Terra Incognito is the true story of a journey through the dark night of the soul and the eventual triumph of creativity, told in a ringing, unforgettable voice.
Picking up where his acclaimed Ghost Dance left off, Douglas Wright chronicles, after a series of bereavements, his descent into depression, despair and suicide. We meet the inhabitants of Hallburn House, a respite centre for people with HIV, and are given a rare, compassionate and sometimes hilarious glimpse of how those on the margins of our society contrive to live, love and die.
Shimmering through the dark fabric of this account is a golden thread: the slow growth of an idea for a new work of dance-theatre, Black Milk. In this unique description of a celebrated artist’s process, we are shown how works of art are sometimes born – and also how they sometimes have the power to resurrect.
Douglas Wright’s Ghost Dance won the New Zealand Society of Authors E. H. McCormick Best First Book of Non-fiction Award at the Montana Book Awards in 2005.