While wandering through a book store many years ago, a stranger suggested Owen Marshall's stories. I scanned a few pages, then a few more, bought it, and have been a fan ever since.
I was browsing at Vancouver's Holt Renfew recently, when Victoria Beckham (et entourage) arrived to promote her new clothing range. How exciting, yes, but all shopping had to cease as the store floor quickly disappeared beneath the feet of admirers. I barely spotted her little figure through waving arms, iPhones, and flashing lights. She didn't speak, didn't wave, didn't even smile at the desperate crowd.
A woman next to me asked if people were this "crazy about celebrities" where I came from.
"Well," I said, " ... there aren't really any famous people in New Zealand. So, no."
What I meant was that we don't have celebrities in that way of the word. We do, of course, have talented individuals who deserve to be well-known and even revered for their achievements. Within our wee country, we have scientists, teachers, professionals, innovators, artists, and a whole bunch of so-called everyday people who deserve more attention than a tight-lipped lady with a flair for fluoro-fashion and a past-life as "Posh".
Meeting Owen Marshall was, for me, much more exhilarating than spotting Beckham. Thanks to my lovely auntie, I attended his keynote speech at last Wednesday's New Zealand Association of Teaching English conference.
As he approached the lectern, he displayed a tiny black sink plug, hanging from a silver chain. The plug, he explained, was from the home of Janet Frame. At this mention of Frame - a favourite - perhaps only two lines into the talk, I knew this would be the very best speech I'd ever heard.
Marshall's message was straightforward: the rewards, no, the necessity! of reading. His prose and delivery were beyond impressive. Structured, fluid, insightful, delightful. The type of talking that alters attitudes within an hour. I briefly envied Canterbury students.
Later last week, Sam Hunt shared his similarly infectious passion for words with local audiences, albeit in a different manner altogether.
How lucky we are to have such literary talent! But, where's our next generation of story writers and poets?
Or, maybe it's more pressing to ask, where's our next generation of literary consumers?
In the conference's opening speech, Prof Lyn Tribble proposed that if William Shakespeare had been born a century earlier - born into a city without any major literary scene, any accessible means of publication, or stimulating contemporaries - it's unlikely he'd have become much of a "Shakespeare" at all.
What if, I wondered, Shakespeare had been born 400 years later ... is it very far-fetched to claim that many of the same obstacles are present today?
In the fashion of typical New Zealand artists, Marshall and Hunt were both willing to have a chat, to sign piles of books, to pose and smile for photographs.
In addition to all their success, their friendliness is to be admired.
Is it fair to assume that such artists will inevitably create themselves?
Regardless, it's reassuring to see existing talent take the time to pass the proverbial torch: "Someone said, just yesterday, 'Some fires you can't put out'."
• Katie Kenny studies English at the University of Otago.
