Victor holds the University of Auckland Residency which he started on the 19th of February and is our fourth residency for the year. He will be with us until late in June. He is working on both a novel and short stories.
Victor is a writer of Samoan and Scottish descent. His first play, Sons, debuted in 1995. Since then his plays have included, My Name is Gary Cooper (2007) and Black Faggot (2013), both of which have been performed internationally.
His most recent theatre work, Christ(Church) Almighty made its debut as a work in progress during last year’s Christchurch Arts Festival. His short fiction debut, Like Shinderella was published last year in the Māori and Pasifika anthology Black Marks On The White Page which was edited by Witi Ihimaera and Tina Makeriti. His essays have been included in The Best Of E-Tangata, The Fuse Box and The Journal of Urgent Writing. In 2015 he created a theatre producing entity FCC (Flow, Create, Connect) with the express aim of creating more opportunities for Pasifika practitioners, especially. FCC’s most recent production, The Mountaintop by Katori Hall, recently played to critical acclaim at The Basement Theatre in Auckland.
Of his residency at MKWC, Victor says ‘the writer’s shed out back, with its lopsided window, is the jewel in the crown here: the perfect refuge to write, to read, to sleep, to think, to hide….’
(Photo by Deborah Marshall)