Melissa (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780987652997)

Bernard Gadd was a prolific writer of poetry, short stories, novels and plays, an editor of anthologies and literary journals and a publisher. All this, remarkably, was in his spare time. His main focus was as a teacher, the head of English at a college where he engaged in pioneering work in the classroom - this was the genesis of his writing, when he realised there were few authors writing stories or poetry relevant to the real lives of his students, who were mainly Maori and Pasifika teenagers living in a low socio-economic area of Auckland. So he began to write stories and poetry himself, designed to encourage literacy amongst students left behind by mainstream education. He engaged them by reflecting the experiences of their own lives in contrast to the sanitised versions of family life they were fed by most media at the time. It worked, he captured their imagination and showed them the power of reading. His commitment to multi-culturalism also saw him foster a new generation of talented emerging Maori and Pacific writers and poets. He founded Hallard Press.