Rachel McAlpine

{{short description|New Zealand poet, novelist and playwright}} {{Use dmy dates|date=August 2023}} {{Infobox writer | name = Rachel McAlpine | embed = | honorific_prefix = | honorific_suffix = | image = RachelMcAlpine.jpg | image_size = | image_upright = | alt = | caption = Rachel McAlpine 2014 | birth_name = Rachel Phyllis Taylor | birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1940|02|24|df=yes}} | birth_place = Fairlie, New Zealand | death_date = | death_place = | resting_place = | occupation = {{Cslist |Poet|playwright|novelist}} | alma_mater = University of Canterbury, Victoria University of Wellington | genre = | notableworks = | awards = | spouses = {{plainlist}} {{Marriage|Grant McAlpine|1959|1981|end=div.}} {{Marriage|Michael Smither|1988|1992|end=div.}} {{endplainlist}} | children = 4 | relatives = Ada Wells (great-grandmother) | website = [https://writeintolife.com/ writeintolife.com] }}

'''Rachel Phyllis McAlpine''' ({{nee|'''Taylor'''}}; born 24 February 1940) is a New Zealand poet, novelist and playwright. She is the author of 30 books including poetry, plays, novels, and books about writing and writing for the internet.<ref name="Read NZ">{{cite web |title=McAlpine, Rachel |url=https://www.read-nz.org/writer/mcalpine-rachel |website=Read NZ Te Pou Muramura |access-date=23 November 2020}}</ref>

==Early life, family and education== McAlpine was born in Fairlie on 24 February 1940.<ref name="CCL">{{cite web |title=Interview with Rachel McAlpine |url=https://my.christchurchcitylibraries.com/new-zealand-childrens-authors/rachel-mcalpine/ |website=Christchurch City Libraries |access-date=3 August 2023 |date=2020 |language=en-NZ}}</ref> Her father was a vicar,<ref name="OCNZL">{{cite encyclopedia |last=Millar |first=Paul |editor1-last=Robinson |editor1-first=Roger |editor2-last=Wattie |editor2-first=Nelson |encyclopedia=The Oxford Companion to New Zealand Literature |title=McAlpine, Rachel |url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780195583489.001.0001/acref-9780195583489-e-718 |access-date=23 November 2020 |date=2006 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-1917-3519-6 |oclc=865265749 |doi=10.1093/acref/9780195583489.001.0001|url-access=subscription }}</ref> and her mother was a granddaughter of notable New Zealand suffragette Ada Wells.<ref name="Tolerton">{{cite news |last1=Tolerton |first1=Jane |title=Write Stuff |work=North & South |issue=234 |date=1 September 2005 |page=26}}</ref> She grew up with her five sisters in small-town vicarages in Canterbury, New Zealand.<ref name="Harlow">{{cite journal |last1=Harlow |first1=Michael |title=Craft Interview with Rachel McAlpine |journal=Landfall |date=March 1983 |volume=37 |issue=1 |page=73 |url=http://www.landfallarchive.org/omeka/items/show/26943 |access-date=23 November 2020}}</ref><ref name="Tolerton" /> When she was 10 the family moved to Christchurch, where she attended Christchurch Girls' High School and the University of Canterbury, graduating with a BA degree in 1960.<ref name="OCNZL" />

In 1959, aged 19, she married engineer Grant McAlpine and they had two daughters and two sons.<ref name="Tolerton" /><ref name="Who's Who">{{cite book |title=International who's who in poetry 2004. |date=2003 |publisher=Europa |location=London |isbn=978-1-8574-3178-0 |page=203 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JhXmEYWHDHYC |access-date=23 November 2020}}</ref> They spent four years in Geneva before returning to Masterton, New Zealand, where she raised her children and taught high school.<ref name="Playmarket">{{cite web |title=Rachel McAlpine |url=https://www.playmarket.org.nz/playwrights/rachel-mcalpine/ |website=Playmarket |access-date=23 November 2020}}</ref> In 1973 she gained a Diploma in Education from Massey University and in 1977 she completed a BA(Hons) at Victoria University of Wellington.<ref name="Who's Who" /> After McAlpine and her first husband divorced in 1981, she married artist Michael Smither in 1988, but their marriage ended in 1992.<ref>{{cite web |title=A Portrait of Michael Smither |url=https://www.nzonscreen.com/title/portrait-of-michael-smither-2007 |website=NZ On Screen – Iwi Whitiahua |access-date=23 November 2020}}</ref>

==Literary career== McAlpine began writing poetry in 1974,<ref name="OCNZL" /> with her debut collection, ''Lament for Ariadne'', published in 1975.<ref>{{cite book |last1=McAlpine |first1=Rachel |title=Lament for Ariadne |date=1975 |publisher=Cavemen Press |location=Dunedin, NZ}}</ref> It was published in the same year as debut collections by Lauris Edmond and Elizabeth Smither, and according to ''The Cambridge Guide to Literature in English'', marked "an important development in women's writing in New Zealand".<ref name="Cambridge">{{cite book |editor1-last=Head |editor1-first=Dominic |title=The Cambridge guide to literature in English. |date=2006 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge [UK] |isbn=978-0-5218-3179-6 |page=681 |edition=3rd |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rQINrHtwNU0C |access-date=23 November 2020}}</ref> By 1993 she had published seven further collections.<ref name="OCNZL" /> Her poetry has been praised for its "exuberant, strongly feminist lyrics".<ref name="Cambridge" /> Her first play, ''The Stationary Sixth Form Poetry Trip'', was first performed in 1980, and she wrote a number of further plays including some dialogue plays for radio.<ref name="OCNZL" /> In 1982 she participated in a writer's exchange scheme between Australia and New Zealand, holding a fellowship at Macquarie University in Sydney.<ref name="Harlow" />

Her first two novels, ''The Limits of Green'' (1985)<ref name="Novel 1">{{cite book |last1=McAlpine |first1=Rachel |title=The limits of green |date=1985 |publisher=Penguin |location=Auckland, N.Z. |isbn=978-0-1400-8627-0}}</ref> and ''Running Away from Home'' (1987),<ref name="Novel 2">{{cite book |last1=McAlpine |first1=Rachel |title=Running away from home |date=1987 |publisher=Penguin |location=Auckland, N.Z. |isbn=978-0-1400-9646-0}}</ref> were both set in the future, with environmentalist themes, and received polarising reviews from critics. Some reviews praised her creativity and energetic prose,<ref name="OCNZL" /> but Mark Williams criticised her "magic realism without the realism".<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Williams |first1=Mark |title=Literary Recession: New Zealand Fiction, 1985: Mid 1986 |journal=Journal of New Zealand Literature |date=1987 |issue=5 |page=21 |jstor=20112150 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20112150 |access-date=23 November 2020}}</ref> Her third novel ''Farewell Speech'' (1990)<ref name="Novel 3">{{cite book |last1=McAlpine |first1=Rachel |title=Farewell speech |date=1990 |publisher=Penguin |location=Auckland, N.Z. |isbn=978-0-1401-3241-0}}</ref> was a fictional account of the lives of suffragettes Kate Sheppard, Ada Wells and Wells' daughter. It received some criticism for its portrayal of the women, with Sheppard's biographer and great-great-niece Tessa K. Malcolm calling it "slander in fiction".<ref name="Malcolm">{{cite journal |last1=Malcolm |first1=Tessa K. |title=Slander in Fiction: 'Farewell Speech' |journal=Journal of New Zealand Literature |date=1991 |issue=9 |pages=14–22 |jstor=20112189 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20112189 |access-date=23 November 2020}}</ref> It was adapted into an award-winning play by Cathy Downes in 1993.<ref name="OCNZL Cathy">{{cite encyclopedia |last=Boddy |first=Gillian |editor1-last=Robinson |editor1-first=Roger |editor2-last=Wattie |editor2-first=Nelson |encyclopedia=The Oxford Companion to New Zealand Literature |title=Downes, Cathy |url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780195583489.001.0001/acref-9780195583489-e-334 |access-date=23 November 2020 |date=2006 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-1917-3519-6 |oclc=865265749 |doi=10.1093/acref/9780195583489.001.0001|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Her fourth novel, ''Humming'' (2005),<ref name="Novel 4">{{cite book |last1=McAlpine |first1=Rachel |title=Humming |date=2005 |publisher=Hazard Press |location=Christchurch, N.Z. |isbn=978-1-8772-7097-0}}</ref> was set in Golden Bay, and described by ''The Press'' as "a quirky read, with plenty of sly humour but with an underlying seriousness about matters spiritual and a person's discovery of a connection with the world around them".<ref>{{cite news |last1=Gray |first1=Kristi |title=Eccentric antics in Golden Bay |work=The Press |date=24 September 2005}}</ref>

McAlpine began teaching short courses on writing and managing web content in 1996, writing her first book on the topic, ''Web Word Wizardry'', in 1999.<ref name="Web Word">{{cite book |last1=McAlpine |first1=Rachel |title=Web word wizardry : more hits, more responses, more profit, and it's all done with words |date=1999 |publisher=Corporate Communications |location=Wellington, N.Z. |isbn=978-0-4730-5764-0}}</ref> An American edition was published in 2001.<ref name="Web US">{{cite book |last1=McAlpine |first1=Rachel |title=Web word wizardry : a guide to writing for the Web and intranet |date=2001 |publisher=Ten Speed Press |location=Berkeley, Calif. |isbn=978-1-5800-8223-5}}</ref> She has continued working in web writing education, launching a company in 2007 that offered online web-writing packages to individuals and businesses.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Churchouse |first1=Nick |title=Making text on web read better |work=The Press |date=27 November 2007 |page=C4}}</ref> She has also used websites as a companion to her writing, most notably by creating a website to accompany her novel ''Humming'' (2005).<ref>{{cite news |last1=Billing |first1=Di |title=Reviews |url=https://www.massey.ac.nz/massey/about-massey/news/article.cfm?mnarticle_uuid=CDC9C67A-96BF-57FE-ACF0-179158B7127D |access-date=23 November 2020 |work=News |agency=Massey University |date=5 October 2006}}</ref>

McAlpine is a member of the Capital Choir, Wellington, and was the poetry editor for ''Shaky Places'', a 14-song cycle of New Zealand experiences based on poems from well-known New Zealand poets including herself, Sam Hunt, Riemke Ensing and Bill Manhire. The music was composed by Felicia Edgecombe and it was first performed in November 2015.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Edgecombe |first1=Felicia |title=Shaky places : a song cycle of New Zealand poems for mixed voices with piano, guitar and other instruments |date=2015 |publisher=Capital Choir Inc |location=Lower Hutt |isbn=978-0-4733-3134-4}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=World for SATB choir and piano |url=https://www.sounz.org.nz/works/21478 |website=SOUNZ Centre for New Zealand Music Trust |access-date=24 November 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Peters |first1=Mark |title=Singing of Shaky Places |url=http://www.gisborneherald.co.nz/entertainment/20170110/singing-of-shaky-places/ |access-date=24 November 2020 |work=Gisborne Herald |date=10 January 2017}}</ref>

In recent years, McAlpine has written blogs and performed podcasts about aging, and in 2020 she published a collection of her poems called ''How to Be Old'' in celebration of her 80th birthday.<ref>{{cite web |title=How to Be Old |url=https://thecubapress.nz/shop/how-to-be-old/ |website=The Cuba Press |access-date=23 November 2020}}</ref><ref name="How to Be Old">{{cite book |last1=McAlpine |first1=Rachel |title=How to be old : poems |date=2020 |location=Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand |isbn=978-1-98-859517-7}}</ref>

== Honours and awards== * 1982 Australia-New Zealand Writer's Fellowship, Macquarie University<ref name="Harlow" /> * 1986 Writer in Residence, University of Canterbury<ref>{{cite web |title=Ursula Bethell Residency in Creative Writing |url=https://www.canterbury.ac.nz/arts/schools-and-departments/english/ursula-bethell-residency/ |website=University of Canterbury |access-date=23 November 2020}}</ref> * 1991 New Zealand Scholarship in Letters<ref name="Who's Who" /> * 1993–1995 Visiting Scholar, Doshisha Women's College of Liberal Arts, Kyoto<ref name="OCNZL" /><ref name="Who's Who" /> * 2010 Writer in Residence, Château de Lavigny, Switzerland<ref>{{cite web |title=In Residence |url=http://www.chateaudelavigny.ch/en-residence |website=Château de Lavigny |access-date=23 November 2020}}</ref>

==Selected works==

=== Non-fiction === * 1980 ''Song in the Satchel: Poetry in the High School'' (Wellington: NZCER) * 1992 ''Real Writing'' (Wellington: GP Publications) * 1994 ''Masako in New Zealand'' (Tokyo: Tairyusha) * 1994 ''The Secret Life of New Zealand'' (Tokyo: Tairyusha) * 1995 ''Katherine Mansfield in New Zealand'' (Tokyo: Asahi Press) * 1995 ''Ready for English'' (Wellington: Learning Media) * 1996 ''The Great New Zealand Study Trip'' (Auckland: New House) * 1997 ''Global English for Global Business'' (Auckland: Addison Wesley Longman; reprinted CC Press 2005) * 1998 ''The Passionate Pen: Romance Writers of New Zealand speak to Rachel McAlpine'' (Christchurch: Hazard) * 1999 ''Web Word Wizardry'' (Wellington: CC Press; 2002. 2nd edition. Berkeley, CA: Ten Speed)<ref name="Web Word" /><ref name="Web US" /> * 1999 ''Crash Course in Corporate Communications'' (Wellington: CC Press, Revised 2006) * 2000 ''Nine Winning Habits of Successful Authors'' (Wellington: CC Press.) * 2007 ''Better Business Writing on the Web'' (Wellington: CC Press) * 2009 ''Write me a web page, Elsie!'' (Wellington: CC Press) * 2013 ''Business Writing Plus'' (Wellington: CC Press)<ref>{{cite book |last1=McAlpine |first1=Rachel |title=Business writing plus |date=2013 |publisher=CC Press |location=Wellington, New Zealand |isbn=9780986455681}}</ref>

=== Fiction === * 1985 ''The Limits of Green'' (Auckland: Penguin) <ref name="Novel 1" /> * 1987 ''Running Away from Home'' (Auckland: Penguin)<ref name="Novel 2" /> * 1990 ''Farewell Speech'' (Auckland: Penguin Books).<ref name="Novel 3" /> 1996 Translated into Japanese by Masako Meio (Tokyo: Shinsui-Sha) * 2005 ''Humming'' (Christchurch: Hazard)<ref name="Novel 4" /> * 2010 ''Scarlet Heels: 26 Stories about Sex'' (Wellington: CC Press) (short stories)<ref name="Novel 5">{{cite book |last1=McAlpine |first1=Rachel |title=Scarlet heels : 26 stories about sex |date=2010 |publisher=CC Press |location=Wellington, N.Z. |isbn=978-0-9864-5560-5}}</ref> * 2016 ''Fixing Mrs Philpott'' <ref name="Novel 6">{{cite book |last1=McAlpine |first1=Rachel |title=Fixing Mrs Philpott |date=2016 |publisher=Booklovers |location=Wellington, New Zealand |isbn=978-0-4733-6768-8}}</ref>

=== Poetry collections === * 1975 ''Lament for Ariadne'' (Dunedin: Caveman) * 1977 ''Stay at the Dinner Party'' (Dunedin: Caveman) * 1978 ''Fancy Dress'' (Auckland: Cicada) * 1980 ''House Poems'' (Wellington: Nutshell Books) * 1983 ''Recording Angel'' (Wellington: Mallinson Rendell) * 1986 ''Thirteen Waves'' (Palmerston North: Homeprint) * 1988 ''Selected Poems'' (Wellington: Mallinson Rendel) * 1993 ''Tourist in Kyoto'' (Wellington: Nutshell Books) * 2001 ''Another 100 New Zealand Poems for Children'' (Ed.)(Auckland: Random House) * 2005 ''A for Blog'' (Wellington: CC Press)<ref>{{cite book |last1=McAlpine |first1=Rachel |title=A for blog |date=2005 |publisher=CC Press |location=Wellington, N.Z. |isbn=978-0-4760-1453-4}}</ref> * 2020 ''How to Be Old'' (Wellington: Cuba Press)<ref name="How to Be Old" />

=== Children's books === * 1990 ''Maria and Mrs Kominski'' (Auckland: Black Cat Books)<ref>{{cite book |last1=McAlpine |first1=Rachel |title=Maria and Mrs Kominski |date=1990 |publisher=Black Cat Books |location=Auckland [N.Z.] |isbn=978-1-8694-1208-1}}</ref> (short stories)<ref name="OCNZL" /> * 1993 ''Maria in the Middle'' (London: HarperCollins) (also broadcast by NZ On Air) * 1994 ''Maria and the Lady Next Door'' (Wellington: Learning Media Limited, also translated into five Pacific languages)<ref>{{cite web |title=Te au taeake o Maria / na Rachel McAlpine; tutu na Diane Perham; 'uri'a e Ngamata Maeva e Teremoana Maua-Hodges. |url=https://natlib.govt.nz/records/21083482 |website=National Library of New Zealand |access-date=24 November 2020}}</ref>

=== Stage plays === * 1980 ''The Stationary Sixth Form Poetry Trip'' (Wellington: Playmarket; many productions)<ref name="Playmarket" /> * 1985 ''Driftwood'' (Wellington: Victoria University Press; many productions)<ref name="Playmarket" /> * 1988 ''Peace Offering'' (Auckland: Heinemanns; various productions)<ref name="Playmarket" /> * 1990 ''Power Play'' (Wellington: Playmarket; various productions)<ref name="Playmarket" /> * 2000 ''The Dazzling Night: a Noh play in English'' (Produced Le Mata Theatre, Auckland; published Kyoto Journal & New Zealand Journal of Asian Studies)<ref>{{cite journal |last1=McAlpine |first1=Rachel |title=The Dazzling Night |journal=Kyoto Journal |date=7 October 2016 |url=https://kyotojournal.org/culture-arts/the-dazzling-night/ |access-date=24 November 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Read Rachel McAlpine's play The Dazzling Night |url=http://www.katherinemansfieldsociety.org/read-rachel-mcalpine-s-play-the-dazzling-night/ |website=Katherine Mansfield Society |access-date=24 November 2020 |date=1 November 2009}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=McAlpine |first1=Rachel |title=The Dazzling Night: a Noh play in English |journal=The New Zealand Journal of Asian Studies |date=December 2001 |volume=3 |issue=2 |pages=150–176}}</ref>

=== Plays performed but not published === * 1981 ''The Life Fantastic'' (Radio New Zealand)<ref name="OCNZL" /> * 1982 ''Cats Don't Marry'' (Radio New Zealand)<ref name="OCNZL" /> * 1984 ''Quite Nice Really'' (Radio New Zealand)<ref name="OCNZL" /> * 1986 ''Paper Towers'' (Christchurch: Court Theatre (New Zealand))<ref name="Cambridge" /><ref name="Playmarket" /> * 1988 ''The Op Shop Quartet'' (Radio New Zealand)<ref name="OCNZL" /> * 1989 (adapted from Katherine Mansfield) ''The Stranger'', ''Mr Reginald Peacock's Day'' (Radio New Zealand)

== References == {{Reflist}}

== External links == * [https://www.read-nz.org/writer/mcalpine-rachel Profile on Read NZ Te Pou Muramura] * [https://web.archive.org/web/20120402104759/http://www.stc-india.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Knowledge-wisdom-and-joy-of-writing.ppt Knowledge, wisdom and the joy of writing]: presentation for Society for Technical Communication India 2010 * [https://thespinoff.co.nz/books/06-04-2018/the-friday-poem-when-by-rachel-mcalpine/ Friday poem "But When?" by Rachel McAlpine] on ''The Spinoff''

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{{DEFAULTSORT:McAlpine, Rachel}} Category:1940 births Category:Living people Category:New Zealand women novelists Category:20th-century New Zealand dramatists and playwrights Category:New Zealand children's writers Category:New Zealand women poets Category:20th-century New Zealand novelists Category:21st-century New Zealand novelists Category:New Zealand women children's writers Category:New Zealand women dramatists and playwrights Category:21st-century New Zealand women writers Category:People from Fairlie, New Zealand Category:People educated at Christchurch Girls' High School Category:University of Canterbury alumni Category:Massey University alumni Category:Victoria University of Wellington alumni Category:20th-century New Zealand women writers Category:21st-century New Zealand dramatists and playwrights