Season of La Niña is a fictive memoir about a New Zealand flamenco dancer’s encounter with the gypsy flamenco sub-culture in Jerez de la Frontera, Andalucia, Spain. The text follows her struggle to learn the art form, her unique relationship with a gypsy mentor, her depression and the dissolution of her flamenco identity in the wake of a New Zealand tour. The exegesis considers how the text straddles the boundary of memoir and fiction, how it manages to express depression in prose, and how it meditates on, and aspires to enact in prose the essence of flamenco. It reflects on the writing process and the development of key methodologies used in the first draft stage of a creative text.
