FROM THE EDITOR

YVONNE KERR

Nadia Reid can hardly believe where she’s at. Vicki Anderson captures it beautifully with a series of back-to-the-future snapshots in her cover story. In September 2011, Reid said to Vicki: “I’m touring as many little places as I can. It’s not like Jools Holland is ringing me up, wanting me to perform or anything.” Fast forward to September 2017, off the back of a world tour, a new album, and the Dunedin girl is performing live on that very show, Later... with Jools Holland –one that has catapulted so many fledgling musicians into the galaxy of superstardom. Reid has her feet firmly on the ground though, giving up alcohol to channel her creative writing even further, determined as she is to fulfil her responsibility to this one gift she believes she’s been born with

– her “magical element” – the ability to write, and the ease with which that skill comes to her.

It’s here that author Felicity Price, who writes our second feature this week, must have felt the same happiness, serenity, success, motivation – when she was offered a publishing deal with Penguin House. Price has the same magical element, one she has crafted ever since “doodling bad poems” at school. All these dreams were realised when she published her first novel, then another, and the rave reviews came, the bestseller list, and she was described as “the voice of a generation”. But Price feels her writing days are over. Commercial realities have hit her. Hard.

It’s a lesson for us all, as readers, and listeners, to support our Kiwi artists as much as we can. It’s a brave road they’re walking. And a risky one.