Nurse to the imagination

"Part of a university's proper business is to act as nurse to the arts, or, more exactly, to the imagination as it expresses itself in the arts and sciences. Imagination may flourish anywhere. But it should flourish as a matter of course in the university, for it is only through imaginative thinking that society grows, materially and intellectually" asserted Charles Brasch, one of the founders of the Robert Burns Fellowship at the University of Otago. From iconic writers like Janet Frame, James K. Baxter and Owen Marshall to effervescent newcomers such as Jo Randerson, Alison Wong and Sue Wootton, Nurse to the Imagination celebrates 50 years of 'talent and towering hope' as the second Burns Fellow, Maurice Duggan, cheekily wrote in 1960 The late Reg Graham.s famous photographs signpost scholarly overviews of each fellow's career. But the primary delight lies in the excerpted works begun (and sometimes completed) during each fellow's tenure, works which have found their way into the heads and hearts of New Zealanders: Along Rideout Road that Summer, The Rainbirds, A Small Ode on Mixed Flatting, Rain, The Loners, My Father Today, Middle-Age Spread, Wrestling with the Angel... Lawrence Jones describes his book as 'a literary wine-tasting'. There are many colours, flavours, textures to be sampled.