New verse by Sophie van Waardenberg. unhatched egg/two girls at easter we are helping to cut down the trees they say. we know what the hills will look like when we have finished. they will have burn scars like we have on our wrists from clumsiness, from baking. the dog tastes a hundred empty … Read more
An essay by Finlay Macdonald on a typically brilliant and impossible to categorise work of biographical art by the late James McNeish. A journalist friend of mine once fell foul of the establishment so badly that he was forced to leave the country. It was an unhappy time, and he later suggested he’d like to … Read more
A razor gang at the Auckland Council led to yesterday’s announcement that the city’s libraries are cutting 74 members of staff. Former Auckland librarian Ethan Sills reports. Libraries are magical institutions. It can feel unreal that they still exist, given how fantastical the idea of them seems. Buildings where you can go and borrow books … Read more
Education in New Zealand is obsessed with assessment and ticking the right boxes, and not doing the Wrong Thing. A new book argues in favour of positive disobedience as practised and taught by that apparent figure of authority: the teacher. It’s late at night. Outside you can hear the hum of commuters as they make their … Read more
To conclude our week-long series on Greymouth writer Peter Hooper: two poems by his former student Jeffrey Paparoa Holman, from his new collection of verse, Blood Ties. Poem for John Pule: the last days of Peter Hooper Stoned on Waiheke on Pule’s grass that was a surprise: “Well, yes and no, Jeff, … Read more
The best-selling books at the two best bookstores in the English-speaking world. WELLINGTON UNITY 1 Hit & Run: the NZ SAS in Afghanistan & The Meaning of Honour by Nicky Hager and Jon Stephenson (Potton Burton, $35) Hager, in an interview with Vice: “I feel confident that one way or another, they [the government] haven’t … Read more
All week this week we look at the life and writing of Greymouth novelist and poet Peter Hooper (1919-91). Today: a West Coast memoir by Steve Braunias. I was only passing through the West Coast, lived in Greymouth for not much more than a year, packed a picnic lunch and a copy of the newly … Read more
All week this week we revisit the life and writing of Greymouth author Peter Hooper (1919-91). Today: an excerpt from Hooper’s 1990 book Shade of the Mugumo Tree, a tender account of his journey to Kenya to visit Julius Kitivi, whom he sponsored through the Save the Children Fund. The two became close friends during … Read more
All week this week we look at the life and writing of Greymouth writer and conservationist Peter Hooper (1919-91). Today: a memoir by Hooper’s longtime friend and editor Brian Turner, taken from his speech at the launch in the weekend of Pat White’s biography. Peter Hooper is a name that is seldom mentioned when NZ … Read more
All week this week we look at the life and writing of Peter Hooper (1919-91), a Greymouth author who won the national book award in 1986 for a profound, exciting novel set on the West Coast after an apocalypse. He’s now a largely forgotten name in New Zealand letters, but a new biography provides a vivid reminder … Read more
The best-selling books at the two best bookstores in the English-speaking world. AUCKLAND UNITY 1 Hit and Run: The New Zealand SAS in Afghanistan and the Meaning of Honour by Nicky Hager and Jon Stephenson (Potton & Burton, $35) “The New Zealand Defence Force appears to have destroyed the journalistic reputations of Nicky Hager and Jon Stephenson”: Ian … Read more
New verse by Starling editor Louise Wallace PLUS BONUS EXTRA essay on attending a poetry festival in Mexico. Mexico! Best actress in a supporting role wife wife wife wife wife wife wife wife wife wife wife wife wife wife wife wife wife wife wife wife wife wife wife wife wife wife wife wife wife wife … Read more
George Saunders’ Lincoln in the Bardo is the year’s most talked-about novel, and there’s much excitement that the author will appear at the Auckland Writers Festival in May. Wyoming Paul reviews what may be a masterpiece. A year into the Civil War, a tormented President Lincoln visits his 11-year-old son’s crypt in the cemetery. He holds … Read more
We asked the distinguished Katherine Mansfield scholar Vincent O’Sullivan to comment on the recent attempt by Wellington’s mayor to repatriate the bones of Katherine Mansfield. I once heard of an artist whose partner believed her legal status, even in life, meant “owner under all circumstances.” As a widow, there was even more to own. Not … Read more
The week’s best-selling books at the best bookstores in the known world. WELLINGTON UNITY 1 Hit & Run: the New Zealand SAS in Afghanistan and the Meaning of Honour by Nicky Hager and Jon Stephenson (Potton & Burton, $35) “The allegations in Hit & Run are shocking on a human level, but the notion of … Read more
New verse by Dunedin writer Emma Neale Big Bad She cried wolf but she was the wolf so she slit sad’s bellyskin and stones of want rolled out. She cried lack — and she was the lack so she stitched up sad’s bellyskin but more wolf leapt out. She cried wolf … Read more
In which cartoonist Toby Morris draws a review of the best-selling Trump book, Insane Clown President. * * Insane Clown President by Matt Taibbi (Penguin, $40) is available at Unity Books.
Tim Grgec plucked up courage to submit his poetry to literary journals. But he didn’t know anyone in New Zealand writing and no one had ever heard of him. So then what? I used to think of New Zealand’s poetry scene as an exclusive club – a club constricted in living, with strict rules on how to … Read more
Nicky Hager is launching his latest book tonight at Unity Books in Wellington. No one knows what it’s called or what it’s about; join us as our correspondents keep a close eye on the author and the bookshop throughout the day. 7:37am: Nicky Hager is awake, and has walked into his kitchen for breakfast. He toasts a … Read more
He painted his body with blue paint to perform naked with The Plague, wrote “There is no Depression in New Zealand”, and is now a tender memoirist: an excerpt from the new book by the legendary Richard Von Sturmer. My earliest memories of my father have to do with water: My father and I are … Read more
The week’s best-sellers at the two best bookstores in the Western World. AUCKLAND STORE 1 Can You Tolerate This? by Ashleigh Young (Victoria University Press, $30) Tweet on Monday from Fergus Barrowman, publisher at Victoria University Press: “I’m told the next thousand Can You Tolerate This? have just hit the warehouse and are more than … Read more
New verse by Auckland writer Carin Smeaton. Rēkohu, he got his eye on you he’s from the chathams you dont meet many people from there do u he says he keeping his name top secret cos it’s a small world out there all he’ll say is she’s opening up to the point of … Read more
The eternally awesome Karyn Hay delves into the story behind the story of her new novel, The March Of The Foxgloves. I feel I could easily write a book about the writing of this book. Several years of research went into this novel, and because I did it ‘as I went’ it inevitably interrupted the flow … Read more
A lawyer has run amok at the Auckland Art Gallery at the launch of the Auckland Writers Festival. The Spinoff Review of Books was there. A glass of red wine was spilled on a guest wearing an A-line Trelise Cooper pattern dress, quite ruining it, at tonight’s launch of the Auckland Writers Festival at the Auckland … Read more
Bucharest, Sofia, Edinburgh, Mt Roskill….An essay by traveler Garth Cartwright on another exile, Kapka Kassabova, on the occasion of her acclaimed new book. It’s December 1992 and I’ve just got off the bus from Bucharest, Romania, to Sofia, Bulgaria. Bucharest lay in ruins due to the late dictator Ceausescu’s vision of demolishing the historic city centre … Read more
Waiheke author Alex Stone on his new collection of stories, and the furious response one of them provoked at a writer’s group. After the usual shuffling of half a dozen bums settling on hard seats, the community hall goes quiet with expectation. A small writers’ group on our island home is ready to hear me read … Read more
An excerpt from The Special Patient, Auckland writer Aimee Inomata’s true story of how her partner was found not guilty of murder by reason of insanity and sentenced to seven years in a mental health unit. What happens, she asks, if your psychosis is substance-induced, a temporary insanity, and you have to live out your … Read more
The week’s best-sellers at the two best bookstores in the Western world. UNITY WELLINGTON 1 Rants in the Dark: From One Tired Mama to Another by Emily Writes (Penguin, $35) Oho! 2 Can You Tolerate This? by Ashleigh Young (Victoria University Press, $30) Awesome essays by the world’s most famous New Zealand writer right now. 3 … Read more
New verse by a Wellington writer who has become the world’s most famous New Zealand author, Ashleigh Young. Ghost Bear On flying ant day, Elliot took me to the glowing sign outside Kenneth Williams’ apartment. We stared at it for the necessary long while. Kenneth Williams said he hated everyone and everything, especially, … Read more