Fringe Marginalia Begins Today

The Dunedin Fringe Festival is celebrating Dunedin's new City of Literature status this year with a four day programme of literary delights.Marginalia: A Fringe Celebration of a City of Literature brings together passionate local networks dedicated to the written word, from plays and poetry to comics and criticism.

Beginning this evening and taking place over four nights, four Dunedin groups are taking over Morning Magpie Cafe on Lower Stuart St, bringing conversation back to the coffee house. There will be plenty of scope for debate and discussion, and even some DIY publishing.

“As soon as Dunedin got the great news last year, we knew we had to honour it as part of our 2015 Festival” said Festival Director Josh Thomas. “There has always been a strong literary current in the Fringe, but this felt like the perfect time to pluck it out and put it on a pedestal.”

City of Literature bid co-ordinator Liz Knowles was effusive in her enthusiasm for the event. “The Dunedin Fringe Festival has an excellent reputation for generating spirited events in new and innovative ways. It's wonderful to see our UNESCO City of Literature designation celebrated creatively by our local literary organisations at Marginalia.This four part series of bookish events is bound to be stimulating and definitely not to be missed.”

“In a way, Marginalia is the spirit of the Fringe in microcosm”, Mr Thomas said. “One of the great opportunities of our successful bid is bringing together all the great pockets of talent in our community, sharing and celebrating for the benefit of authors and audiences alike”.

All events run from 6-8pm, and entry is by koha.

PROGRAMME

Monday March 16: Stage South - Coming To A Stage Near You Soon
The Stage South collective are the local producers of Playmarket's Write Out Loud series, developing new writing by Dunedin playwrights by producing rehearsed readings of new works.

Tuesday March 17: Point - Is Academia A Ghetto?
Dunedin's current bastion of critique and review in print. More of a forum than an events guide, but it is that, too. There's no beating around the bush early in the programme, with what should be interesting korero indeed, in this proud city of education.

Wednesday March 18: Deep South - 20 Years of Digging
Since 1995, Deep South has been dedicated to the writings and musings of post-graduate English students at the University of Otago. Come along and revel in the past, present and future of this fine institution.

Thursday March 19: Dunedin Comic Collective - The Photocopier Is The Message
The Dunedin Comic Collective have published a number of comic anthologies since 2007, most notably DUD: The Dunedin Comic Revue, which came with compilations of local bands. They run regular workshops and comic jams – and this evening is one of them.

ends

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