Welcome to The Quick Brown Dog for 2021, the literary journal
of the Hagley Writers’ Institute that has traditionally featured
work from students, tutors, and graduates of the Institute. This
year, in order to capture a greater diversity of voices, we broke
with tradition and chose a nationwide open submission.

In choosing a theme we discussed issues related to diversity,
power and privilege; we contemplated the impacts of Covid-19- it
seemed that collectively people were experiencing a questioning
of personal identity, place in the world and the way time is spent.
Through an amalgamation of these thoughts, we are excited to
present this year’s journal with the theme of Identity/Tuakiri.

A large number of submissions was received, and it was
challenging to sort through the wide variety of voices to make the
final selection. We are delighted that the poems, flash fiction and
stories within these pages reflect contrasting experiences of
identity/tuakiri. Many highlight emerging social constructions of
identity through relationships with people, place and time as in
Restoration (Michalia Arathimos) and Hand-me-down
Hankerings (Trish Veltman). Rangi Faith’s i.e. New Zealand
challenges us to consider collective identity as represented by ‘the
statue of a white dude’, whilst The Widower (John Ewen) reveals
the unseen poignancy of the individual.

Thank you to Zoë Meager for her wise guidance and mentoring of
our editorial efforts and to previous editors of the journal who
thoughtfully left tracks of their editing processes to help guide us.
Thanks also to Hagley College for its continued support of the
Hagley Writers’ Institute and The Quick Brown Dog.

Finally, thank you to all the contributors for their work. May they
continue to find success with their writing.

Louise Lameko, Eloise Pengelly and Karen Clarke – Editors