Amy writes: 'I completed the MA in 2006 – nearly nine years ago now – and still recall the intensity of those months when I sit down to write. "What would Damien say?" or "What would Therese or Sarah make of this?" are faint recurrent questions as I read over new work. These days, usually, I am able to find the answer for myself.

'At the launch of The Propaganda Poster Girl, held in the IIML room where the poems were first shared and critiqued, Damien mentioned a time in class when, despite a lukewarm reaction from the group, I stood up for one of my poems and admitted that I was happy with it as it was (uncharacteristic chutzpah). He said, at that moment, he thought I'd be able to keep writing independently; or words to that effect. He was half right. During the MA year, I developed the confidence and technical wherewithal to keep writing and submitting my work for publication. But, without the MA, I don't believe I would've reached that point, so still feel a fond dependence upon the programme. And now, teaching creative writing myself, I try to model my workshops on the collegial, stimulating, (at times bordering on numinous) environment I was lucky to experience at 16 Waiteata Road.'