An extraordinary, tender response to Witi Ihimaera’s memoir Native Son

Summer reissue: poet essa may ranapiri says this review is one of the hardest things they’ve written.  First published 10 February 2020.  Independent journalism depends on you. Help us stay curious in 2021.  The Spinoff’s journalism is funded by its members – click here to learn more about how you can support us from as … Read more

Two reviews of One Minute Crying Time, a memoir by Barbara Ewing

Linda Burgess and Michael Hurst with quite different takes on a new book by New Zealand-born actress, playwright and writer Barbara Ewing. Michael Hurst This is a memoir very much written from the perspective of the present; evocative, authentic, humorous and poignant. Barbara Ewing approaches her subject via a series of diaries she kept all … Read more

The Ockham finalists just got announced, and two very hot books are missing

Ladies and gentlemen we have a horse race. Below, books editor Catherine Woulfe offers up odds on the fiction contenders. But first, here’s the complete list of finalists for the 2020 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards. THE JANN MEDLICOTT ACORN PRIZE FOR FICTION Auē, by Becky Manawatu (Mākaro Press) Pearly Gates, by Owen Marshall (Vintage, … Read more

An extraordinary, tender response to Witi Ihimaera’s memoir Native Son

Poet essa may ranapiri says this review is one of the hardest things they’ve written.  I spend two months with this book, following Witi Ihimaera’s journey, I see car tyres in country roads I see tears on lover’s faces, I feel the beating of the heart, as it strains against the western paradigm of heteronormativity. … Read more