Every day this week the Spinoff Review of Books is publishing a new poem in the build-up to the Phantom Billstickers national poetry day on Friday. Today: ‘The laureate’s last…’ by CK Stead The laureate’s last… His last was not least nor yet his best but shaped for a shoe his size and like … Read more
All week this week the Spinoff Review of Books devotes itself to poetry in the build-up to Phantom Billstickers National Poetry Day on Friday. Today: Louise Wallace, co-editor of an online journal which publishes poetry and stories by New Zealand writers under 25, reaches out to high school students. I really didn’t like poetry when I … Read more
Every day this week the Spinoff Review of Books is publishing a new poem in the build-up to the Phantom Billstickers national poetry day on Friday. Today: ‘Words of praise’ by Ashleigh Young Words of praise On most drives I like quiet because my mother had a habit of appraising every passing scene, calling … Read more
All week this week the Spinoff Review of Books is devoted to poetry in the build-up to the Phantom Billstickers National Poetry Day on Friday. Yesterday we ran an essay by Helen Hogan, editor of 1970s anthologies of poetry by New Zealand college students; today, an essay by distinguished poet Andrew Johnston, who Hogan published when he … Read more
Every day this week the Spinoff Review of Books is publishing a new poem in the build-up to the Phantom Billstickers national poetry day on Friday. Today: ‘Ascend’ by Bart English Ascend Inspired by Maya Angelou’s “A caged bird” I look Up at the sky And wish that I could fly, To grow … Read more
Every day this week the Spinoff Review of Books is publishing a new poem in the build-up to the Phantom Billstickers national poetry day on Friday. Today: ‘The Dogs of Talimatau’ by Selina Tusitala Marsh The Dogs of Talimatau (for Uncle Siva) My son finds a tail on the lawn a paw on the drive … Read more
All week this week the Spinoff Review of Books devotes itself to poetry in the build-up to Phantom Billstickers National Poetry Day on Friday. Today: an essay by the remarkable Helen Hogan, who brought poetry to a generation of young New Zealanders. In 1971, I edited an anthology of New Zealand poetry for secondary school … Read more
The best-selling books at the two best bookstores known to God. WELLINGTON UNITY 1 Strange Beautiful Excitement: Katherine Mansfield’s Wellington 1888-1903 by Redmer Yska (Otago University Press, $40) Brilliant retracing of KM’s footsteps when she lived in Wellington. Charlotte Grimshaw’s review is due to run in The Spinoff Review of Books any day now. 2 A Moral … Read more
New verse by New Plymouth writer Elizabeth Smither. The name in the freezer Someone we both disliked: you wrote his name on a slip of paper, folded it and inserted it in the freezer under a tray of ice cubes, next to a frozen chicken, frozen vegetables a casserole sectioned into cartons. … Read more
An essay by Carl Shuker in response to the shoddy response of most reviewers to the new novel by Wellington writer Pip Adam. Why, he simmers, are so many New Zealand critics so lazy, so patronising, so cheerfully ignorant, and just plain wrong? The finest piece of writing in New Zealand fiction this century happened and you … Read more
Auckland writer Dean Parker backgrounds the making of his novel – a kind of sequel to a classic of New Zealand fiction, Man Alone. I started writing my novel Johnson in 2008. Originally it carried the more effusive title, Hooray, Fuck. I know the year when I started it because of the date on an early file … Read more
An essay by Welsh writer Rhydian Thomas on getting the bash, again and again, since moving to New Zealand. The moral of the story: fuck Hamilton. The truck pulls over at the end of the Tauranga harbour bridge and the driver’s out before any of us can say a word, engine still running. He makes … Read more
Exclusive: a book by Steve Braunias, a memoir by the woman who was left for dead by Tony Dixon, and a former TV reporter’s investigation into the wrongful conviction of Teina Pora all feature in the shortlist for this year’s crime writing awards. Ye olde Spinoff Review of Books can exclusively reveal the finalists of … Read more
New verse by Wellington writer Louise Wallace. Meryl Streep 1 Meryl Streep went nuts at me in the breakfast room, because I’d taken her table by mistake. Have a lovely day! I wanted to say as we left, but my husband, a calm and sensible man, convinced me to take the moral … Read more
The best-selling books at the two best bookstores in Auckland and Wellington. WELLINGTON UNITY 1 The Ministry Of Utmost Happiness by Arundhati Roy (Hamish Hamilton, $38) “Roy is good at titles”: pretty much the nicest thing our reviewer Marion McLeod had to say about this sprawling mess. 2 Strange Beautiful Excitement: Katherine Mansfield’s Wellington 1888-1903 … Read more
We conclude our week-long look at A Moral Truth, an important new book about investigative journalism in New Zealand, with the return of the dear old revolutionary live email interview – conducted with Kirsty Johnston, a Herald legend whose work features in the book. Kirsty Johnston is a superstar of New Zealand journalism, one of … Read more
All week the Spinoff Review of Books is examining and taking inspiration from A Moral Truth, an important new book about investigative journalism in New Zealand. Today: Former Mana editor Leonie Hayden, now of The Spinoff, considers the lack of Māori newspaper reporters. It’s alarming when you realise that the world is starting to be … Read more
All week this week the Spinoff Review of Books examines A Moral Truth, an important new book about investigative journalism in New Zealand. Today: the book is reviewed by John Campbell. In August, 1903, the New Zealand Herald published a series of articles by Hilda Rollett on “the slums of Auckland”. Greedy landlords, overcrowding, “diseases … Read more
All week this week the Spinoff Review of Books examines a new book devoted to investigative journalism in New Zealand. Today: an excerpt from the book, in which James Hollings backgrounds an investigation by Herald legend Matt Nippert. Late in 2016, then-Prime Minister John Key was in Peru for a summit of world leaders. At … Read more
The best-selling books at the two best bookstores you ever did see. AUCKLAND UNITY 1 The 7th Function of Language by Laurent Binet (Harvill Press, $35) Pretentious bullshit. 2 The Ministry Of Utmost Happiness by Arundhati Roy (Hamish Hamilton, $38) Trash, damningly reviewed by Marion McLeod at the Spinoff Review of Books. 3 The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret … Read more
New verse by west Auckland writer Paula Green, who was awarded the Prime Minister’s award for poetry this week and pockets $60,000. The New York Public Library Josephine stands outside The New York Public Library like a scarecrow and gapes at the Grecian urns, the guardian lions glaring from plinths. Really, she is … Read more
The results of a new poll show that the cover of the Cazador cookbook is not “shit”. The people have spoken. A new cookbook, slandered as “shit” by Spinoff books editor Steve Braunias, has been declared in an important new opinion poll to be “good”. The Spinoff ran a story of two halves on Tuesday. … Read more
Neil Young reviews the diaries of everybody’s favourite memoirist, David Sedaris. In one of my favourite books, A Little History of the World, the author Ernst Gombrich compares our experience of the past to a scrap of burning paper falling down a bottomless well. The burning paper falls and briefly lights up the sides of … Read more
Awesome photos from a magnificent new book on the history and glory of tōtara. Golden Bay botanist Philip Simpson knows his trees. He is the tree man. He is the root of all knowledge on trees, the first and last word on trees, the guy who puts trees on the map – he is the author of the magnificent … Read more
Books editor Steve Braunias and Auckland editor Simon Wilson debate the merits of the book cover just named New Zealand’s best of the year. Steve Braunias: People say New Zealand literature is short of laughs but the Publishers Association of New Zealand (PANZ!) book design awards are reliably LOL. Oh hang on they’re not joking. Year after … Read more
A special investigation headed by Steve Braunias asks: Has much happened this year in New Zealand writing? Nothing much has happened this year in New Zealand writing. It’s been pretty quiet. No new sensation, like Hera Lindsay Bird in 2016; a lot of stuff from Victoria University Press, some of it readable; trash from the … Read more
The best-selling books at the two best bookstores which sell books. WELLINGTON UNITY 1 The Ministry Of Utmost Happiness by Arundhati Roy (Hamish Hamilton, $38) Tedious, fatuous novel longlisted for the 2017 Man Booker award. 2 The New Zealand Project by Max Harris (Bridget Williams Books, $40) Max! 3 Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls … Read more
Two new spoons poems by Dunedin writer Liz Breslin. when life gives you spoons when life gives you spoons, measure sugar, stir the juice when life gives you spoons, fix tyres when life gives you spoons, play Kadabra, stare them down when life gives you spoons, grab them off a plane when life … Read more
Paula Morris responds to the ‘glorious, painful, sharp and funny’ anthology of Māori writing, Black Marks on a White Page. Nobody likes a Māori writer. First of all, nobody knows who we are. Nobody knows the names of any writers, apart from the ones with movies [see: Frame, Ihimaera, Duff, Wendt]. This is really our … Read more