Read NZ Te Pou Muramura
{{distinguish|Reed Publishing}}
{{Short description|Not-for-profit organisation that promotes books and reading in New Zealand}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Use New Zealand English|date=July 2023}}
{{Infobox organization
| name = Read NZ Te Pou Muramura
| established = {{start date and age|1972}}
| founder =
| founding_location =
| type = Not-for-profit organisation
| status = Charity
| purpose = Promotion of books and reading in New Zealand
| headquarters =
| location_city =
| location_country = New Zealand
| services = Writers in Schools programme
| leader_title = Chief executive
| leader_name = Juliet Blyth (2020–){{cite web |title=Meet the team |url=https://www.read-nz.org/about/meet-the-team |website=Read NZ Te Pou Muramura |access-date=1 July 2023 |language=en}}
| leader_title2 = Board chair
| leader_name2 = Willow Sainsbury (2021–)
| website = {{Official URL|read-nz.org}}
| formerly = New Zealand Book Council
}}
Read NZ Te Pou Muramura (formerly the New Zealand Book Council) is a not-for-profit organisation that presents a wide range of programmes to promote books and reading in New Zealand. It was established in 1972 and its programmes have included supporting writers' visits to schools and enabling writers to travel to different areas of New Zealand.
History
The organisation was established as the New Zealand Book Council in 1972 as a response to UNESCO's International Book Year.{{cite web|title=International Book Year|url=http://portal.unesco.org/en/ev.php-URL_ID=32391&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html|last=|first=|date=|website=|publisher=UNESCO|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190710005315/http://portal.unesco.org/en/ev.php-URL_ID%3D32391%26URL_DO%3DDO_TOPIC%26URL_SECTION%3D201.html|archive-date=2019-07-10|accessdate=31 October 2013}} Author Fiona Kidman was the founding secretary of the organisation. The original purposes of the organisation included to bring together different parts of the book industry (including writers, booksellers, teachers, publishers and librarians), and to encourage reading in New Zealand.{{cite news |last1=Kidman |first1=Fiona |title=Dame Fiona Kidman: The heart of the matter |url=https://thespinoff.co.nz/books/09-11-2022/dame-fiona-kidman-the-heart-of-the-matter |access-date=1 July 2023 |work=The Spinoff |date=9 November 2022 |language=en}}{{cite news |title=Book Council defines aims |url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19721211.2.177 |access-date=1 July 2023 |work=The Press |date=11 December 1972}}{{cite encyclopedia |last=Wattie |first=Nelson |editor1-last=Robinson |editor1-first=Roger |editor2-last=Wattie |editor2-first=Nelson |encyclopedia=The Oxford Companion to New Zealand Literature |title=New Zealand Book Council, The |url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/acref/9780195583489.001.0001/acref-9780195583489-e-867 |access-date=2 July 2023 |date=2006 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-1917-3519-6 |oclc=865265749 |doi=10.1093/acref/9780195583489.001.0001}} In December 1972 the organisation advertised for founding members, with a year's membership costing {{NZ$}}3.{{cite news |title=N.Z. Book Council Foundation Membership Invited |url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19721202.2.84.1 |access-date=1 July 2023 |work=The Press |date=2 December 1972 |page=10}}
In the 1980s the organisation spoke out against books being subject to New Zealand's GST (goods and services tax), saying this was in breach of international agreements.{{cite news |title=Tax on books opposed |url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19820426.2.60 |access-date=1 July 2023 |date=26 April 1982 |page=6}}{{cite news |title=Committee opposes GST on books |url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19850710.2.104 |access-date=1 July 2023 |work=The Press |date=10 July 1985 |page=22}} Roger Douglas, then Minister of Finance, said in response that there were no good grounds for books to be exempted from the tax.{{cite news |title=GST will apply to books—Minister |url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19850816.2.56 |access-date=1 July 2023 |work=The Press |date=16 August 1985 |page=5}}
In 2014 and 2015 the organisation ran the "Great Kiwi Classic" event together with the Auckland Writers Festival, asking readers to nominate their favourite New Zealand classic novel. In 2014 the bone people by Keri Hulme was selected,{{cite news |title=Name your Great Kiwi Classic Mansfield to Mahy, Crump to Catton -- all books will be considered |access-date=1 July 2023 |work=Hawkes Bay Today |url=https://www.proquest.com/newspapers/name-your-great-kiwi-classic-mansfield-mahy-crump/docview/1658160651/se-2? |date=3 February 2015 |page=A15}} followed in 2015 with Owls Do Cry by Janet Frame.{{cite news |title=‘Owls Do Cry’ voted Great Kiwi Classic |url=https://www.booksandpublishing.com.au/articles/2015/03/18/32607/owls-do-cry-voted-great-kiwi-classic/ |access-date=1 July 2023 |work=Books+Publishing |date=18 March 2015 |language=en-AU}}
In 2017, the organisation commissioned a survey into New Zealanders' reading habits, and found that around 400,000 New Zealanders had not read a book in the previous year.{{cite news |last1=van Beynen |first1=Jack |title=Survey finds 400,000 New Zealand adults didn't read a book in 2016 |url=https://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/books/95181375/survey-finds-400000-new-zealand-adults-didnt-read-a-book-in-2016 |access-date=1 July 2023 |work=Stuff |date=29 July 2017 |language=en}} The survey was repeated in 2018 and again in 2022; in 2018 it found a slight decline in reading by adults, and that 57% of all readers had read a New Zealand book in the previous year.{{cite news |title=Fewer adults crack a book |url=https://www.proquest.com/newspapers/fewer-adults-crack-book/docview/2096652860/se-2? |access-date=2 July 2023 |work=Wanganui Chronicle |date=31 August 2018 |page=A4}} The 2022 survey found that men's reading continued to fall.{{cite news |title=New Zealand men's reading rates continuing to drop |url=https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/sunday/audio/2018833107/new-zealand-men-s-reading-rates-continuing-to-drop |access-date=2 July 2023 |work=Radio New Zealand |date=6 March 2022 |language=en-nz}}
In 2019, the organisation changed its name to Read NZ Te Pou Muramura.{{Cite web|title=New Zealand Book Council becomes Read NZ Te Pou Muramura|url=https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/CU1909/S00050/new-zealand-book-council-becomes-read-nz-te-pou-muramura.htm|last=|first=|last2=|first2=|date=2019-09-04|website=Scoop|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200415035746/https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/CU1909/S00050/new-zealand-book-council-becomes-read-nz-te-pou-muramura.htm|archive-date=2020-04-15|access-date=2020-05-31|last3=|first3=}} The Māori language name {{lang|mi|Te Pou Muramura}} is about moving from darkness to light.
Writers in Schools and other programmes
Read NZ Te Pou Muramura runs various public event programmes that take New Zealand and international writers to venues around the country.
One programme is Writers in Schools, which takes New Zealand writers and illustrators into schools throughout the country. This programme has run since the organisation was first established in the 1970s, with Noel Hilliard the first writer to tour schools. In 1977, following the success of a pilot, 39 writers were hired to tour schools, including Sam Hunt and Denis Glover.{{cite news |title=Authors hired to talk about their work |url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19770816.2.142 |access-date=1 July 2023 |work=The Press |date=16 August 1977 |page=22}} In 2007 the programme was estimated to reach 50,000 New Zealand students each year.{{cite news |title=Bay book lovers should get ready to be WOWed |url=https://www.proquest.com/newspapers/bay-book-lovers-should-get-ready-be-wowed/docview/431692204/se-2? |access-date=1 July 2023 |work=Bay of Plenty Times |date=15 February 2007 |page=A15}} The programme is subsidised by Creative New Zealand and charitable donations.{{cite news |title=Writers in Schools – getting young New Zealanders reading again |url=https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/standing-room-only/audio/2018860132/writers-in-schools-getting-young-new-zealanders-reading-again |access-date=2 July 2023 |work=Radio New Zealand |date=25 September 2022 |language=en-nz}}
In 1997 the organisation established a yearly writers' exchange programme with Australia, to encourage readership of New Zealand books in Australia.{{cite news |title=NZ writers to Australia |url=https://www.proquest.com/newspapers/nz-writers-australia/docview/315126140/se-2? |access-date=1 July 2023 |work=Dominion |date=1 July 2000 |page=27}} Peter Wells was the first author to take part in the exchange.{{cite news |title=Writers exchange |url=https://www.proquest.com/newspapers/writers-exchange/docview/314938176/se-2? |access-date=1 July 2023 |work=Dominion |date=9 August 1997}}
The Words on Wheels initiative was an annual initiative beginning in 1998, and enabled writers to travel to a different part of rural New Zealand each year, sometimes in collaboration with local literary festivals.{{cite news |last1=McPhee |first1=Elena |title=Words on Wheels coming to Marlborough Girls' College as part of book festival |url=https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/education/81635000/words-on-wheels-coming-to-marlborough-girls-college-as-part-of-book-festival |access-date=1 July 2023 |work=Stuff |date=30 June 2016 |language=en}}{{cite news |title=Words on tour |url=https://www.proquest.com/newspapers/words-on-tour/docview/330728594/se-2? |access-date=1 July 2023 |work=The Southland Times |date=24 February 2004 |page=10}} In 2007 writer David Hill said of the programme: "Every time I do a tour I hear people say how brilliant it is to see and hear writers in the flesh. This is the New Zealand part of the New Zealand Book Council in action."{{cite news |title=Kiwi writers all set to WOW us |url=https://www.proquest.com/newspapers/kiwi-writers-all-set-wow-us/docview/431692288/se-2? |access-date=1 July 2023 |work=Bay of Plenty Times |date=28 February 2007 |page=B22}}
Other programmes have included Writers Visiting Prisons, Writers In Youth Justice, Meet the Author and Writers to Book Groups.{{cite news |title=Feted poet to speak at library |url=https://www.proquest.com/newspapers/feted-poet-speak-at-library/docview/432243808/se-2? |access-date=1 July 2023 |work=The Daily Post |date=15 July 2009 |location=Rotorua |page=A4}}{{cite news |title=Inspiring words on wheels |url=https://www.proquest.com/newspapers/inspiring-words-on-wheels/docview/431985405/se-2? |access-date=1 July 2023 |work=Hawkes Bay Today |date=29 January 2008 |page=H10}}
Writers Files and other publications
Read NZ Te Pou Muramura produces the Writers Files, an online database of profiles of New Zealand writers which is regularly updated.{{cite web |title=The Writers Files |url=https://www.read-nz.org/writers-files?pagenum=2 |website=Read NZ Te Pou Muramura |access-date=1 July 2023 |language=en}}
From 1981 to 2013 the organisation published Booknotes, a quarterly publication distributed free to members.{{cite web |title=Booknotes [electronic resource]. |url=https://natlib.govt.nz/records/21811833 |website=National Library of New Zealand |access-date=1 July 2023}} In 1995 the organisation published Bookenz: A Traveller's Guide to New Zealand Books, described by Iain Sharp as a "handy little leaflet".{{cite news |last1=Sharp |first1=Iain |title=Biblio File |url=https://www.proquest.com/newspapers/biblio-file/docview/313973649/se-2? |access-date=1 July 2023 |work=The Sunday Star-Times |date=2 May 1999 |page=F2}}
Notable people
- Maggie Barry (chair in 2007){{Cite web|title=New Zealand Book Council Announces New Chief Exec|url=https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/CU0705/S00083/new-zealand-book-council-announces-new-chief-exec.htm|date=9 May 2007|website=Scoop|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200531084731/https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/CU0705/S00083/new-zealand-book-council-announces-new-chief-exec.htm|archive-date=2020-05-31|access-date=2020-05-31}}
- Clarence Beeby (founding board member, elected president in 1978){{cite news |title=Book council post |url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19780504.2.67 |access-date=1 July 2023 |work=The Press |date=4 May 1978 |page=7}}
- Jo Cribb (chief executive, 2017–2019){{Cite web|title=Jo Cribb appointed New Zealand Book Council CEO {{!}} Booksellers New Zealand|url=http://booksellers.co.nz/book-news/jo-cribb-appointed-new-zealand-book-council-ceo|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170416193620/http://booksellers.co.nz/book-news/jo-cribb-appointed-new-zealand-book-council-ceo|url-status=dead|archive-date=2017-04-16|date=2017-04-16|access-date=2020-05-31}}
- Fiona Kidman (founding secretary, and later chair in the mid-1990s)
- Keith Sinclair (founding president, until 1978)
- Lydia Wevers (vice-president){{cite web |title=Lydia Wevers |url=https://www.read-nz.org/writers-files/writer/wevers-lydia |website=Read NZ Te Pou Muramura |access-date=1 July 2023 |language=en}}
- Robin Williams (chair in the 1990s){{DNZB|last=Priestley|first=Rebecca |id=6w5|title=Williams, Robert Martin (Robin)|access-date=1 July 2023}}
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [https://www.read-nz.org/ Read NZ Te Pou Muramura website]
- [https://www.read-nz.org/programmes/writers-in-schools/ Writers in Schools programme]
{{Authority control}}
Category:1972 establishments in New Zealand