Updates on where you can find my memoir/literary nonfiction novel, ‘Foundations’: In Aotearoa, the paperback (ISBN: 9780473636890) can be purchased from Unity Books in Wellington or online: https://unitybookswellington.co.nz/product/foundations/ Or from Good Books in Wellington or online: https://shop.goodbookshop.nz/p/foundations Or by contacting me directly: speedyresearchconsulting@gmail.com The paperback, ebook (ISBN: 9780473636906) and Kindle (ISBN: 9780473636913) versions are alsoContinue reading “Where to buy ‘Foundations’”
Category Archives: Creative Writing
New book published: Foundations
Overnight (NZ time) my memoir/literary nonfiction novel, Foundations was published. All versions (Paperback, Epub and Kindle) are now available to purchase on Amazon or in a number of other online stores. The paperback is distributed through Ingram so bookstores and libraries can purchase it. In New Zealand, libraries can order it through Wheelers. The ebookContinue reading “New book published: Foundations”
Foundations is coming soon!
Historian Karin Speedy’s writing on power struggles and colonialism becomes personal when she investigates her own family stories. Her memoir reminds us that “…fascinatingly, unknowingly, sometimes spookily, we can find ourselves on paths once trodden by our forebears”. Genre: Memoir, history, literary nonfiction Publication date: 17 June 2022 ISBN: 978-0-473-63689-0 (Softcover POD), distributed by IngramSpark and Amazon; ISBN: 978-0-473-63690-6 (Epub),Continue reading “Foundations is coming soon!”
Migrations Métamorphiques
J’ai eu le grand plaisir à participer samedi matin à une discussion animée et très intéressante sur les liens tissés au 19e siècle entre l’Océan Indien et le Pacifique par le biais des travailleurs (engagés et libres, affranchis, petits blancs et Malabars) qui ont quitté La Réunion afin d’améliorer leur statut social dans une colonieContinue reading “Migrations Métamorphiques”
Malabar Woman
Originally posted on Embruns:
Charles Baudelaire by Emile Deroy, 1844 Sometimes we can be quite surprised by the seething raft of connections and currents running through our work and which can touch us in our everyday lives. Quite by chance, one of my friends had posted on Facebook the very famous poem À une Malabaraise…
Tropical Depression: Nuns in the Pacific
Originally posted on Embruns:
Saint-Louis mission girls, 1890. Source: Collection service des Archives de la Nouvelle-Calédonie 1 Num 2 148, fonds de l’Archevêché de Nouvelle-Calédonie. Women played an integral part in the “civilising mission” in New Caledonia and elsewhere in the Pacific. The Marists were in New Caledonia from 1843 and the male missionaries were…
Pacific Island Labour in mid-19th Century Sydney
Originally posted on Embruns:
When examining the shipping records for goods that were being brought into Sydney by Franco-Australian merchant Didier-Numa Joubert, I was struck by how many “Pacific Islanders” were coming and going on his ships, often accompanied by Marist priests. The first arrivals were fourteen young Melanesian evacuees from New Caledonia who fled…
The Night Before Waitangi Day
Originally posted on Embruns:
I wrote this poem when living in Sydney. I always felt like I was living in exile there. It was February 5, 2015, the night before my birthday, the night before Waitangi Day. I was feeling nostalgic, thinking of home and the Treaty (Te Tiriti o Waitangi) and what it means…
Cuttings From a Pacific Garden
Originally posted on Embruns:
Today is National Poetry Day in Aotearoa! New Zealand is celebrating poets and poetry. Here is a poem I wrote in 2011 at a hui in Wellington on Pacific literature. It speaks to roots and renewal, themes that were very important to me at that moment and it pays homage to…
The Lost and Found column in colonial newspapers
Originally posted on Embruns:
Perhaps the most fascinating thing about archival work is the volume of ever-so-interesting-yet-not-related-to-what-you-are-actually-researching snippets of life that you notice (and get distracted by) along the way. Much of my research centres on the Colonial archive, particularly the archives pertaining to New Caledonia. A few years ago, I combed through thousands of pages…
Speedy Research & Consulting 