Andrew M Bell

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Bell, Andrew (1957 - ) is an award-winning poet, fiction writer and playwright whose work has appeared in New Zealand, Australia, England, Israel and the USA.

Bell's seven self-published collections of poetry and prose, all published under the ‘Son of Artwork Press’ imprint, are Headlights, Songs in a Silent Key, Son of Artwork, A Rhino in the Hand, Shaking off the Dust, After the Storm and Moonlight in the Aquarium. His short fiction appeared in One Hundred New Zealand short short stories volumes 2, 3 and 4. A new collection of short stories, Aotearoa Sunrise was published in December 2008.

Trained as an actor and director, Bell is increasingly interested in writing for the stage, and for film and television. His scripts have been broadcast on children's television programme, What Now? Bell writes, ‘I have a very visual imagination and I get increasing satisfaction from seeing my work rise from page to stage, made flesh.’

Bell's plays include ‘Shadows on Glass’, ‘Taking on Water’, and ‘A Busload of Faith’, of which The Evening Post writes: ‘[t]he evening's stand-out performance was 'A Busload of Faith', a full frontal play on the emotions.’

Encouraging the creativity of young writers is another dimension of Bell's writing life. Working in schools in Australia and New Zealand, he provides tips for students on writing, and believes that writing can be a boost to young people's self-esteem.

'For many people it is a way of coming to grips with a situation whether it be traumatic or joyful,' says Bell. ‘They may be able to better express their feelings in their writing than they can in everyday speech.’

Bell has adapted his play ‘The Reluctant Messiah’ into a screenplay. The world premiere was performed by the Hagley Theatre Company in Christchurch, 2004. ‘The Reluctant Messiah’ was one of the three plays chosen from a competition to be work-shopped by La Mama Theatre in Melbourne in November 2007.

Aotearoa Sunrise, a collection of 21 short stories, was released in December 2008. Clawed Rains, a collection of 50 poems, was published in 2011.

A new collection of poetry by Bell, Green Gecko Dreaming, was published in November 2014. Green Gecko Dreaming was one of six finalists in the poetry category of the 9th Annual National Indie Excellence Awards in the United States.

In December 2020, Bell published a new prose collection, Travels in Eclectia. The pieces range from condensed micro-stories of 50 words, to works of 'flash' and experimental fiction drawing on structuralist and feminist literary theory.

MEDIA LINKS AND CLIPS

• Andrew Bell is available for school visits as part of the Book Council's Writers in Schools programme
• Andrew Bell essay in the 2002 Physics Room Annual
• You can find Andrew's website here