You’re born either a cheery soul or a gloomy one, reckons Linda Burgess – but what happens when gene pools from opposite ends of the spectrum collide? In our shoeboxes of photos that we have to sort out before we die or get demented – because who IS that kid on the plane, or that … Read more
David Hill reflects on his mother’s life of servitude, and that of many others like her. My mother spent most of her adult life being a servant. We don’t have servants now. We have service industries (I actually thought all industries provided services), but we don’t call their employees “servants”. They’re enveloped in euphemisms: “personal … Read more
While working at The Dominion, journalist Phil Taylor met Dan Dudson – a prolific burglar who liked sending long, handwritten letters to the detectives busy trying to pin him down. The pair would eventually go on to strike up an unlikely and enduring friendship, right up until Dudson’s death in June this year aged 74. … Read more
A chronic illness is a life-changing experience for anyone – but what if it stops you from doing the one thing you’re best at? Dick Widdison writes about his year writing with a chronic illness. I’ve never found writing hard. It’s the brag that I genuinely never intend as one – it’s just that the … Read more
The Monday Extract: Wellington writer John-Paul Powley pulls together Parihaka, imperialism, capitalism, and catered lunches at education conferences in a searching essay on Māori achievement. “This bird [the ruru] with a hundred eyes was venerated in Taranaki, where Te Whiti had chosen this symbol and the stalking Pakeha cat for an action song depicting events that … Read more
Auckland writer Kirsten Warner on the continuing horror of the Holocaust for second generation survivors. A Facebook friend recently made contact to say he’d heard me talking on National Radio about my newly published novel The Sound of Breaking Glass. His wife was, like me, the child of a survivor of the Holocaust. He said he’d … Read more
The Monday Extract: A harrowing personal essay by Christchurch poet Jeffrey Paparoa Holman from his new memoir. Even before I took LSD with a poet friend I was becoming unhinged. It was as if I just didn’t care; with a few cans of beer on board to dull the rational sites in the brain, dropping a … Read more
A semi-fictional memoir by Jackson C Payne, son of the late Bill Payne, an ex-con busted for drugs, winner of the 1993 Sargeson Literary Fellowship, author of a classic book about New Zealand gangs, and writer in residence at the Alhambra in Three Lamps. The year after he died they sprinkled his ashes at the house of … Read more
An essay by Philip Matthews in response to the publication of Bob Dylan’s Nobel Prize lecture. I keep hearing about allegedly weird Joaquin Phoenix interviews that don’t really seem that weird at all. Internet news alerts say we need to talk about that Joaquin Phoenix interview or they might put out some quick Buzzfeed summary … Read more
To sleep or not to sleep? Madeleine Chapman stays overnight at Max Richter’s eight hour show and realises how tired she is. Being tired is a privilege that must be earned, and I earned it for the first time as a 23 year old. I used to think being tired meant being sleepy. I thought … Read more
A personal essay by veteran journalist Chris Barton on what it’s like to be made redundant by the Herald – and his fears for any kind of intelligent, long-form writing in mainstream media. When the end came, in December 2012, it was brutal. I was called to a meeting in an editor’s office. It was immediately clear that, to … Read more
Graeme Lay meets John Dunmore, the 92-year-old world authority on Pacific exploration – who has also written thrillers on the side, like the one about an assassin sent to New Zealand to kill Prime Minister Rob Muldoon. Question: Who is New Zealand’s oldest living writer still publishing? CK Stead? James McNeish? Gordon McLauchlan? Answer: John Dunmore, 92, … Read more
As winner of the 2015 Nigel Cox Award, Steve Braunias was awarded $1000 worth of books at Unity. He’s finally spent the last dollar, and reports on his shopping spree. The thing about winning the Nigel Cox Prize is that it comes as a total surprise to the chosen authors, and I hate surprises. The … Read more