#710 ... Sleeping Writer

A segment of the Writers' Walk around the edge of the harbour ... this particular piece is beside Te Papa. The photographer of intellectual relaxation being photographed.

Wellington Writers Walk
The Wellington Writers Walk is set in one of the world’s loveliest urban land-and-seascapes. It combines a stroll along Wellington’s waterfront with the discovery of sculptural quotations from New Zealand writers – like a series of intriguing pronouncements - often in surprising and unexpected places. The concrete plaques have been designed by the internationally renowned typographer Catherine Griffiths and the benchmarks, three of them seats, by well known architect Fiona Christeller. The walk celebrates and commemorates the place of Wellington in these writers’ lives, and their place in the life of Wellington.

The walk currently commemorates nineteen authors, both past and present, including poets, novelists, playwrights and writers of prose. Besides providing recognition to some of New Zealand’s top literary authors, the walk promotes New Zealand literature to a wider public, including tourists and visitors to the capital. International comedian and raconteur Billy Connolly featured it in his televised tour of New Zealand and it is listed in the Automobile Association’s One Hundred and One Things to Do in New Zealand.

The Plaques
Commissioned in 2002
Katherine Mansfield (novelist, short fiction writer)
James K Baxter (poet)
Robin Hyde (novelist, journalist)
Bill Manhire (poet, essayist)
Bruce Mason (playwright)
Patricia Grace (novelist, short fiction writer)
Maurice Gee (novelist)
Pat Lawlor (novelist, journalist)
Vincent O'Sullivan (poet, playwright, novelist)
Lauris Edmond (poet, biographer)
Denis Glover (poet)

Commissioned in 2004
Barbara Anderson (novelist, short fiction writer)
Alistair Te Ariki Campbell (poet)
Fiona Kidman (novelist, short fiction writer)
Eileen Duggan (poet)

The Benchmarks
Commissioned in 2006
Michael King (historian, essayist)
Marilyn Duckworth (novelist)
Sam Hunt (poet, raconteur)
Louis Johnson (poet, editor)

Quotations from the Plaques

I saw the Maori Jesus
walking on Wellington harbour.
He wore blue dungarees.
His beard and hair were long.
His breath smelt of mussels and paraoa.
When he smiled it looked like the dawn.
James K Baxter. From The Maori Jesus.

Yet I think, having used my words as the kings used gold,
ere we came by the rustling jest of the paper kings,
I who am overbold will be steadily bold,
in the counted tale of things.
Robin Hyde (Iris Guiver Wilkinson). From Words.