‘It’s worth having a go, isn’t it?’
Shannon Spencer tells Virginia Fallon why she’s urging other Mā ori writers to enter the Sunday Star-Times short story competition.
Shannon Spencer says that in a perfect world she’d be talking about all the writing she’s been doing lately.
In that world she’d be working on a novel or maybe a collection of pieces, or even another short story like her award-winning one from last year.
But when asked what she’s been up to since that success the answer includes none of the above.
‘‘I’d love to say it was fantastic writerly things, but it isn’t. It’s been a very strange world for the past few years.’’
Spencer (Ngā ti Raukawa) won the emerging Mā ori writer category of the 2021 Sunday StarTimes short story competition with her story Tungā ne.
Based on her brother Haydn Carter who died in 2008, the work details a sister’s relationship with her brother who is battling serious health issues. Judge Patricia Grace described it as a story of love, calling it ‘‘emotive, evocative, yet at the same time understated’’.
‘‘It is fiction but kind of not fiction,’’ Spencer says from her Christchurch home.
‘‘It’s not the story I would tell if I was sitting down and recounting history to you; it’s through a lens but not too far from went on.’’
Spencer hasn’t been doing much writing lately because, as everyone knows, life just has a habit of getting in the way. A social worker, she’s taken time out to be at home with her children, taking stock of the past few pandemic years.
She’ll get back to writing at some point but in the meantime is happy to speak about how she crafted last year’s winning entry – the first time she’s entered a competition.
Spencer says she doesn’t usually plan her writing in any great detail, tending instead to sit down and let it all flow.
Tungā ne flowed easily – ‘‘when you’re talking about big emotional stuff it sits quite close to the surface’’ – and Spencer found the hardest part was making sure she didn’t upset anyone involved in the real-life story.
‘‘When a story involves other people you want to do it justice, be true to it and be respectful.’’
She spent more time editing the story than she did writing it, though once it had been edited down to its first iteration the process didn’t take particularly long.
‘‘I write it, then chuck it in a drawer, edit it and repeat.’’
Spencer says it’s extremely important that competitions like the Star-Times’ one include categories for Mā ori and Pasfika writers as their work all too often goes unnoticed. Everyone loses out when that happens; perspectives are lost and voices go unheard.
‘‘Mā ori is such an oral tradition – our stories are told, not written, but if they’re not told and passed on they’re gone.’’
And while there’s still a long way to go in the mainstream representation of those voices, Spencer says you only need to walk into a bookshop to see things are getting better. She makes a point of seeking out both NZ fiction and Mā ori writers and has found herself spoilt for choice.
‘‘There are so many brilliant, amazing, well-told stories centred in te ao Mā ori and I think that’s really cool. If I had gone seeking those same stories five years ago I wouldn’t have found them; certainly not carried or promoted by big publishers.’’
Spencer encourages everyone to enter this year’s competition, but especially Mā ori and Pasfika women. It’s an opportunity to both tell and own their stories, as well as be proud of them.
‘‘It’s worth having a go, isn’t it? You can edit bad writing, but not a blank page.’’