The Raglan iHub is a gallery as well as a shop. Alongside beautiful pounamu by Raglan Taonga, copper, silver and beads by Metal Moon, scented soaps, and fine art paintings and prints, you’ll find great reads by local authors.
The Raglan Inkspillers Writers’ Collective was formed in 2019 with a desire to raise the profile of writers and writing in our community. The second priority was to look at shared marketing, publicity and promotional possibilities for the books already written and for the new work being planned and written.
The success of the eight published writers and illustrators, all of whom live in Raglan, is shown in the wide range of genres they cover … poetry, memoir, science fiction, children’s books, novels, self-help and inspirational works, and music. They do their own thing, but also do things together, including holding Raglan book-based events as well as finding avenues to promote and sell their work further afield.
Sarah Johnson is a member of the Read NZ Te Pou Muramura Writers in School Programme, and frequently visits schools in the Waikato and Auckland to talk about books, stories and the joy of reading. Her books are published in New Zealand, Europe and Asia.
The Bold Ship Phenomenal was shortlisted in the New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults, and received a Storylines Notable Book Award in 2016. The Spaghetti Giraffe received a Storylines Notable Book Award 2018.
Matt Kambic’s journey from a science-fiction and fantasy obsessed youth in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, eventually led to the Waikato and Everest Rising, begun over two decades ago as a screenplay. It was released in 2017 as a novel and won two awards, including the New Zealand Mountain Book & Film Festival award for Best Fiction.
Matt has since illustrated The Walking Stick’s Story (written by Alison Annals), Letter to a Weta (written by Lee Kimber), and Last Voyage of the S.S. Panglossian (co-written with Matt Kennedy).
Set on the extraordinary world stage of a high-seas adventure, two authors present their experiences as rites of passage through love and self-realisation. In both cases their determination to find meaning on an ocean wave turn into adventures that are both illuminating and disturbing.
Bernadette Marama Gavin’s By the Light of the Moon explores the ramifications of the decision to join a solo sailor on his quest to circumnavigate the globe on a small sailboat. The “Anchors in an Open Sea” trilogy of books by Dyana Wells spans from family life to Buddha Dharma, and all the stages in between.
It took Merren Tait a number of decades to realise her creative passion, but after studying literature, teaching literature, and sharing the love of it as a librarian, she figured it would only be a matter of time before the author within burst out. The Year of the Fox was released after a year of feverish writing in her spare time and won an international award. It has been optioned for television adaptation.
Merren’s books are in the chick lit genre. She explains she discovered it relatively recently after laying aside her literary snobbery. She loves an entertaining chick lit book, and while enjoying lighter ones tends to make her novels as meaningful as they are funny.
You can learn more about the Inkspillers authors and their books at their website: www.inkspillers.org
The Raglan iHub Information Centre is run by a group of dedicated volunteers. If you’d like to know more, or become a volunteer, you can pop into the iHub between 10 and 3 for a chat. Or contact Jacqueline via jacqueline@raglanihub.nz. And don’t forget to check the website www.raglanihub.nz for more information about products and services.
