Two Stories from Turn of the Tide - by Susy Pointon
Whether you're farming, fishing or just passing through, life in the Hokianga is ruled by tides. The tide reminds us that nothing is constant and secure, unless it's the knowledge that things seldom turn out the way we plan them.
Two stories selected from Susy Pointon's story collection, Turn of the Tide - Te Huringa o Te Tai.
Published by Steele Roberts NZ ISBN 978-0-947493-76-9
Susy Pointon was born in Wellington. She originally set out to be a writer and illustrator of children’s books. She studied at Elam School of Fine Arts in Auckland, where she majored in filmmaking and went on to enjoy a long career in film and television in New Zealand, Australia, Europe and the USA. She was awarded a Fellowship to study screenwriting and directing at the American Film Institute in 1976 and went on to a residency at the Australian Film and TV School in Sydney, where she worked on a number of independent films.
As a writer, she has been published in numerous literary journals and short story anthologies in Australia, New Zealand and the USA. She has been placed in numerous short story competitions, was three times a finalist in the Australian/Vogel Literary Awards (losing to Kate Grenville and Tim Winton) and won the inaugural Annie Dillard Award for Creative Non-fiction in the USA in 1996. She achieved a Masters in Creative Writing from Ohio University in 2006 while also directing and writing award winning documentaries set in Appalachia and the American South.
Since returning to New Zealand in 1997 she served as Executive Director of the New Zealand Writers Guild, tutored in writing at the University of Auckland, Whitireia, Unitec and NorthTec. Susy was awarded a PhD in New Zealand film history by the University of Auckland in 2006.
She has had around 30 short stories produced and broadcast by RNZ