fair in 2012. She compiled a Chronology of Picton and Queen Charlotte Sound (Volume 1 to 2009) for the Picton Museum and has written for numerous heritage and environmental projects. As a child, Julie lived in Tonga, where she read her way through the Tonga College Library and developed a life-long love of reading and a desire to become a writer. Julie has poetry in a number of anthologies. In 2011 she co-edited Reflections, and in 2016 edited Impressions: Picton Poets an anthology. Julie is an active member of Picton Poets and Writers of Picton and is currently working on her own poetry collection. Julie is passionate about the environment and has an organic approach to gardening and sustainable living.
2023 festival session
Katherine Mansfield in Picton
Julie Kennedy in conversation with Jane Forrest Waghorn
Katherine Mansfield’s short stories are loved by readers around the world and 100 years after her death, she remains New Zealand’s best-known writer internationally. Picton writer Julie Kennedy discusses her research into her book, Katherine Mansfield in Picton, published in 2000 and reprinted in 2016. Julie writes about how the top of the South Island helped form Mansfield. She spent school holidays at Picton and Anakiwa, and its images appeared in her letters and stories. Her grandparents were one-time residents of Picton and her great uncle Cradock Beauchamp farmed in Queen Charlotte Sound where Cobham Outward Bound now is. Hear Julie discuss KM’s connections to this region and her thoughts on why she would have loved the internet and other observations.
Julie will be selling her books for $20 after this session; no eftpos is available so please bring cash for book purchases.