New verse from Syrian-New Zealand poet and high schooler Mohamed Al Mansour. In Lebanon I had a big football team, twenty-three players and two captains. My two best friends in the team were Ali Ahmad and Mohamed. Ali Ahmad is fast and Mohamed is tall. We played in the same place every time. The ground … Read more
New work by poet Mohamed Hassan. If you are on mobile, read the poem in its intended format here. National Anthem I pledge allegiance to love and good coffee a sleepy heart two sets of feet burning a clatter … Read more
We conclude our week-long examination of the poet James K Baxter, and a new book of his letters, with an essay by the poet’s great-grandson Jack McDonald about his Nana, Baxter’s wife, the author and Māori leader Jacquie Sturm. “I was minding a four-year-old great-grandson, and we went down to the beach. We made a … Read more
Ashleigh Young talks about her feelings as she steps into her new role as poetry editor at The Spinoff Review of Books. Last week I read some poems from Gregory Kan’s poetry collection Under Glass (forthcoming in March with Auckland University Press). I tried to describe them to a friend, and said, “They’re amazing” in about … Read more
All week this week we present the 20 best books of the year. Today: the 20 best collections of poetry. Poūkahangatus by Tayi Tibble (Victoria University Press, $30) The best book of poetry published in New Zealand in 2018. Tibble’s debut collection is agile, daring, compelling. The poems draw whānau close and the women who matter … Read more
The star of Wellington’s awesome LitCrawl event this weekend is poet Kaveh Akbar, who has a great haircut. Iranian-American poet Kaveh Akbar will perform at Wellington’s annual LitCrawl event this weekend, and so will his haircut. Many say he has the best haircut in world literature. The evidence certainly strongly supports these claims. He is … Read more
Slam poetry! It’s raw, it’s rough, and it’s also a wildly popular live entertainment, writes Ben Fagan, who is masterminding slam events across the country this month. One of my favourite poetry moments happened a few years ago. I was at a slam in Wellington. It was packed. Someone had just finished performing and there was a … Read more
In the spirit of Mental Health Awareness Week, writer Carolyn Gillum has put together five poetic ‘cures’: poetry as a prescription for anxiety and stress, for feeling less alone, for insight into yourself and the world, for hope and for friendship. Poetry. Twenty-five years out of high school and the word still conjures the clink … Read more
New verse by Scottish poet Robin Robertson, who will appear at the Christchurch WORD literary festival and at LitCrawl in Wellington. Beside Loch Iffrin for Catherine Lockerbie Late January, and the oak still green, the year already wrong. The season miscarried – the lambs in the field, and the blossom blown – the … Read more
Hollie McNish – author, poet, activist, mother, spoken word artist, winner of the Ted Hughes Award – is coming to New Zealand to speak at Word Christchurch. Author and Spinoff Parents contributor Holly Walker caught up with McNish to discuss motherhood and writing. When I read award-winning British poet Hollie McNish’s ‘poetic memoir’ about motherhood, … Read more
New verse by the winner of the 2018 Ockham New Zealand national book award prize for poetry, Elizabeth Smither. Night time words to Ruby I hold you in my arms and say beautiful girl, beautiful girl. You do not want to go to bed: instead you say you’re instructed to lie between … Read more
New verse by Wellington poet Tayi Tibble. Ode to Johnsonville’s Cindy Crawford 1. Once at a Jehovah’s Witness convention an old frightened man pleaded, Adrienne? Is that you? His face was a screwed-up ball of God-fearing agony and, accused, I blurted, No! I’m just her daughter! I remember the relief in his features; it was … Read more
New verse by Wellington writer Jane Arthur, who pocketed $5000 last week as winner of the 2018 Sarah Broom Poetry Prize. Keanu is afraid I am afraid of the dark. But I mean that in a real philosophical way. – Keanu Reeves Keanu must seek out the light. The dark makes him feel so afraid: it’s … Read more
New verse by Australian writer Eloise Grills. Independent woman I am an independent woman I pay for all my groceries Even for the nuts which I could Theoretically put through as Less expensive nuts At the self-checkout I pay the prescribed price I do not Need a man It’s easy like when … Read more
Charlotte Grimshaw reviews a new collection of letters by Sylvia Plath – most written to her mother, whom she both loved and loathed. So much has been written about Sylvia Plath that reading her letters involves a continual reference beyond them, to all that’s known about her life. As I grappled with this enormous, hardcover book, … Read more
Henry Oliver talks to Ross Sutherland, a British poet whose VHS performance piece Standby for Tape Back-Up, a multimedia meditation on memory, meaning and grief, is on in Auckland and Wellington this week. A little over ten years ago, with a healthy dose of mid-00s meta-irony, a group of friends and I get stoned and … Read more
Poet and mother Anna Livesey is interviewed by novelist and mother Kirsten McDougall on being creative, the mummy/woman divide, and her new book of poetry. Ordinary Time is Anna Livesey’s third book of poetry. In her book she delves deep into parenting, the personal and the political, and reflects on life as a mother. Let’s … Read more
All week this week the Spinoff Review of Books devotes itself to poetry in the build-up to Phantom Billstickers National Poetry Day on Friday. Today: Kirsten Warner explores why it is that New Zealand poetry has such a friend in Phantom. The first time I saw one of Phantom Billstickers’ poster poems I couldn’t believe … Read more
All week this week the Spinoff Review of Books is devoted to poetry in the build-up to the Phantom Billstickers National Poetry Day on Friday. Yesterday we ran an essay by Helen Hogan, editor of 1970s anthologies of poetry by New Zealand college students; today, an essay by distinguished poet Andrew Johnston, who Hogan published when he … Read more
New verse by west Auckland writer Paula Green, who was awarded the Prime Minister’s award for poetry this week and pockets $60,000. The New York Public Library Josephine stands outside The New York Public Library like a scarecrow and gapes at the Grecian urns, the guardian lions glaring from plinths. Really, she is … Read more
Can you sum up parenting in a few syllables? We asked some members of the Brilliant & Amazing Writers & Mothers online writers’ community to share some haiku with us. Cold hands grabbing me Mummy, mummy, where are you. I don’t know. Do you? – Emalitza Coffee. More coffee. Remember waking up when It was … 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
In his first speech after getting the formal tick from his caucus, and ahead of a trip to Government House to be sworn in as prime minister, Bill English has proved his literary credentials by reading a line from a poem. Go poetry. Go English Lit Bill. Here we publish the poem in full. Prime … Read more
New verse by Wellington writer Nick Ascroft. This Poem Is Guaranteed to Awaken a Coma Victim Is someone you love in a coma? A family member perhaps. Perhaps a pet. Perhaps you yourself are in a coma. Perhaps someone is reading this to you in the hopes of awakening you. If … Read more
A translation of good old Catallus (c84-54BC) by Claudia Jardine. Introductory remarks by Claudia Jardine: A lot of New Zealand writers have had a go at Catullus [in Anna Jackson’s I, Clodia and Other Portraits, quite literally]. He holds a special place in the heart for most Latin students, being the usual introduction to Latin love … Read more
Steve Braunias interviews the amazing Wellington poet Hera Lindsay Bird, author of the smash hit poem ‘Keats Is Dead So Fuck Me From Behind’. This week Hera Lindsay launches her first collection of poetry titled Hera Lindsay Bird. It includes her breathtaking poem posted yesterday at the Spinoff, ‘Keats Is Dead So Fuck Me From Behind‘, … Read more
New verse by Kaipara poet Sam Hunt. My father’s waistcoats My father’s waistcoats never had pockets. It was years later someone explained a good lawyer in court didn’t need notes… I never went with the law like my father would have liked. But I got to swing juries – … Read more
Two new poems by the amazing David Eggleton, a finalist in next week’s Ockham national book award for his noisy book of visions, The Conch Trumpet (Otago University Press). Floral Clock Dawn’s orange soak rinses the copper lid that floats over Noel Lane’s kava bowl back of the War Museum, the front’s white colonnade, and Ferro-Concrete … Read more
New verse by Wellington writer, academic and editor Harry Ricketts. Having trouble with your relationship? You may or may not be to blame. Don’t delay ‒ contact Dumper & Co today. Does he or she play home and away? Suspect them of being bi, straight or gay? Having trouble with your relationship? Some like it … Read more