From sea to sky

Witi Ihimaera – “debonair 59-year-old, multi-award winning author, playwright, librettist, anthologist, university lecturer, former foreign diplomat and Maori activist” – interviewed in the Age about his latest novel, Sky Dancer. Following on the successful formula of Whale Rider, the book weaves Maori myth into a modern-day tale, with a spirited young girl as its heroine. The story – first scrawled in pencil on his bedroom wall as a twelve- year-old – tells of an epic battle between the birds of land and sea. A film version of Sky Dancer is already in the works.