Through births, death, stumbles and first steps, Michele Powles and Renee
Liang wrote to one another. And together these gifted New Zealand writers –
one an author, the other a paediatrician, poet and playwright – achieved
something remarkable: their exchange has
fearlessly and charmingly laid bare the raw joy, beauty, discomfort and humour
of modern motherhood.
But beyond this, the exchange in When We Remember to Breathe is positive
testimony to
what is important in life itself – what gives it meaning: the people we love,
the challenges we face and the life we give.
Renee Liang is a second-generation Chinese Kiwi. Poet, playwright, paediatrician, medical researcher and fiction writer, she has collaborated on visual-arts works and film, produced and directed theater works. A staunch advocate of teaching and skill-sharing, Renee organises community arts events such as The Kitchen, a neighbourhood food and storytelling event. In 2017, the Auckland Arts Festival and NZ Opera presented her commissioned work with composer Gareth Farr, The Bone Feeder. In 2018, she was appointed a Member of the NZ Order of Merit for services to the arts.
Michele Powles has been a dancer, producer and writer across the globe, from Indian to Bosnia, Brazil to Edinburgh. Her fiction and non-fiction have been published widely and broadcast for radio both in New Zealand and the United Kingdom. Michele was New Zealand’s 2010 Robert Burns Fellow and, after being selected for the 2018 Film Up programme, her first screenplay Tenderwood is currently in development.