Media Release

Creeks and Kitchens

A Childhood Memoir Maurice Gee
My special nouns are creek and kitchen. Two very ordinary words but for me they are the most suggestive in the language and at certain times, when Im properly receptive, they can start me on all sorts of journeys. Creek and kitchen are the poles that I moved between for most of my childhood. Widely regarded as one of New Zealands greatest fiction writers, Maurice Gee has written virtually no nonfiction. The exceptions are the two exquisite childhood reminiscences combined here into a memoir in this BWB Text. In this little known work, Gee describes in fascinating detail his boyhood and family life in West Auckland and offers illuminating insights into some of the creative forces which have driven some of his fiction: the creek with its dangers where, he writes, he glimpsed sex and death the kitchen with his mother preparing dinner in the gathering dark, and his elderly uncle, later the model for the magnificent Plumb. BWB Texts offer a new form of reading for New Zealanders. Commissioned as short digital-only works, BWB Texts unlock diverse stories, insights and analysis from the best of our past, present and future New Zealand writing.

Publishing Wednesday 3 April 2013 RRP$4.99 ISBN 9781927131770 (EPUB), ISBN 9781927131787 (KINDLE) Available direct from www.bwb.co.nz and from major retailers including Amazon, Kobo and eBooks.com Also available as a bundle with other BWB Texts from the BWB website

About the author

Maurice Gee is widely regarded as one of New Zealands greatest authors, for both adults and children. He has received numerous awards, nominations and grants for his adult fiction, including the Wattie Award and the Montana Award, and also for his young adult and childrens books. In 2004 he received a Prime Ministers Award for Literary Achievement. His adult novels include the Plumb trilogy, Going West, Prowlers, Live Bodies and Blindsight. Tom Rennie is available for discussion of BWB Texts. Review copies of Creeks and Kitchens: A Childhood Memoir are available. For interviews or review copies, please contact Angela Radford: angelaradford@xtra.co.nz, 027 540 1104

For more information or a review copy, contact publicist Angela Radford P O Box 12474, Wellington 6144 Phone: 04 473 8128 Email: info@bwb.co.nz www.bwb.co.nz Phone: 09 579 7351 Mobile: 027 540 1104 Email: angelaradford@xtra.co.nz

What are BWB Texts?

A BWB Text is a short, digital-only piece of highquality New Zealand writing, produced swiftly and distributed globally online. Read on smart phones and e-readers, tablets and desktop computers, BWB Texts connect an exploding online readership to some of New Zealands best authors, reading and ideas. BWB Texts draw on the publishing expertise of Bridget Williams Books to bring readers an exciting mix of New Zealand reading: cutting edge commentary sits alongside reflective narrative, debate alongside history, articles follow memoir, and information precedes stories. Launching with Paul Callaghan: Luminous Moments, the first set of BWB Texts now includes: Maurice Gees Creeks & Kitchens: A Childhood Memoir, Rebecca Macfies Report from Christchurch (in association with the New Zealand Listener), and Kathleen Joness I think ... I am going to die.: Katherine Mansfield at Fontainebleau. More BWB Texts, including Hamish Campbells The Zealandia Drowning Hypothesis and Sir Tipene ORegans New Myths and Old Politics, will be released regularly throughout 2013.

How will BWB Texts work?

The BWB Texts programme is inspired by emerging overseas publishing models focused on short form digital-only works, often referred to as e-singles. Sharing similar characteristics as these offshore initiatives, BWB Texts are short digital-only works, produced quickly to ensure topicality, retailed at low cost, and distributed to the widest range of devices possible. BWB Texts are crafted in-house at BWB using a digital production workflow powered by Infogrid Pacific, with covers from Base Two. The strength of BWBs commissioning strategy based on providing excellent research and writing about New Zealand is widely recognised. BWB Texts build from this expertise, using the flexibility of this new approach to provide readers with a broad sweep of topics: New Zealand history; contemporary issues; biography and autobiography; other New Zealand narrative non-fiction (for example, travel writing and science). BWB Texts are available directly and DRM-free from our website (www.bwb.co.nz), in addition to a wide range of retailers including Amazon, Kobo and eBooks.com. Bundled sets of BWB Texts will also be made available. School, public and tertiary libraries in New Zealand and abroad will be able to purchase copies via distributors ebrary, EBL and Wheelers.

Why are BWB Texts important?

Debate new readers, new thinking BWB Texts provide a new meeting space, connecting our histories, technologies, shifting readers, emerging and established authors, and our shared futures. Quality serious writing amidst the online noise The internet is disrupting the quality and nature of our reading. BWB Texts help connect important ideas and a readership confronted with the noise of modern media. Silence the challenges facing media BWB Texts represent a response to these challenges, one that draws on these technological shifts to nurture great writing, both as BWB Texts and within the wider BWB publishing programme. Global immediate and crossing boundaries Produced within weeks and worldwide in distribution, BWB Texts broadcast New Zealand voices and stories across boundaries.

Who is behind BWB Texts?

BWB Texts was instigated by publisher Tom Rennie and journalist Max Rashbrooke, in partnership with BWBs director Bridget Williams. The trio became a quartet with Geoff Walker bringing years of New Zealand publishing experience to the team as commissioning editor alongside Max Rashbrooke. Together, we have fashioned a contemporary vision drawing on many years of strong publishing experience.

Acknowledgement
We would like to acknowledge the funding support of the BWB Publishing Trust (www.bwbpublishingtrust. org.nz) that makes this new digital imprint possible.