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13 Dec 2024
Reading Palestine
Friday December 13, 5.30pm - 8pm
As part of the Stitching Solidarity project -We are holding a very special poetry event here at Library.Reading PalestineFeaturing readings from Rushi Vyas, Hera Lindsay Bird, Lynley Edmeades, Pamela Morrison and Rauhina Scott- Fyfe.Friday 13th December. Doors open at 5.30pm for a 6pm start.All welcome.For more information –Stitching Solidarity & the Aotearoa Solidarity Quilt will be weaving a circle of arohaNUI around the Octagon in Ōtepoti next week. If you’re based in Ōtepoti and would like to be involved or learn more reach out via dm to this account or email aotearoasolidarityquilt@gmail.comAll events are free and accessible to all. Fundraising QR codes for MAPs and UNICEF will be available at each location.
Stitching Solidarity is a collective kaupapa led by artists and arts workers across the motu. The activities aligned with this kaupapa are dedicated to building kotahitaka with Palestinian whānau in Aotearoa me Te Waipounamu and to elevating awareness of Palestinian cultural heritage. -
01 Nov 2024
Zine Panel Discussion.
Friday November 1, 6.00 pm - 7.30 pm
It’s the annual Dunedin Zine festival and the Athenaeum Library are hosting a Zine Panel Discussion-
“NZ Punk and Zines”
Featuring: Always Never Fun, Daily Secretion, Landover Press, Kowhitikaru, Nerd Bird and
David Merrit.
All welcome. Free to attend.
Friday 1st November, 2024.
Doors at 5.30pm.
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02 Aug 2024
A talk by Denys Trussell
Friday August 2, 5.30 - 6.30
You are invited to a talk by the poet, environmentalist and biographer, Denys Trussell, concerning his recent book, Albatross Neck. This is a work both of prose and poetry, illustrated extensively by the Dunedin-based painter, Nigel Brown. The talk concerns the vital interaction between the arts and the environment. Why the title Albatross Neck? It refers to Coleridge’s Rime of the Ancient Mariner, one of the earliest ecological poems in English. In it, the mariner, who shot the albatross, has the dead bird hung around his neck by his crew-mates to induce his guilt in needlessly killing a living being.
Trussell, a long-time author and ecological campaigner, helped establish, in 1975, Friends of the Earth in Aotearoa New Zealand. He still works for them. His ecological writings have been published in Britain, France, Germany, the USA and Aotearoa New Zealand. While working in London he edited a definitive philosophical work, The Way, An Ecological World View by Edward Goldsmith, the activist who established The Ecologist magazine, still publishing in several countries.
Trussell’s biography of the New Zealand poet, ARD Fairburn, won the PEN Best First Book of Prose in 1985; his fifth book of poems, Walking into the Millennium, was short-listed in the Montana Book Awards in 1999; his Collected Poems was published in 2019. Albatross Neck, his fifteenth book, discusses how the arts are a seedbed of ecological ideas and environmental activism.
There will be time for discussion of the material Denys presents. The book will be available for viewing at the talk.
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04 Jul 2024
Book Launch- Rere Takitahi Flying Solo
Thursday July 4, 6pm - 8pm
Come to the Athenaeum and celebrate the launch of a new anthology of collected writings on the experience of solo parenthood and differently-structured families in Aotearoa New Zealand. This event will feature readings from local contributors.All welcome, light refreshments provided.Arrive from 5.30pm for a 6pm start.ABOUT THE BOOK:
Including over fifty writers from diverse ethnic and demographic communities (representing parents/grandparents/matua, offspring/rangatahi, educators, doctors, social workers, researchers, creatives and other disciplines) ‘Rere Takitahi/Flying Solo’ eviscerates the lived experience of an often neglected and misunderstood sector of society, focusing attention on aspects of their lives that will resonate with readers who have experienced similar.From Katherine Mansfield’s sinister story about an abandoned, single mother trying to survive in early 19th century rural New Zealand, to Jess Young’s moving poem about wet nappies hanging throughout the house while her milk lets down during her WINZ appointment, to Fiona Farrell’s intellectually disabled Skinny Louie, who births her child all alone in the orchid house at the Dunedin Botanic Gardens, to Alexandra Balm’s mother and son migrating to New Zealand from eastern Europe, to Michael Botur’s solo father going to great lengths to support his little girl, ‘Rere Takitahi/Flying Solo’ explores the fates of alternatively-structured families and single parents through short and micro-fiction, essay, memoir, poetry and reportage.–ABOUT THE EDITORS:JCL Purchase (aka Jenny Purchase) is a senior secondary teacher of English, French, and ESOL but has also taught an eclectic range of subjects in the tertiary sector. Possessing extensive academic and business writing experience, since completing a master’s degree in creative writing at AUT in 2010, and a further Post-Graduate Diploma in Communication Studies in 2011, she has branched increasingly into creative writing, scriptwriting, reviewing and article writing. Some of her work has been published in journals, publications, anthologies, and online, and she released a collection of short stories, ‘Transit Lounge’ in 2022 (Lasavia Publishing). One of Jenny’s short stories received Creative New Zealand funding for a short film. She has also received special mentions in the Katherine Mansfield Short Story Competition and the Aeon Competition. She is currently working on an epic historical novel in the classic tradition and a memoir/philosophical reflection on her life and times. She campaigns tirelessly for magazines, newspapers, and periodicals to publish more short fiction and poetry.AJ (Angela) Woolf is a writer and artist living in Marlborough. She has published short stories and currently has four novels ready for publication. Several of Angela’s short stories and novels have reached the finals in competitions such as the Michael Gifkins Prize, and she received third place in the Zephyr Short Story Competition in 2020.Both editors are former solo parents and members of alternative families.See less -
14 Oct 2023
Dunedin Writers & Readers Festival
Saturday October 14, 3.30pm - 5.30pm
The programmes for this wonderful event are available at the Athenaeum.
There is also one event being held at the Athenaeum. On Saturday 14th October at 3.30pm. $20/15.
Radiant Revelry – Celebrating Katherine Mansfield’s Timeless Legacy.
On her birthday, and to commemorate the centenary year of her death, we celebrate the life and work of Katherine Mansfield, New Zealand’s iconic, boundary-pushing literary giant.
Get ready for an afternoon of sensory delight, in the cosy heritage surroundings of the Athenaeum Library. We will be transported back in time by a cello and violin duo performing the classical music that Mansfield loved.
We’ll then move to a fascinating and in-depth conversation between chair Michelle Elvy and Katherine Mansfield biographer Redmer Yska – author of Katerine Mansfield’s Europe: Station to Station.
To be followed by a gorgeous afternoon tea of inspired cupcakes by massive Mansfield fan, Dunedin cake artist Alby Hailes, at which the winners of the inaugural At the Bay I I te Kokoru story awards will be announced by Emma Neale.
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05 Oct 2023
Otepoti Dunedin Heritage Festival
Thursday October 5 - Sunday October 15, 9am - 5pm
As a part of the Otepoti Dunedin Heritage Festival the Athenaeum will be holding an open day on Saturday the 7th of October from 12 noon to 2pm.
Members are welcome to come in during that time to change their books.
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21 Sep 2023
World Peace Day Readings
Thursday September 21, 6pm - 7pm
For the second year the Athenaeum was the venue for the World Peace Day Readings. We had a nice turn out to listen to readings from three authors.
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23 Dec 2020
Christmas/Summer Holiday Dates
Wednesday December 23 - Wednesday January 27, 5pm - 10am
The Athenaeum Library is closed from the 24th of December and reopens on Wednesday the 27th of January 2021
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29 Nov 2020
Celebrating 150 Years of the Dunedin Athenaeum Library
Sunday November 29, 3pm - 5pm
Birthday Cake & Bubbles
Celebrating the 150th anniversary of the Athenaeum Building with a series of Lightning Talks and birthday cake and bubbly.
Seats are limited so please RSVP to: librarian@dunedinathenaeum.org.nz
Followed by a Celebration Dinner
Drinks from 5.30pm for dinner at 6pm ‘Vault 21’, The Octagon
Ticketed Dinner: $45 (members), $59 (non-members) / Cash Bar
Purchase from the Librarian during opening hours
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16 Sep 2018
Dan Davin – A Field Officer’s Notebook
Sunday September 16, 2pm - 4pm
Dan Davin was born and grew up in Southland. He attended Otago University and became a Rhodes Scholar to Oxford graduating just before the start of WWII. He joined up immediately first with the Royal Warwickshire Regiment and then transferred to the NZ Division in 1940 where he saw action in Crete. He then joined Military Intelligence, 8th Army HQ in Cairo.
You may have heard the recent reading on National Radio New Zealand of Dance of the Peacocks by James McNeish which included Davin as one of a notable group of Rhodes Scholars from between the wars.
A Field Officer’s Notebook is a collection of his poetry from this time which has been edited by Robert McLean.
We are very lucky to have Fiona Farrell, Vincent O’Sullivan, Robert McLean, Roger Hickin and Tony Eyre speaking about this charismatic writer who influenced many generations of New Zealanders through his open door policy towards travelling Kiwis as much as his writing.
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12 Jun 2018
Frame Your Lunch
Tuesday June 12 - Tuesday December 18, 12.10pm - 12.30pm
A series of Winter readings of Janet Frame’s autobiography To The Is-Land. Held every Tuesday until we finish the trilogy.
Bring your lunch and discover the pleasure of being read one of New Zealand’s greatest writers.
This is a FREE EVENT open to Athenaeum members and non-members…
