Our Programmers-at-Large!

Catarina de Peters Leitão
Catarina de Peters Leitão (nō Te Whānau-ā-Apanui) is a project coordinator, freelancer and writer born in Lisbon, Portugal and based in Pōneke. She has many past lives; as a professional pastry chef, a camera and lighting assistant, frustrated telemarketer and cook in the kitchens of East Coast marae and Opotiki RSA, among a myriad of others. Catarina is a graduate of the IIML Creative Writing MA (2019), where she finished her first collection Tuawahine as part of her MA thesis. Her nonfiction work has been published in Mimicry, Turbine Kapohau, RNZ and Sport 47, among other online/printed publications. Catarina’s focus as a programmer is to share the exciting indigenous voices that are emerging across the motu with WORD Christchurch audiences, stories guided by mātauranga Māori and emigrant-led discussions. She is fond of cocktails at Night Flower, writing, reimagining the future, cooking and cinema.

Melanie Dixon
Melanie Dixon is an Ōtautahi based writer, creative writing tutor, and the current director of Hagley Writers’ Institute. Her short stories and flash fiction have been published and anthologised internationally, and her debut novel A New Dawning is due for publication with OneTree House in April this year. She has a Master of Creative Writing from the University of Auckland, and also holds science degrees from the University of York and Oxford University. When she’s not writing, you can find Melanie biking, running, or tramping in the mountains, or planning her next adventure somewhere wild.

Audrey Baldwin
Audrey Baldwin is a Zimbabwean born artist, curator and general rabble rouser based in Ōtautahi.  A graduate of Ilam school of fine arts, she has been curating and producing events, exhibitions and public spectacles since 2009. Her award winning interactive performance/installation Art Chemist takes her around the motu, but more locally Audrey has a vested interest in celebrating and bringing together our local arts community. She spent a few years as public programmes coordinator at The Physics Room Contemporary Art Space and joined the WORD team in 2021 as Public Engagement Coordinator. 2023 will see her working with Ōtautahi Creative Spaces as a creative collaborator with rangatahi and expanding her role at WORD to Programmer-at-large. What little down time she has is spent over-catering potlucks, trying to make it through her bedside book stack and encourages drinking and drawing as the headmistress of Dr. Sketchy’s Anti Art-School Chch.