A poem from Bill Manhire’s 2017 book of verse Some Things to Place in a Coffin.   My World War I Poem   Inside each trench, the sound of prayer. Inside each prayer, the sound of digging.   Image courtesy of Auckland War Memorial Museum ..read more

Welcome to The Spinoff Books Confessional, in which we get to know the reading habits and quirks of New Zealanders at large. This week: writer and one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people of 2024, Lauren Groff. The book I wish I’d written If I wish I’d written a book, it’s because it’s so idiosyncratic and delightful that no person other than the book’s author could have written it. It’s longing to be an entirely different writer! I don’t wish this, but I do wish that I had the empathy of Chekhov, the capacious golden intelligence of George Eliot, the disruptive imp of Anne Carson ..read more

How will the recent wave of job cuts impact ethnic diversity in the media? In November last year, I was working a very busy day in the newsroom of a large online news site, interviewing whānau about their concerns over the imminent closure of one of the few puna reo in Tāmaki Makaurau.  That afternoon, my editor called my small team into an emergency meeting, warning us about a one-on-one meeting with the editor-in-chief the next day. What the meeting was about, they couldn’t say. I asked my editor if I should bring a union rep and have that meeting before my scheduled therapy appointmen ..read more

A new survey says ‘outlook not great’ for those charged with building infrastructure, while RMA changes delight farmers and depress environmentalists, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. First RMA changes announced Most people are aware that New Zealand has an infrastructure deficit and that accelerated infrastructure investment and removing “red tape” and regulation in the name of economic growth is front and centre for the government. Chris Bishop is the minister ..read more

Labour in opposition will be shocked to learn which party had six years in power but squandered any chance to make real change. Grant Robertson’s valedictory speech was a predictably entertaining trip down memory lane. The acid-tongued incoming Otago University chancellor administered a sick burn to the coalition government. He talked about the time Lockwood Smith called Carmel Sepuloni Sepul Carmeloni. But in the middle there was a familiar lament: New Zealand’s tax system, he said, is “unfair and unbalanced”. “We are almost alone in the OECD in terms of not properly taxing assets and wealth ..read more

A look at the state of the previous government’s affordable housing scheme, and what could come next. Remind me: What’s KiwiBuild again? First announced in 2012, KiwiBuild was a flagship policy of the Labour Party heading into both its 2014 and 2017 election campaigns. With Jacinda Ardern as prime minister, the scheme, which pledged to build 100,000 affordable homes within a decade, formally launched in 2018.  100,000?!  Yes. But did it reach this target? Nope. By 2019, the government admitted that just 300 homes would be built by the middle of that year, 700 fewer than had been pro ..read more

The solo show from Ana Scotney is both sprawling and intimate, and a must-see, writes Mad Chapman. In the opening moments of Scattergun: After the Death of Rūaumoko, writer and performer Ana Scotney lays out the groundwork, literally. Silently moving around the square stage, Scotney is not so much dancing as exploring (and yes, I do hate that writing about theatre immediately makes me say things like “not so much dancing as exploring” but that’s as close to an accurate description of her movements as I can muster). On a square, barely-raised platform, with the audience in front and on either ..read more

The ‘Vampire’ singer has never visited our part of the world, but that might all be about to change. We assess the evidence. Olivia Rodrigo’s Guts World Tour is pulling in massive crowds as it whips around the US and Europe, even helping to catapult regular supporting act Chappell Roan to abrupt stardom. But so far, there has been no suggestion the Grammy Award winner will ever make it to New Zealand.  That may all be about to change. The Spinoff has received information (seen a TikTok, then done some Googling) that the ‘Driver’s License’ singer could finally be winging her way to the So ..read more

Welcome to the whirring wonders of one brain trying to align its actions with its beliefs within a system it thinks is evil. My brain has been spiralling in a woke conundrum ever since I found out a bookshop I’ve never been to was shutting down. Good Books, a bookshop in Wellington where I have never lived, announced its closure in March. It will be the third bookstore to close down in Wellington in the past five years. Something stirred among the dust mites in my pile of library books. Guilt. It has not been the only closure as a result of what everyone keeps saying is a difficult time in re ..read more

A ..read more