Wellington writer, illustrator and Katherine Mansfield obsessive Sarah Laing has a new book out tomorrow. Here, she tells its origin story. My first baby was really bad at breastfeeding – or else, as my mother and the Plunket nurse insinuated, I had the wrong shaped nipples. He couldn’t get the suction right and it would … Read more
Joan Fleming on Wild Honey: Reading New Zealand Women’s Poetry, the humming, house-like opus by poet and champion of poets, Paula Green. When Miranda July came to Melbourne in 2016, she did something that I have found difficult to forget. She told us that she was going to stage a conversation between ‘all the men … Read more
Paula Green, madwoman, took it upon herself to launch three (3) books this month. The biggie is Wild Honey, a deeply-researched but accessible tribute to women poets in New Zealand. We’ve a review underway, but for now, let’s talk about the cover – the bit that hits you first. It’s a painting by artist and … Read more
Sarah Laing – and her mum – “absolutely loves” The Gustav Sonata, the purringly well-made new novel by Rose Tremain. Rose Tremain is my mother’s kind of writer – which is not to say that I don’t like her too. My mother has certain criteria when it comes to books: they can have tragedy but ultimately there … Read more