13 Ways of Looking at a Blackbird

For me it was the first time I had showed anyone any work, so that was huge and quite daunting...and really useful, because for the first time you're putting stuff out there, and getting a reaction from people.

– Poet Jenny Bornholdt

It's a mixture of warmth and community and support with the feeling that there's a deadline to hit, and you've got to hand in the work. They walk into class, and say, 'I'd like to write a novel'. And I say, 'It's due on November 5'.

– Damien Wilkins on the culture created by Bill Manhire at the Institute of Modern Letters, The Dominion Post, March 2011

I think the good teacher in the world of creative writing is a facilitator, a well-read person, a useful person, but not a pedantic, dogmatic, this is how it must be done person ... I think with every student what you are doing is trying to help them become the best version of themselves as a writer they can possibly be.

– Bill Manhire, founder of Victoria University's creative writing course