Jack’s Books Illustration Competition

The cover of the book "Jack's Books" by Helen Vivienne Fletcher and Denise Damanti. Cover imagery includes an illustration of a young boy and a robot made out of books.

In Jack’s Books, Jack’s whole family love books. Jack likes books too - he just doesn’t like reading them. He likes to BUILD things with them.

Make your own book creation - either by drawing it or making it out of books - for a chance to win a copy of the book. Join us for the Jack’s Books Book Launch to find out the winners!

Terms and Conditions

1) Open to children aged 12 and under anywhere in New Zealand. If there are sufficient numbers, entries will be judged in age categories.

2) Images of entries must be emailed to helenvivienne@hotmail.com by a parent, teacher or caregiver.
Please include:
- the subject line “Jack’s Books Illustration Competition”
- the full name and age of the entrant
- name and contact details of the adult submitting the entry
- the image as an attachment (please no links).

3) Entries must be received by 11.59pm Wednesday 4th December. Late entries will not be considered for the prize.

4) For illustrations, please send a scan or photo of your drawing. For creations made out of books, please send a photo. Make sure your photo is in focus!

5) If building something, please make sure you have permission to use the books before starting!

6) Winners will be announced at launch for Jack’s Books:
Sunday 8th December, 10.30am
The Children's Bookshop
Shop 26, Kilbirnie Plaza
Kilbirnie, Wellington
RSVP books@thechildrensbookshop.co.nz

7) Images of the entries may be posted on Helen’s website and social media with the child’s first name and age. By entering the competition, you consent to the images being published in this way. Children’s surnames will not be published online, but the winner’s full name will be announced at the launch event.

8) Entrants are encouraged to attend the launch event, but the prize can be posted out after the event if unable to attend. It is the responsibility of the adult submitting the entry to check for emails (including their spam folder) and to provide a postal address in a timely manner. If this information is not provided within a reasonable timeframe, this may result in forfeit of the prize.

Upcoming Events

November is going to be a very busy month, with lots of reading, speaking and teaching engagements. Check out the events I’ll be appearing at below.

Poetry

A woman in a pink patterned dress stands in front of a mic, her lips are pursed mid speaking, and she is gesturing.

DAT Online Poetry Night.

Zoom into Sunday evening’s poetic parlour and let the words wash over you. With a mixture of live and pre-recorded pieces, vital voices give verse to their world.

WHEN: Sunday 3rd November, 5.30-7pm (NZ Time)
WHERE: Online
TICKETS: Pay What You Can $5-$40

Panel Discussions

Disability Literati: Writing for children (for VERB Festival)

A pink illustration of books, with the text Disability Literati Writing for Children and Young People.

Children's literature has a history of presenting disabled kids as life lessons, plucky objects of pity, grotesque enemies, or simply absent. Where do we find the disabled adventurers and learners, heroes and family members, written for disabled and non-disabled young people alike? 


WHEN: Sunday, 10 November 2024, 10:30-11:30 am
WHERE: Embassy Theatre
TICKETS: from $15

Let’s Talk About DAT! Access in the Arts Panel Discussion (for DAT Fest)

The logo for the DAT Festival.

Three artists with disabilities discuss how accessibility needs to be at the forefront of arts. With a performance from each panellist that leads into conversations about access.

WHEN: Tuesday 12 November 2024 6-8 pm
WHERE: Te Auaha Institute of Creativity
TICKETS: Pay What You Can $5-$40

Classes and Workshops

Write DAT Story (for DAT Fest)

Online
Wednesday 6th November, 10.30am-12noon

Writing for Children

Wellington High School Community Education Centre
Saturday 9th November, 9.30am-4.30pm

Creative Writing From Idea to Page

Wellington High School Community Education Centre
Saturday 16th November, 9.30am-3.30pm

Find the details on the websites. Hope to see you there!




Confession of a Sleepwalking Insomniac

DATE: 05-09 June
TIME: 6.30pm Wed-Sat, 4pm Relaxed Sunday Matinee
VENUE: The Stage, BATS Theatre, Wellington, NZ
TICKETS: $15-40

A sniper just shot a bullet through Briar’s window.

Or… Briar had a nightmare and went crashing into a solid wooden door. Hopefully the MRI machine can tell her which.

Briar’s always been a sleepwalker, but when a new relationship sends her sleep disorder into overdrive, it’s not just her REM cycle that suffers. Briar’s grip on reality is slipping, and her life is coming apart with it. Her one hope is the possibility of an assistance dog, but with injuries a nightly occurrence and her girlfriend’s patience wearing thin, will Briar live long enough to meet her furry saviour?

Based on the true story of a series of things that didn’t really happen, playwright Helen Vivienne Fletcher draws on her lifetime of sleep misadventures in this solo play.

Falling asleep, or falling in love – which one is about to crash?

ACCESS INFO

Live Streaming, Captioning, and Audio Description are thanks to the ANZ Staff Foundation.

Wednesday June 5th 6:30pm - Opening Night
Thursday June 6th 6:30pm - Live Streamed/ Captioned Performance
Friday June 7th 6:30pm - Audio Described (Touch Tour 6pm)
Saturday June 8th 6:30pm - NZSL Interpreted Performance (NZSL Briefing 6pm)
Sunday June 9th, 4 pm - Relaxed Matinee Performance

The Stage is wheelchair accessible. Please contact BATS Theatre with any access requests.

For more about accessibility and what to expect, please see our What to Expect Doc

Information about the NZSL Interpreted Performance in NZSL

Information about the Audio Described Performance in Audio Form

CREATIVE TEAM

Performer: Pauline Ward
Director: Emma Katene
Writer and Producer: Helen Vivienne Fletcher
Designer: Kate Anderson
Sound Designer: Emma Katene
Stage Manager: Crystal Pulkowski
NZSL: Nicola Clements
Deaf Consultant: Theresa Cooper

Confessions of a Sleepwalking Insomniac was commissioned by TAHI and had a developmental season in the 2022 TAHI Festival. This season has been made possible thanks to funding from the Wellington City Council.

CONTENT WARNING

Discussions of mental health, suicidal ideation, ableism, medical trauma, grief (loss of parent), sounds of gunfire, sirens.

Upcoming Events

Hutt Valley Hijinks: Mystery at the Library

The Ngaio Marsh Awards, in association with Hutt City Libraries, invites booklovers to a thrilling event featuring four Kiwi novelists.

Past Ngaios finalist Helen Vivienne Fletcher is joined by award-winning poet and climate change author Tim Jones, and debut novelists Kate Mahony and Carolyn Swindell for a criminally good conversation about creating memorable characters, the importance of setting, and exploring real-life issues through fictional tales.

WHEN: Wednesday 1 May 2024
WHERE: War Memorial Library, 2 Queens Drive, Lower Hutt
WHEN: 6.15 for a 6.30pm panel discussion

This is a free event.

WebWorkshop: Writing the Other

Being inclusive is important, but how does it apply to writing? Discuss the hows, whens and whys of writing diverse characters.

WHEN: Wednesday 15th May
WHERE: Online
WHEN: 10AM – 12PM
FEE: NZSA Members – $35. (Non-members – $65)

Upcoming Performances

LEGACY 7 (FEATURING MY SHORT PLAY “ARTSPLAIN”)

DATE: 07 – 10 FEB, 8PM
VENUE: Basement Theatre, Auckland, NZ
PRICE: Choose what you want
Find Tickets

6 bite-sized plays by new queer writers.

Whether they’re stories from the heart (broken or otherwise) or from some clever minds, there will be something for everyone in this theatrical pick-n-mix. Get ready to think, laugh or even cry as we share our deeply human stories of what it means to be queer today.

QUARE TALES (FEATURING MY SHORT PLAY “CATMAN”)

Dublin Performances

DATE: 29 FEB — 1 March, 7.30pm
VENUE: Theatre@36, Dublin, Ireland
PRICE: €15/8
Find Tickets

A programme of queer short plays performed by Acting Out, an LGBTQ+ performance group from Dublin.

These plays will be a mix of new writing, Irish premieres of modern international LGBTQ+ Plays and classics of the queer canon.

Galway Performance

DATE: 24 February
VENUE: TBC

CONFESSIONS OF A SLEEPWALKING INSOMNIAC

DATE: 05-09 June
TIME: 6.30pm Wed-Sat, 4pm Relaxed Sunday Matinee
VENUE: The Stage, BATS Theatre, Wellington, NZ
TICKETS: $15-40 Book now at bats.co.nz

A sniper just shot a bullet through Briar’s window.

Or… Briar had a nightmare and went crashing into a solid wooden door. Hopefully the MRI machine can tell her which.

Briar’s always been a sleepwalker, but when a new relationship sends her sleep disorder into overdrive, it’s not just her REM cycle that suffers. Briar’s grip on reality is slipping, and her life is coming apart with it. Her one hope is the possibility of an assistance dog, but with injuries a nightly occurrence and her girlfriend’s patience wearing thin, will Briar live long enough to meet her furry saviour?

Based on the true story of a series of things that didn’t really happen, playwright Helen Vivienne Fletcher draws on her lifetime of sleep misadventures in this solo play.

Falling asleep, or falling in love – which one is about to crash?

ACCESS INFO

Live Streaming, Captioning, and Audio Description are thanks to the ANZ Staff Foundation.

Wednesday June 5th 6:30pm - Opening Night
Thursday June 6th 6:30pm - Live Streamed/ Captioned Performance
Friday June 7th 6:30pm - Audio Described (Touch Tour 6pm)
Saturday June 8th 6:30pm - NZSL Interpreted Performance (NZSL Briefing 6pm)
Sunday June 9th, 4 pm - Relaxed Matinee Performance

The Stage is wheelchair accessible. Please contact BATS Theatre with any access requests.

CREATIVE TEAM

Performer: Pauline Ward
Director: Emma Katene
Writer and Producer: Helen Vivienne Fletcher
Designer: Kate Anderson
Sound Designer: Emma Katene
Stage Manager: Crystal Pulkowski
NZSL: Nicola Clements
Deaf Consultant: Theresa Cooper

Confessions of a Sleepwalking Insomniac was commissioned by TAHI and had a developmental season in the 2022 TAHI Festival. This season has been made possible thanks to funding from the Wellington City Council.

Beside the River Styx Cover Reveal

A woman finds a body in a park. A girl watches for witches next door. A cruel town turns against a young mother, while a man kills with humour. A teenager tries to keep a library alive in a world where paper crumbles; a cursed piece of jewellery changes necks.

Beside the River Styx brings together nine dark, twisty and comically criminal tales. If you like creepy magic, heart-breakingly human moments, and a touch of black humour, then you’ll love Helen Vivienne Fletcher’s new short story collection.

Coming 22nd January 2024!

Five Slices of Another Life

Two women wait to be rescued from a burning building. Another finds salvation in a box of chickens. Things get awkward in a cafe. A detective investigates himself, and a blind seer delivers one last prophecy.

Five new short Kiwi plays, written by and featuring disabled and neurodiverse folk – are you ready to step into another life?

21-24th September at BATS Theatre

Book tickets