Whangarei writer Michael Botur describes how the shit jobs he’s had have provided valuable material for his new collection of short stories, Lowlife. It was hard moving to Northland in 2015 and finding income and inspiration in its very small economy. I laboured on the catamaran of a rich lawyer with obvious plastic surgery. He … Read more
Huzzah! Congratulations to the winner and two runners-up of New Zealand’s grooviest writers residency award. Auckland writer Serena Benson is winner of the prestigious 2017 Surrey Hotel Steve Braunias Memorial Writers Residency In Association With The Spinoff Award. Jesse Mulligan made the announcement on his Radio New Zealand show this afternoon, and also named the … Read more
Herald police reporter Anna Leask takes a look inside women’s prisons, in this powerful excerpt from her new book Behind Bars. When they locked her up for the first time her baby girl wasn’t even two months old. The day she went to court for sentencing she couldn’t bear to bring her daughter with her. … Read more
New verse inasmuch it’s previously unpublished, but really it’s old verse cos it was written ages ago, by Wellington writer Hera Lindsay Bird. Bruce Willis You Are The Ghost It’s not that your wife doesn’t love you. It’s because you died and now you are a ghost and she can’t hear you talking to her. That time … Read more
The best-selling books at the two best bookstores in the galaxy. NOTE: The Spinoff’s mystery bestseller commentator is off on a hike or something, leaving this week’s list stripped of furniture. But the important details still remain. AUCKLAND UNITY 1 A Horse Walks Into a Bar by David Grossman (Vintage, $26) 2 No Is Not … Read more
Andra Jenkin reviews The Power, a wildly successful feminist sci-fi novel which imagines a world where women are in control. Naomi Alderman’s The Power is speculative fiction set in a future and based on the fascinating premise that women are suddenly able to inflict pain and death at will. This is the power of the … Read more
Charlotte Graham reviews the ‘horrifying’ new memoir by Roxane Gay. Content warning: this article discusses sexual assault and eating disorders, which may be distressing for sufferers and survivors. When Roxane Gay was 12 years old she rode her bike into the woods with a boy she was dating, and he and his friends took turns raping her. … Read more
In the second of our occasional series of reports of literary activity in provincial towns, Taumarunui writer Antony Millen – a runner-up in last year’s Surrey Hotel writers residency award – describes what goes on in the King Country. It’s nearly 3am, sometime in December of 2012, and I’ve just completed the draft of my first novel … Read more
We received close to 100 entries for the coolest writers residency award in New Zealand. Today, right now, we name the 10 writers who have made the shortlist. Ten finalists have been chosen in the 2017 Surrey Hotel Steve Braunias Memorial Writers Residency in Association with The Spinoff Award. Applications for the second annual extremely groovesome writers award … Read more
New verse by Christchurch poet Jeffrey Paparoa Holman. Highway 61 (Old) So by accident I found the road that gave you song, by need alone I drove the miles where Abraham, the way you tell it, heard God say, “Go kill your son.” I slid a CD in the player. I turned the … Read more
The best-selling books at the two best bookstores in the galaxy. WELLINGTON UNITY 1 The Ministry Of Utmost Happiness by Arundhati Roy (Hamish Hamilton, $38) “A hotchpotch rather than a patchwork, a jigsaw with many missing pieces…It teems with anecdote but there is very little dialogue. Instead, Roy builds this story of contemporary India with … Read more
You need this book in your life, right now, this instant. Steve Braunias recommends a New Zealand classic. Finally a guidebook that takes you somewhere you want to go, like right now, as the country trembles under a cold snap and is dying for some warmth. Sally Jackson is the author of a new edition … Read more
Marion McLeod is baffled and somewhat bored to sobs by the eagerly awaited second novel by Indian superstar novelist Arundhati Roy. It’s 20 years since Arundhati Roy published her first novel, The God of Small Things, and won the Booker. She was the first Indian actually resident in India to do so. A few months … Read more
What the hell is Sarah Quigley playing at in her novel about three mentally ill young people on the brink of suicide, wonders Holly Walker. Last week’s “Break the Silence” series by Olivia Carville in the New Zealand Herald was intended to start a national conversation about youth suicide. Are we not already having that … Read more
New Zealand writers – published and unpublished, sane and unsane – have until midnight to apply for the writers residency at the Surrey Hotel in Auckland. The deadline to apply for New Zealand literature’s coolest writing residency has been extended but not by much: writers have until midnight (Monday night, July 10) to send in … Read more
He’s the author of the lauded and prize-winning novel Mister Pip, but Lloyd Jones is even prouder of his son Avi, who this week was crowned winner of Survivor NZ. Until the age of nine or ten, he was a fat little bugger. When he was seven he asked to do the fun run around … Read more
The best-selling books at the two best bookstores eva. WELLINGTON UNITY 1 The Ministry Of Utmost Happiness by Arundhati Roy (Hamish Hamilton, $38) Marion McLeod’s review will feature at the Spinoff Review of Books next week or maybe the week after. The author won’t be in any hurry to read it, put it that way. 2 … Read more
New big bad wolf verse by Dunedin writer Emma Neale. The Belt How could they ever love anyone else after what he had done? Listened to that woman whose voice graunched like a spoon that tries to drag the pattern off the plate when even the broth scrapings are gone. Took … Read more
An essay by Thom Shackleford on the relationship between the lost, desolate characters in the latest book by Japanese superstar writer Haruki Murakami, and the ghostliness of Japan. The densely inhabited cities of Japan are miracles of metropolitan safety and goodwill, populated almost exclusively by people who are polite and friendly to the point of excess. … Read more
Calling all New Zealand writers! Apply now for the writers residency at the Surrey Hotel in Auckland. New Zealand literature’s coolest writing residency is up and running again. The fabulous Surrey Hotel – named the Best Hotel in Auckland by a well-known writer in the New Zealand Herald – has once again agreed to offer a writers … Read more
Happy birthday today, Sam Hunt! To mark the occasion we present a poem by Selina Tusitala Marsh. Orange Crayon Stick Figure Man (on the occasion of reading “with’”Sam Hunt at the Parnell Rose Gardens, only to discover that “with” was employed euphemistically to describe sharing the same venue, but performing at different times) … Read more
New Zealand career diplomat Gerald McGhie witnessed the fall of Gorbachev and the rise of Yeltsin when he served as our ambassador to Russia – but seems to have seen nuzzink, writes reviewer Tony Simpson. I have encountered quite a number of New Zealand foreign service staff, some at quite senior levels in my own … Read more
An extract from the extraordinary Woman in the Wilderness, a memoir by Miriam Lancewood about her decision to leave civilisation to live – and hunt – in the New Zealand bush. We lit a fire, toasted some bread on hot coals and, after two cups of tea, I stood up and took my bow. “I … Read more
The best-selling books at the two best bookstores south of Aberdeen. AUCKLAND UNITY 1 No is Not Enough: Resisting Trump’s Shock Politics and Winning the World We Need by Naomi Klein (Allen Lane, $35) From the introduction: “This is one attempt to uncover how we got to this surreal political moment. It is also an … Read more
New verse by Dunedin writer Michael Hall. The Survivor Series Jeff, I used to watch the show Jeff, I liked the first two well enough I suppose Jeff, I came back for a later season Jeff, one day instead of the island it will be the planet you will be voted off The … Read more
A personal essay by Kaipara novelist Kelly Ana Morey. ‘I can’t be the ‘Māori’ writer people want me to be,’ she writes, ‘all I can be is myself.’ Two weeks ago I buried my father. He had a good innings and largely got to die in the privacy and comfort of his own home due to … Read more
Thalia Kehoe Rowden tracks down 22 picture books which actually reflect the New Zealand of today. Where are the characters in New Zealand books that look like Pasifika or Māori children? What books can they read to see their faces, families and lives reflected? I’ve reviewed every single book I’ve found that has been published in the … Read more
Apirana Taylor backgrounds his new novel set in “the criminal underbelly of New Zealand’s underworld”. I sat down one morning to write a sentence which culminated in a 245-page novel several years later. A little bird sang, “This story is true. Write it.” And so I wrote Five Strings, a love story about two alcoholic drug … Read more
The best-selling books at the two best bookstores known to God. WELLINGTON UNITY 1 The Whole Intimate Mess: Motherhood, Politics & Women’s Writing by Holly Walker (Bridget Williams Texts, $15) “There is nothing normal about crawling up the hallway, screaming and hitting yourself in the head, in front of your baby…”: Revealing and intense … Read more