In other words: hacia otro verano

In the mail bag today - the first translation of Towards Another Summer to be released! Always exciting to see a foreign edition.

The publicity for Seix Barral's Spanish edition makes full use of the rave reviews from all around the world, for the posthumously published novel.


Thanks to Google I managed to locate a review of the Spanish edition on literary blog Literatúrate ("blog sobre libros y literatura").


The Spanish translation for Hacia otro verano was done by Aleix Montoto.


Spanish publisher Seix Barral has also reissued the three-volume autobiography, which was first published in Spain in 1991.

I'm looking forward to seeing the Italian, German, Dutch, Swedish, Finnish, Brazilian Portuguese, Turkish, Norwegian and French translations of Towards Another Summer before too long. And I expect to hear of deals in more languages as well, before the international interest in this exquisitely written novel that was hidden for so long, is satisfied.

Yesterday the contract arrived formalising the agreement for the upcoming US edition. That's kind of a foreign language from a Kiwi perspective. Janet Frame's books were 'translated' into American in the past. Mind you, since then US spelling has spread around the rest of the world quite quickly thanks to computer spell-check programmes (a word which the computer itself insists on correcting to programs).

Fifth Anniversary

Lunching with friends at Eureka Café Dunedin, 2003

Today marks the fifth anniversary of Janet Frame's death in Dunedin on the 29th January 2004.

Janet Frame was fond of a good meal in the company of friends and family, and so to commemorate her anniversary, the Janet Frame Literary Trust hosted a lunch at one of Janet's favourite cafés, Eureka.

The gathering was happy and chatty, not formal at all, although we did pause a couple of times to remember, and to take stock.

The first advance copy of Prizes, the beautiful new selected published stories (to be released by Random House NZ on the 20th February) had just arrived and was there for us to admire. Its release will complete the bringing back into print in New Zealand, of all Janet Frame's previously published work. For this achievement, and for much else, the mood of the party was one of celebration and of gratitude for the privilege of being associated with Janet Frame's legacy.

In Memoriam 28 August 1924 - 29 January 2004

The hearse carrying Janet Frame's coffin heads past "Bill Manhire's father's pub".

St Kilda, Dunedin, 2004

A Literary Map

"Janet Frame Way" can be found in Upper Hutt, Wellington, just off "Katherine Mansfield Drive".

Tourist Treasure

Alison Albiston, one of the founding trustees of the Eden Street Trust, poses in front of Janet Frame's childhood home.

The Otago Daily Times has reported an increase in the number of overseas visitors to the Frame house in Oamaru this summer.

The article on the success of the 56 Eden Street project appeared late in December and was graced by several photographs of the house and of its genial curator Ralph Sherwood.

I was speaking to Ralph on the phone today and he confirmed that numbers are up this year, and that he has welcomed quite a few fans from the UK (among other places), enthusiastic to see the house after having read about Oamaru in Towards Another Summer.

The posthumous novel has attracted a lot of positive attention in the UK since Virago Press released it in July 2008. There have been several reprints and the paperback is due to be released mid-2009.

Virago issued an attractive new edition of Janet Frame's autobiography An Angel at My Table in January 2008, complete with an updated set of photographs, and this will also have served to refresh the interest of the UK reading public in Janet Frame's life and work.

The Day of the Sheep

At the very first opening of the Frame house in Oamaru to the public in November 2005, a marquee was erected in the back yard of 56 Eden Street. Members of the public and supporters of the Janet Frame Eden Street Trust listened to speeches and were treated to a reading of excerpts from Janet Frame's work by actors Hilary Norris and Prue Clark from Dunedin performance group Panache.







At some stage during the festivities, somebody noticed that a lone black sheep was standing on the hill behind the house and was looking over the back fence into the property.

Bill Tramposch, former CEO of NZ's Historic Places Trust, and founding member of the Eden Street Trust, who with his wife Peggy originally had the vision to purchase and restore Janet Frame's childhood home, is here pictured with the sheep he fondly nicknamed "Janet".

'Dot': A new short story by Janet Frame

Here's some good news!

A previously unpublished short story by Janet Frame appears in the latest issue of independent New York literary magazine A Public Space.

To order a copy of Issue 7 or to subscribe to the magazine, here is the link:

http://www.apublicspace.org/back_issues/issue_7/ [sold out]


UPDATE December 2014

The story 'Dot' has since been published in Janet Frame's posthumous collection of stories, which is available in several different editions (hb, pb, ebook):

Gorse is Not People: New and Uncollected Stories Penguin New Zealand (hardback 2012)

Between My Father and the King: New and Uncollected Stories Counterpoint Press, USA, (hardback 2012, paperback 2013, ebook 2013)

Between My Father and the King:New and Uncollected Stories Wilkins Farago, Australia (paperback 2013)