Media Release

I think I am going to die.

Katherine Mansfield at Fontainebleau Kathleen Jones
When Miss Katherine Mansfield, the brilliant novelist, passed away the other day in almost the spring of her promise, it was in a curious little oasis in the historic Forest of Fontainebleau From The Graphic, 10 March 1923 This moving, beautifully written chapter from Kathleen Joness biography Katherine Mansfield: The Story-teller (2010), describes Mansfields last days and death at a chateau near Paris, the centre of a spiritual movement led by the mysterious Russian philosopher-mystic Georges Gurdjieff. Katherine, who has tried every conventional cure in Europe as well as the latest and most risky medical theories, with no perceivable benefit, is putting her faith in Gurdjieff as a last resort. Shes aware, in the rational part of her mind, that a thousand people a week are dying from tuberculosis, but she doesnt want to accept that she might be one of them. Here, at the Institute, people treat her as a person, not a hopeless invalid. The illness that has crept through her body and dulled her mind, obliterating her personality, absorbing too much of her energy and precious writing time, can be shrugged off and left in the corner of the room. Here she is neither Katherine Mansfield the writer, nor Mrs Murry the patient. There is only the inner life. Nothing is expected of her. 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 9781927131831 (EPUB), ISBN 9781927131848 (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

Tom Rennie is available for discussion of BWB Texts. Review copies of I think I am going to die. are available. For interviews or review copies, please contact Angela Radford: angelaradford@xtra.co.nz, 027 540 1104

About the author

Kathleen Joness published work includes radio journalism, articles for magazines and newspapers, short fiction and 10 books, a mixture of biography, general non-fiction and poetry. They include biographies of the Victorian poet Christina Rossetti, Catherine Cookson, and Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle, along with A Passionate Sisterhood, an account of the lives of women who lived with the lake poets. She divides her time between England, Italy and New Zealand.

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.