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James Dignan is a New Zealand writer and artist.

Born in Barnet, England in 1963, he moved to New Zealand in 1975, and since 1980 has lived in Dunedin. He attended the University of Otago during the early 1980s, and again during the early 1990s^[1].

In 1984, Dignan gained national recognition as a member of the university's University Challenge team, which won that year's national tournament. He was a coach of the university's team for the next three years^[2].

During his time at the University of Otago, Dignan became heavily involved in the fledgling student radio station, Radio One, which he served as assistant manager in 1987. He has hosted a show on the station since September 1985, and - after 28 years on air - is the longest-serving announcer on any New Zealand student radio station ^[3][4][5].

Dignan was a committee member of New Zealand's national science fiction organisation the National Association for Science Fiction during much of the 1980s and early 1990s, spending a year as president in 1993. He was a committee member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Association of New Zealand from its inception in 2002 until 200, and again from 2007. In 1992, Dignan won a New Zealand National Science Fiction Award as best editor, for his work on the fanzine Warp, and in 1995, he was fan guest of honour at New Zealand's national annual science fiction convention^[6][7]. During the early 1990s he was also official editor of the amateur press association Aotearapa.

During the 1980s and 1990s, Dignan was a singer and guitarist member of various bands such as The Kaftans^[8], The Beaker People and Preemptive Sheep, one of whom, The Moomins, released an album in 1989 (Songs for Swinging Yuppies), of which he wrote many of the songs. During the 1990s he performed solo, releasing a further album (Partial Rapture Theory) in 1996^[1], on which he played all the instruments, as well as singing and writing all the material. As a soloist and band member, he has acted as a support act for such performers as Sneaky Feelings, The Chills, and David Kilgour. He also wrote, having fiction and poetry published in various small-press publications, and writing comedy sketches performed by local comedians such as Jeremy Elwood. A poem by Dignan, Great Minds, appeared in the 2009 anthology Voyagers: Science Fiction Poetry from New Zealand, edited by Mark Pirie and Tim Jones.^[9]

In 2001, Dignan made a drastic change in his career, moving from visual research and psychology (in which he had gained a B.A. and M.Sc.) to art and writing. His first solo art exhibition came in 2002, followed by further solo exhibitions in 2004, 2006, 2007 and 2009. His work has been displayed in galleries in Dunedin, Oamaru, and Christchurch, and his work is in private collections in at least seven countries. Dignan uses an artistic style which he refers to as photoexpressionism, using distorted photographic images (often from the internet) which he projects onto canvas and then paints.^[1][10]

In parallel with this, in 2002 he began to write regular art reviews for the Otago Daily Times, and has had freelance articles - largely on his specialist topic of flags - published in both this newspaper and nationwide publications within New Zealand^[11]. He is occasionally called upon by the local media in Dunedin as an expert in this subject. He has designed flags which have been proposed both for Ross Dependency and as a replacement national flag of New Zealand, and was part of the judging panel that chose the flag of Otago in 2004^[12]. Dignan has also written reviews for such publications as Landfall^[13].

James is currently working on his first book, provisionally entitled Under Southern Skies, on the Dunedin art scene.

He lives in Dunedin with his cat, who refers to him as "The ape that spends his time tapping those little white keys".