An independent, sensuous life unfolds in hundreds of brightly-lit scenes. I first heard of Ian Wedde in the 1960s, through his poetry. It was a jolt. Wasn’t verse supposed to be runic and remote? This guy was chatting to you! OK, chatting in a voice that was colloquial yet innovative; expansive and technically virtuosic, but … Read more
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Business groups welcome big infrastructure spend, four charged by SFO in relation to election donations, and Pacific countries act against coronavirus. So, the massive infrastructure package has been announced. Here’s the top lines of the announcement in the form of a cheat sheet, and Stuff has a breakdown of … Read more
A poem from Ockham prize-winning poet Helen Heath. Helen Heath’s second collection of poetry, Are Friends Electric?, took out the top poetry prize – now sponsored by Peter and Mary Biggs – last night at the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards. Are Friends Electric? is a work that explores questions of life and death and … Read more
All of the books up for the country’s shiniest literary gongs at the Auckland Writers Festival are boxed up in some publicist’s back room, just waiting to be shipped to YOU!! Every year the Auckland Writers Festival unfolds at the Aotea Centre, a glorious parallel universe where you get to sit in a comfy chair … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: MPs weigh in on upcoming student climate strikes, backpackers speak out about NZ work conditions, and sex crime reports still not resulting in charges. Some of New Zealand’s MPs have little good to say about the upcoming school strikes around climate change. Demonstrations will be taking place … Read more
The clock has struck 5:00am – meaning the embargo on the 2019 Ockham New Zealand national book awards has been lifted, and the dear old Spinoff Review of Books is first in with the full list of who has made it. Okay so here is the shortlist, as immediately follows; drum roll please; do join us … Read more
Welcome back to Papercuts, our new books podcast hosted by Louisa Kasza, Jenna Todd and Kiran Dass. In this episode, we talk about why the new offshore GST changes are good for local bookstores, Louisa breaks down her latest Spinoff Books review, we celebrate 50 years of the NZ Book Awards with our recommendations of past … Read more
A horse walks into a bar, and the bartender says, “No, the book awards are next door.” Mein gott! The book awards are on tonight, in a matter of hours, any minute! There will be so many intellectuals as well as publishers. And the thing that will be occupying the thoughts and anxieties of just … Read more
All week this week we focus on books and authors nominated for next Tuesday’s Ockham national book awards. Today: a goddamned epic interview (6000 words!) with fiction finalist Patrick Evans, conducted by Spinoff Review of Books literary editor Steve Braunias. The live email interview is seldom practised but will revolutionise journalism as we know it, … Read more
All week this week we feature books and authors who are nominated for next week’s Ockham national book awards. Today: Steve Braunias gazes upon the wonders of one of the four finalists for best book of illustrated non-fiction. Here is one of the reasons New Zealand Photography Collected (Te Papa Press) by Athol McCredie is … Read more