Peter Simpson writes exclusively for the Spinoff about his new, much talked-about book on the all-painting, all-chattering intelligentsia of Christchurch in the 1930s. In 1938 the musician Fred Page returned to Christchurch from studying at the Royal College of Music in London. On his first day back he ran into his friend the poet Allen … Read more
A reissue of an earlier piece in honour and remembrance of Nigel Cox, who passed away ten years ago today. Alongside David Slack, who always has a cackle on his lips, I appeared as guest speaker at a session on satirical writing at the Auckland Writers and Readers Festival in May, and it’s possible that I came across … Read more
The world is a fucked-up place with terrorists controlling the narrative (and the images), and distracted, anxious, over-fed America slouching towards a Trump apocalypse. Don DeLillo anticipated the way things have turned out; to mark the publication of his latest book, the Spinoff Review of Books devotes the entire week to the work of maybe the world’s … Read more
Sarah Laing reviews The Girls by American author Emma Cline, hyped as the next big thing in US writing. After I finished reading Emma Cline’s The Girls, I googled her. I have this notion that proper reviewers meditate on a book in a hermetically sealed intellectual space, sipping green tea and arranging river stones as … Read more
Wyoming Paul reviews two new New Zealand novels by women authors. She enjoys one but the other one leaves her cold. Debra Daley’s The Revelations of Carey Ravine and The Quiet Spectacular by Laurence Fearnley are both written by women and celebrate women. In Fearnley’s case, I wanted – but failed – to like a … 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 Wellington writer Hera Lindsay Bird. Keats Is Dead So Fuck Me From Behind Keats is dead so fuck me from behind Slowly and with carnal purpose Some black midwinter afternoon While all the children are walking home from school Peel my stockings down with your teeth Coleridge is dead and Auden … Read more
A weekly feature at the Spinoff Review of Books: The best-selling books at the Wellington and Auckland stores of Unity Books. THE BEST–SELLER CHART FOR THE WEEK JUST ENDED: July 8 AUCKLAND UNITY 1 In Love with These Times: My Life with Flying Nun Records (HarperCollins, $37) by Roger Shepherd Number one for the fifth week … Read more
Margo White reviews All At Sea by Decca Aitkenhead. It was a cloudless, calm Caribbean morning in Calabash Bay, Jamaica. From the porch of her holiday house, Decca Aitkenhead could see her four-year-old son, Jake, paddling in the shallow water, still in his pyjamas and at the feet of his Dad, Tony. A couple of minutes … Read more
Steve Braunias talks with the greatest salesman in the history of New Zealand publishing – Paul Greenberg, a small, unassuming gentleman who lives in Palmerston North, and was honoured with a lifetime achievement award in the weekend. Everyone in New Zealand books knows Paul Greenberg – he’s a living legend, the last of the mohicans. … Read more
“Lionel Shriver has written a gripping novel about fiscal and monetary policy,” says reviewer Holly Walker, “and the punchline is this: America is fucked. “ In humans, the mandible is the largest and strongest bone in the face. In insects, mandibles are those freaky appendages near the mouth, used to grab food and fend off … Read more
A weekly feature at the Spinoff Review of Books: The best-selling books at the Wellington and Auckland stores of Unity Books. THE BEST–SELLER CHART FOR THE WEEK JUST ENDED: June 24 UNITY BOOKS AUCKLAND 1 In Love with These Times: My Life with Flying Nun Records (HarperCollins, $37) by Roger Shepherd Number one for the third week … 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
Crime reporter Kelly Dennett is the winner of the inaugural Surrey Hotel Steve Braunias Memorial Writers Residency in Association with The Spinoff Award. There are two runners-up, both who have also won residencies at the Surrey Hotel in Auckland – in second place, Antony Millen of Taumaranui, who writes novels for young adults, with third place … Read more
The winners of our “exciting” new writers residency award will be announced live on air this Friday by Jesse Mulligan. Famous broadcaster Jesse Mulligan will announce the winners of the inaugural Surrey Hotel Steve Braunias Memorial Writers Residency in Association with The Spinoff Award on his Radio New Zealand show on Friday . The new … Read more
The Surrey Hotel and The Spinoff join forces to establish a new writer in residence award. Enter now! Auckland’s Surrey Hotel – named the Best Hotel in Auckland in the New Zealand Herald – is pleased to support a new writers residency award in association with The Spinoff. The winner of the Surrey Hotel Steve … Read more
Kiran Dass shares tea, biscuits and literary talk with Hanya Yanagihara. Shortlisted for the Man Booker prize for her incendiary novel A Little Life, Hanya Yanagihara appeared at the Auckland Writers Festival last week. While she was here, I sat down with her at the Langham Hotel, and we were served lemon and ginger iced tea and … Read more
An essay by Paula Morris on the bad vibes and bitching which immediately greeted her launch last week of the Academy of New Zealand Literature. Last week a lot of people squashed into the Gus Fisher Gallery on Shortland Street in Auckland to hear about the launch of the Academy of New Zealand Literature. Many … Read more
The Spinoff got given $20,000 by Creative New Zealand. Whee! Creative New Zealand announced the recipients of its latest arts grant funding last Thursday. All up, 84 grants totaling $1,811,509 were shelled out. The full list is online; here’s an edited version, because it’s the Monday Extract. The happy pigs with their snout in the … Read more
Forget Craig Marriner! We have a new strangest-ever winner of a New Zealand book award. Woah! The award for best dressed female went to Stella Chrysostomou, manager of Page and Blackmore bookstore in Nelson, and the best dressed male prize went to poet Chris Tse, who wore like these feathery swan things on his shoulders, sort of like … 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
An excerpt (lightly edited – the least it needed! So many semi-colons!) from the masterful biography Maurice Gee: Life and Work, by Rachel Barrowman (Victoria University Press). In this early chapter, she writes of Gee as a young, unhappy misfit in Wellington, putting up with James K Baxter and enjoying his time as a hospital … 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
Whena Owen reports on the slow gutting of Te Papa Press. Farewell afternoon teas are a very Wellington ritual where public servants gather around the nearly departed, politely chatting and nibbling at gluten-free cake. The team leader’s speech will first attempt a joke then list the many virtues of their subordinate who is finally handed vouchers and … Read more
After two days of ‘cunts’ on The Spinoff, Jessica Williams has had enough. You can always rely on Steve Braunias to start a conversation. This week The Spinoff published a column of his that was too outrageous even for Metro to print. It was about the word “cunt” – and how Steve had suffered as … Read more
As a kind of prequel to Tim Murphy’s excellent court transcript story on the Spinoff yesterday, Steve Braunias exhumes a previously unpublished 2011 column on his own c***-related tribulations. It was originally written for Metro magazine, but editor Simon Wilson refused to publish it. Last Christmas [2010] I landed myself in another fine mess when I pressed SEND. Claire … Read more
Charlotte Grimshaw reviews Some Rain Must Fall: My Struggle, Volume 5 by Karl Ove Knausgaard There was no plot, I wanted to entwine the internal with the external, the neural pathways in the brain with the fishing smacks in the harbour… – Karl Ove Knausgaard If you’ve ploughed through Volumes One to Four of Karl Ove … Read more
Steve Braunias shares a divan with British writer Andrew O’Hagan at the Wellington writers festival. London novelist and essayist Andrew O’Hagan was in Wellington last week as a guest at the New Zealand Writers Week, and people constantly mistook him for another guy. “Look,” said the Oscar-nominated screenwriter Anthony McCarten, as O’Hagan walked into the … Read more