Catherine Woulfe 
Gabrielle Jackson is a Sydney-based Guardian journalist who has written a book about her pain, and the pain of women, and the ways in which the medical system is making it worse. The book is called Pain and Prejudice: a call to arms for women and their bodies. It focuses on ‘women’s troubles’ – a … Read more
Loved Linda Burgess’s essays for The Spinoff? Now she’s written a whole book of ’em. And it is, predictably, terrific. With love, Linda Burgess writes simply in her dedication. With love, and god there is so much of it here, in these essays, this “memoir of sorts”, you’ll get to the end and feel like … Read more
Announcing the winners of the 2019 New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young People. Right now the loveliest people in the country are gathered at Te Papa celebrating 2018’s most brilliant and amazing books for children and young people. The best of the batch, officially, as of just a few minutes ago: The Bomb. … Read more
What’s the best way to get adults reading? Get them reading when they’re children – and there’s no better place to start than the Unity Children’s Bestseller Chart. These lists of the bestselling children’s books at Unity Wellington and Little Unity in Auckland cover the four weeks to August 2 2019. AUCKLAND 1 Lizard’s Tale … Read more
ART-TASTIC is a big heavy beauty of an activity book, written by Sarah Pepperle and produced by the Christchurch Art Gallery. We think it’s marvellous and so do the judges of the 2019 New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults. Keen to try it out? Here are four ART-TASTIC spreads guaranteed to keep … Read more
Three Women is a fervent, scrupulous qualitative review of female desire. It’s also a lesson in commitment – and the powerful act of paying attention. Imagine a pole vaulter strolling into the Olympics, eyeing the bar – the women’s world record is 5.06m – and casually hitching it like a metre higher. Then fucking nailing the … Read more
New Zealand writer Sherryl Jordan’s elated, transcendent novel for young adults, Winter of Fire, was first released in 1992. A quarter-century later, fans’ pestering has paid off and it’s back in bookstores. This makes Catherine Woulfe very happy. And below, two more Winter of Fire megafans share what the book means to them. It’s hard … Read more
“Successful parenting is about ignoring the bad stuff and focusing unrelentingly on the good,” writes Catherine Woulfe – so let us rejoice in the line-up for best picture book at the 2019 New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults. There are so many shit books out there for little kids. Books where the … Read more
Unity and The Spinoff are very proud to announce the arrival of this new monthly feature. Because we love kids, and we love books, and we’re really sick of buying shitty books by mistake and having to read them 87,000 bedtimes in a row. These lists cover April 10 – May 8. AUCKLAND 1 Encyclopedia … Read more
All of the books up for the country’s shiniest literary gongs at the Auckland Writers Festival are boxed up in some publicist’s back room, just waiting to be shipped to YOU!! Every year the Auckland Writers Festival unfolds at the Aotea Centre, a glorious parallel universe where you get to sit in a comfy chair … Read more
David Wallace-Wells has written a blinder, a book that could actually prompt people to push through complacency. But it’s not enough to pump us up full of fear and then just leave us there, bumping around like so many useless balloons, writes Catherine Woulfe This article originally ran in Barker’s 1972 magazine. “It is, I … Read more
Catherine Woulfe goes searching for the legacy of one of New Zealand’s first taxidermists. This story originally ran in Barker’s 1972 magazine under the title Legacies: He Never Quit the Hustle. Birds! In the 1800s they were everywhere. Huia, kōkako, takahē, kākāriki – all clamouring to be shot and stuffed and stuck on a mantle. Into this cornucopia … Read more
Catherine Woulfe spends a day at the Auckland Blade Show, a celebration of knives of all kinds. This story originally ran in Barker’s 1972 magazine. To make pasta you force a lump of egg and flour flat, fold it back on itself, force it flat, fold. Maybe half a dozen times. Making Damascus steel is the … Read more
Bollocks to the official guidelines – if you’re expecting, and also expecting to vomit at any moment pretty much all the time, try these 10 handy hints. My first pregnancy, I was basically Paleo Pete. I ate great piles of silverbeet and broccoli. All of the poached eggs. Sometimes a bit of parmesan on top, … Read more
Defects are ‘currently underdiagnosed and may consequently be left untreated at a staggering rate’, says one of a number of experts calling for more information to be provided to women. A little-known complication of caesarean sections is causing infertility in a small minority of women worldwide. Experts say the evidence is now strong enough that … Read more
Experts have told the Spinoff that there is sufficient evidence about cases in which c-section can lead to infertility that women should be given more information. Catherine Woulfe addresses the key questions. Read Catherine Woulfe’s investigation into the connection between c-section scar defects and fertility here. I’ve had a c-section (or I’m about to) and … Read more
For a select few women, this could be the difference between a baby, and not. I’ll say it again: C-sections can cause infertility. Catherine Woulfe writes. This feature was made possible thanks to reader contributions via the Spinoff Longform Fund. Click here to support our investigative journalism. In October 2014 I had the kind of … Read more