Spinoff Review of Books literary editor Steve Braunias reports from the weekend’s Going West literary festival in Titirangi. With bonus podcast! Dear old Going West! It’s the neighbourly writers festival. It’s the one in the gentle wops of Titirangi, in a memorial hall, rows of hard seats just like at school assembly, miles from anywhere – well, a … Read more
A new book from Te Papa features essays inspired by exhibits held in the national museum. Sue Bradford writes about a Medal for Valour awarded to suffragette Frances Parker – a heroine who blazed with “an exquisite madness”. EXHIBIT: Women’s Social and Political Union Medal for Valour, awarded to Frances Parker PRODUCTION: Toye & Co., 1912 … Read more
New verse by Dunedin writer Emma Neale. Mère-mare Last night in my sleep my baby’s father came to take him away from me. I had borne a boy I was forbidden to hold though his mouth was sere and sore and golden colostrum welled in me like the cells’ own cry for … Read more
The week’s biggest-selling books at the Unity stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington. AUCKLAND UNITY 1 Fear: Trump in the White House by Bob Woodward (Simon & Schuster, $50) As soon as it arrived, it flew off the shelves; we look forward to the forthcoming review by Dita De Boni, and in the … Read more
Claire Mabey praises a breathtaking new novel by Tina Makereti (Ngāti Tūwharetoa, Te Āti Awa, Ngāti Rangatahi). It’s hard to conjure a concept more offensive than the ethnological expositions, or human zoos, of the 19th and 20th centuries. A few years ago in Edinburgh, I saw the controversial installation Exhibit B by artist Brett Bailey. … Read more
Yes, exactly like the headline says, we’re giving away a massive 22 books via this weekend’s awesome Going West literary festival!!! The 2018 Going West literary festival takes place this weekend in Titirangi, that pleasant, rat-infested woodland suburb in Auckland. There will be a great deal of talk about literature and ideas and society, and … Read more
Charlotte Grimshaw reports on the latest weird and turbulent week in Donald Trump’s presidency: “The most powerful country in the world is at the mercy of someone so unfit for office that he shouldn’t be running a gas station.” It was the end of summer on the east coast of America, and it was only getting … Read more
New verse by Christchurch writer Jeffrey Paparoa Holman. Kei te whakaako au i taku kurī/I am teaching my dog Māori I am teaching my dog Māori. Nobody will object outside the supermarket when I tie Tiaki to the bike stand and bark, “E noho!” tenderly. “Enoho, what a lovely name!” … Read more
The week’s biggest-selling books at the Unity stores in Willis St, Wellington, and High St, Auckland. WELLINGTON 1 Women, Equality, Power: Selected Speeches from a Life of Leadership by Helen Clark (Allen & Unwin, $45) “Helen Clark continues to assert her toughness, time after time. When she faced off against Sir Ray Avery over his proposed … Read more
It’s Zep-tember! Spinoff Review of Books literary editor Steve Braunias reviews a new rock biog of Led Zeppelin’s unappealing genius, Jimmy Page. What an egg. Strange, and a little dismal, to plod through a 500-page biography of one of the great conductors of rock – who played the guitar like he was ringing up Hell and getting straight through, who turned … Read more
The dear old Book Council has released its annual survey of New Zealand reading habits, and claims that on average we read 35 books a year. Thirty-five! Danyl Mclauchlan asks what the devil is going on. What do other people read? I wonder about this all the time. If I see someone reading a book on … Read more
Spinoff Review of Books literary editor Steve Braunias reports from the Christchurch WORD literary festival. Everyone who is anyone in New Zealand literature was at the Christchurch WORD festival this weekend, apart from Eleanor Catton, CK Stead, Fiona Kidman, Witi Ihimaera, Kelly Ana Morey, Max Harris, Jess Berentson-Shaw, Damien Wilkins, Linda Burgess, Vincent O’Sullivan, Emily … Read more
Facebook, Facebook, Facebook. Murdoch Stevens details how to use and get around the Zuckerberg Empire in his attempts to spread public awareness about increasing the quota of refugees into New Zealand. I was curious about what it would actually take to get the refugee quota increased. I knew I could draw on friends across the … Read more
New verse by Auckland writer Tusiata Avia, who will appear at the Christchurch WORD Festival this weekend. Some notes for critics 1. Yeah, sometimes my poems are dark 2-5. Get over it 6. Maybe life 7. I could write about landscape but it fucken bores me 8. Monet drews … Read more
The week’s best-selling books at the Unity stores in High St, Auckland (which is opening a new children’s bookstore right next door, this weekend, with prizes and balloons and saveloys*; get along, take the kids!) and Willis St, Wellington. *no saveloys AUCKLAND UNITY 1 Warlight by Michael Ondaatje (Jonathan Cape, $35) Popular novel. 2 Exactly: How Precision … Read more
Steve Braunias reviews a memoir by his all-time favourite hatchet journalist. Robin Green! The Robin Green. “Robin Green!”, said the great music author Greil Marcus, when he met her at a Rolling Stone reunion in 2007. “I’ve always wanted to meet you!” Same, and now we all can. I near jumped out of my skin when … Read more
“We rule the book-reading world”: Catherine Robertson reports from the Romance Writers of New Zealand annual conference. “Charlotte Stein writes the best cunnilingus scenes. And I’m a gay guy. Think about what I’m saying.” Damon Suede cannot shock his audience. This is the Romance Writers of New Zealand annual conference, held recently at the Novotel … Read more
Kia ora Papercuts listeners! You are listening to a podcast all about books on The Spinoff. Louisa and Jenna come to you from the NZ Booksellers Conference at the Rydges Hotel in Auckland. We talk about the Book Industry Awards, interview the owners of New Zealand’s best bookshop 2018, and Louisa talks to Shaun Bythell, … Read more
“I’m 27, and winning national media awards,” writes Lizzie Marvelly, in this edited extract from That F Word. “I’m 28, and writing a book.” I’ve never shied away from a challenge. Which is lucky, because life seems to come at me hard and fast. When I pause to look back over my shoulder, I see … Read more
The week’s bestselling books at the Unity stores in Willis St, Welllington, and High St, Auckland. WELLINGTON UNITY 1 We Can Make a Life: A memoir of family, earthquakes and courage by Chessie Henry (Victoria University Press, $35) “I thought I knew the basic outline of what happened that day, but this was the first time … Read more
It’s Phantom Billstickers National Poetry Day! All week this week we’ve presented new verse on the delicate subject of fucking; today, we present a poem of much greater significance and importance, by Michael Hall of Dunedin. Constructive Criticism Awww come on ref The guy’s clearly offside Aww come on ref That’s not a penalty Aww … Read more
All week this week we present new verse, to celebrate National Poetry Day on Friday. Today’s poet: Tracey Slaughter of Thames. breather 1. * The only thing left of god by then was the key to a hotel room. Is it worth saying the room was turquoise & smelt like us coming in an … Read more
All week this week we present new verse, to celebrate Phantom Billstickers National Poetry Day on Friday. Today’s poet: Sam Hunt of Kaipara. The further you look ‘The further you look the less you see’ she said as she smiled & went down on me. She talked of her marriage a contract … Read more
All week this week we present new verse, to celebrate National Poetry Day on Friday. Today’s poet: Tayi Tibble of Kelburn. Assimilation they consider themselves to be a modern couple they take turns giving and receiving oral they split the bills evenly and they share the chores but when he … Read more
All week this week we present new verse, to celebrate National Poetry Day on Friday. Today’s poet: Paula Harris of Palmerston North. if I were a queen, I would start wars out of sexual frustration I wouldn’t be a virgin queen – obviously – but I would be known to become incredibly tetchy … Read more
The brilliant, barnstorming founding editor of Metro, Warwick Roger, has died aged 72. In this essay first published on the Spinoff in 2017, a memoir by American writer Richard Ford prompts Sir Bob Harvey to look back on his friendship with Roger and their shared love of Ford’s books. How does friendship happen? What glue does … Read more
New verse by Scottish poet Robin Robertson, who will appear at the Christchurch WORD literary festival and at LitCrawl in Wellington. Beside Loch Iffrin for Catherine Lockerbie Late January, and the oak still green, the year already wrong. The season miscarried – the lambs in the field, and the blossom blown – the … Read more
The week’s bestselling books at the Unity stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington. Throughout are images from Tatau: A Cultural History of Samoan Tattooing, reproduced with permission. AUCKLAND 1 Warlight: A Novel by Michael Ondaatje (Jonathan Cape, $35) The blockbuster novel of 2018. 2 Coming To It: Selected Poems by Sam Hunt (Potton & Burton, $30) New verse … Read more
Mermaid expert Megan Dunn reviews horny fish-fucking novel, The Pisces, which she celebrates as “funny, profane, nasty, disturbing and taboo-breaking”. There are books that make you think and books that get you off. Melissa Broder’s first novel The Pisces does both. Never the twain shall meet, and when they do there might be rimming. Scratch that: anal. But sensitively, … Read more