Christodoulos Moisa

Christodoulos Evangeli Georgiou Moisa (born 1948) is a New Zealand poet, artist, photographer, writer, essayist and art teacher.

Christodoulos Moisa

Early life

Moisa was born in 1948 in Lower Hutt, New Zealand. His parents were immigrants from Cyprus.[1] His father was Evangelos Georgiou Moisa from Marathovounos and his mother was Athena Kleanthi from Angastina two villages in central Cyprus.[2]

Background

Moisa was educated at Patriki and Angastina Primary Schools in Cyprus, Mount Cook Primary School, Wellington (1960–1962), Wellington College (1963–1967), and Victoria University of Wellington and University of Auckland in New Zealand. He attended the Sir John School of Art London in 1973 and The Quay School of the Arts at UCOL,Whanganui, New Zealand in 2002. At The Quay School of the Arts he completed his Bachelor of Fine Arts which he started at Auckland University in 1972, in print-making.[2] From 1954 to 1959 he lived in Varosia/Famagusta a provincial capital in eastern Cyprus and the villages of Patriki and Angastina. He also lived in Angastina 18 months before 1974 coup and Turkish invasion.

Poetry and art

Storm over the Waitemata painted by Moisa in 1977. Oil on board.

He was awarded the National Poetry Prize at the Te Awamutu Rose Festival in 1981,[3][4] the Queen Elizabeth the II Arts Council Fellowship in 1983, and the Whitirea Poetry Prize in 1991 for his long poem "In the Shadow of the Cathedral".[5]

During his Queen Elizabeth the II Arts Council fellowship tenure he trialled a scheme whereby the arts would be taught to people who were unlikely to receive such training. Moisa taught poetry at Dunedin's Crippled Children Society. This scheme eventually lead to the Arts in Prisons Scheme. In the seventies Moisa as a volunteer, taught art to inmates at Mount Eden Prison, in Auckland.

He is the owner/manager/editor of One Eyed Press which has published the poetry of New Zealand poets among them Iain Sharp,Win Jones and Peter Olds.[6] To date Moisa has published seven of his own books of poems also under the One Eyed Press imprint.[7]

In 2002 Moisa was the recipient of a Ministry of Education Teachers Fellowship which he used to complete his BFA. In 2006 he was the Winner of the Telecom Art Contest for Whanganui. He has had nine one person exhibitions and participated in a number of group shows. Moisa has read his poetry throughout New Zealand and in Germany and Cyprus.[8] He was an Executive member of the New Zealand Branch of PEN, now New Zealand Society of Authors (PEN New Zealand Inc.), in the 1980s and was the founder of the Dunedin and Christchurch branches.

Moisa has also written for Te Ara (New Zealand National Library's online encyclopaedia).[9] He has written a series of essays like: The In between,[10] Bitter Kiwi Fruit,[11] and The Big Sigh.[12] In 2004 Moisa launched the Whanganui Inter Secondary Schools Portrait Competition to promote the talent of young secondary school artists in the Whanganui region. It is now in its eighth year.[13]

Political and social activist

As a political activist Moisa demonstrated with other university students against the war in Vietnam and later on the occupation of Timor and Cyprus. He also took part in the demonstrations against the 1981 South African Springbok Rugby Tour. As a social activist and Chairperson of the Newton branch of the Grey Lynn, Westmere, Newton Community Committee, in the late 1970s Moisa led in Auckland a campaign against lead in petrol and with architect, university lecturer and Cheer Part-Up Party leader,[14] Vince Terrini, established Flash, the precursor to all the Auckland community newspapers.[15] At the same time he also led a campaign to stop the extension of upper Queen Street – the city's main street – to Dominion Rd.[16] He won a case against the Auckland City Council in the Town Planning Court and as a result the north facing Basque Park has remained a peaceful residential haven.[15]

In 2011 Moisa wrote a brief history of his mother's village in Cyprus and designed and compiled a website to ensure that its history will outlive the Turkish occupation. The site is called Angastina – The village of the lotus eaters.[2][17]

In 2013 Moisa's first book of short stories was published. Blood and Koka Kola. It includes four illustrations and 24 short stories.

In January 2016, Moisa's first novel The Hour of the Grey Wolf was published.

Books of poems

Short Stories

Novel

CRITICS COMMENTS:"The writing style can best be described as erudite with allusions to historical and Biblical events. In less fluent writer, these descriptions would slow the story down but this is not the case ... The book remains fast moving, while giving the reader the satisfaction of having read a novel of substance and at the same time enjoying trying to second guess the mystery murder element. I recommend it." [26] The Hour of the Grey Wolf is a crime story ... in many ways it defies the genre. It is literary fiction as well, experimental in form, so experimental that, simply linked together with logic, the parts should not work together to form that coherent whole. And yet they do. ... a compelling page turner, a classic whodunit. ... I kept turning the pages and am certain other readers will too. The overall effect of The Hour of the Grey Wolf cannot be denied: the setting and characters are still resonating with me ..." [27]


Currently Moisa lives in Whanganui. He was HOD of The Arts and HOD of the Visual Arts at a Whanganui College since 2003-14.[28][29]

References

  1. ↑ Stowell, Laurel (26 October 2011). "An odyssey of the heart". Wanganui Chronicle. Retrieved 17 April 2012.
  2. 1 2 3 http://www.wanganui.com/images/stories/midweek/20120912/Midweek12SeptP001.pdf
  3. ↑ New Zealand Herald, 18 November 1981, Page 8.
  4. ↑ Moisa, Christodoulos (1981). National Short Story and Poetry Awards. New Zealand: Te Awamutu Festival Society. p. 56.
  5. ↑ International Who's Who in Poetry 2005, ISBN 978-1857432695
  6. ↑ Alternative Small Press Publishing in New Zealand
  7. ↑ New Zealand Listener,19 March 1989, Page 46.
  8. ↑ NZSA Chapbook 24 January 2011 Issue 1, New Zealand Society of Authors, Auckland
  9. ↑ http://www.teara.govt.nzFrom /en/biographies/5b4
  10. ↑ New Settlers and Multicultural Education Issues, Vol. 4, No. 1, pp 32 – 44.
  11. ↑ "Bitter Kiwi Fruit".
  12. ↑ "Index".
  13. ↑ Moisa, Christodoulos. http://www.wanganuichronicle.co.nz/news/sketchpads-in-hand-youngsters-shine/1117286/. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  14. ↑ New Zealand Listener, 14 April 1979, Page 22.
  15. 1 2 "Basque Park Reserve".
  16. ↑ Timespanner. "Timespanner: Basque Park".
  17. ↑ angastina.wix.com
  18. ↑ "National Library of New Zealand Catalogue - Simple Search".
  19. ↑ "National Library Catalogue Titles".
  20. ↑ Moisa, Christodoulos (1980). Corrigendum.
  21. ↑ Moisa, Christodoulos (1987). New Zealand: One Eyed Press. ISBN 0-9597842-4-1. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  22. ↑ Moisa, Christodoulos (1987). New Zealand: One Eyed Press. ISBN 0-9597842-1-7. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  23. ↑ Christodoulos a, Moisa (1987). New Zealand: One Eyed Press. ISBN 0-9597842-2-5. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  24. ↑ Moisa, Christodoulos (1987). New ZeaLand: One Eyed Press. ISBN 0-9597842-0-9. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  25. ↑ Moisa, Christodoulos (2010). One Eyed Press. ISBN 978-0-9864649-0-4. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  26. ↑ Doug Davidson RIVER CITY PRESS 14 July 2016.
  27. ↑ Antony Millen – Crime Watch - Investigating crime fiction from a Kiwi perspective April 2016
  28. ↑ Moisa, Christodoulos. Wanganui Chronicle http://www.wanganuichronicle.co.nz/news/man-loses-locks-for-fundraising/936370/. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  29. ↑ "Index".

External links

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