Much loved Kiwi children’s author Joy Cowley has touched the reading lives of many Kiwis. Now aged 88 and technically blind, she recently released her latest book from her retirement village in Dunedin and shows no signs of slowing down.
Cowley moved to her new Dunedin home late last year and continues to write from there. In addition to her writing, she has a strong spiritual side and runs retreats for seniors called The Wisdom Years.
“I’ve always had a spiritual side to me,” she says. “I’m a Catholic, but I just go to any church that asks me for a retreat.
“It’s always about helping people to understand that life on this planet is all about growth. And when looking back at a mature age, we can find that the hardest things in life gave us the most growth. It’s the old saying that you can’t pour anything into a cup that’s already full. And many times in our lives we get emptied out, so we can be filled with something greater.”
Cowley says she’s enjoyed every stage of life and while she is now forgetting the odd word, she’s appreciating her own history and that of those around her more, along with the wisdom of those with her at her new retirement village home.
But the story ideas aren’t letting up. She has just released A Lot of Silly a book full of fun poems and short stories, in which a man takes his tadpoles for a walk in his hat, a cat is surprised by its talking feet, and a tiger gobbles up a dentist.
“I’ve had a busy life and I have loved children and I’ve loved story. I can remember telling stories to my sisters when I was a little girl. We did that every night. Then it was very natural to start writing when I was at secondary school and writing seriously.”
Now technically blind, Cowley describes her vision as like looking through “thick dark plastic.”
“But I can still write by hand, and I have someone coming in once a week to type it for me. And that’s working.”
Cowley says she finds story ideas all around her every day.
“There will be something strong that comes, or something that is repeated a lot,” she says.
Cowley used to spend a lot of time going into schools in New Zealand, Australia, America and further afield and says teachers often complained about name-calling at school, asking her to write a book for children about that.
“A book idea came to me – and it’s coming out next year. It’s a Snake and Lizard story. There have been quite a few Snake and Lizard books, and they’re about unlike people coming together – how they work together and accommodate each other. The story will point out how difficult it can be for people when they get given nicknames and how it makes them feel.”
It is clear neither ideas nor motivation are waning.
“I’m an old woman and I’ve been writing for much of my life. It’ll dry up soon. But you know, as long as the ideas are there and I can do them….”
