oh Adrift on a shallow insomnia I am lapped by a message from the deep – your body is an open letter.  O I am wooden, a kind of thrumming all through me, nerves singing.           I have signed the petition I have turned down the offer          I have tied myself to the mast.      I am a forest and every tree a bracket of missing words I think I know [tired though].           Every move I make is a trespass     no one i ..read more

Poetry Shelf has felt touch and go this week, as my energy jar slips to tablespoons, with a few early morning appointments, leaving in the pitch dark, watching the light lift in patches, catching sight of the early runners, dog walkers, paddle boarders, swimmers, the traffic at treacle crawl, the rhythm of slow a steady heartbeat. But Poetry Shelf is necessary travel, and it wouldn’t function without your glorious and thoughtful contributions. In the post this week, I was delighted to get Robert Sullivan’s new collection, Hopurangi -Songcatcher (AUP, AUP New Poets 10 ed Anne Kennedy (AUP ..read more

STREETSIDE is our surprising, hilarious, profound, and a little bit wild fringe evening! For one night only, writers, musicians and artists take to the streets of Britomart for an extravaganza of creative shenanigans. From intriguing performers to captivating conversations to enchanting activities, STREETSIDE is for everyone — whether you’re a reader, writer, both, or neither… It’s fast, it’s fun, and it’s full of surprises. Expect the unexpected and get ready to experience a night of literary mayhem. No ticket or registration required — just turn up and join the ride. CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOA ..read more

Gow Langsford Gallery booth at Auckland Art Fair 2024 Wings Over Water Hold the shell to my ear and I hear the life of the hermit crab. Hold the bird to my ear and I hear the waterways and the windmills. Hold the drape to my ear and I hear the treachery of March. Hold the steps to my ears and I hear the blessings of Providence. Hold the vase to my ear and I hear the frugal life and the teeming rain. Hold the water to my ear and I hear the mist and the mud. Paula Green from Making Lists for Frances Hodgkins, Auckland University Press, 2007 At the weekend, a Gow Langsford Gallery booth at t ..read more

Meantime ISBN: 9781990048807 Author: Majella Cullinane    Publisher: Otago University Press During the Covid-19 pandemic, eighteen thousand uncrossable kilometres lay between poet Majella Cullinane in Aotearoa New Zealand and her mother in Ireland, a distance unbridgeable even by phone as Cullinane’s mother’s language was lost to dementia. Meantime calls and keens across this terrible distance. With attentiveness, tenderness and extraordinary vulnerability, these poems speak directly to personal experience while also addressing a wider world shadowed and altered by illness, where ..read more

Peace The candle lit for peace flickers I can feel rain on my cheeks Paula Green How to mark ANZAC Day on Poetry Shelf when I want to stand on the street with a placard saying PEACE in one hand and a placard saying CEASEFIRE in the other. When I want to pause in this sweet haven in which I live, with its abundance of bush and birds, vegetables and water. When each day delivers small miracles of joy and delight. And yet each day carries me to the inhumanity of Gaza, the infinite despair, brutality and violence of this godforsaken and utterly unnecessary war. Of all wars, past and present. L ..read more

Plastic, Stacey Teague, Te Herenga Waka University Press, 2024 I count every maunga I can see: Mt Albert, Mt Eden, Mt Roskill, One Tree Hill. Growing up, we never learnt their Māori names: Ōwairaka, Maungawhau, Puketāpapa, Maungakiekie. There is erasure in the naming and not- naming. I catch my foot on the nail on the deck, again. Hop downstairs to see my parents, and slump into their blue and yellow couch. When I left New Zealand in my early twenties, I couldn’t wait to disappear. I didn’t want to see my past in everything. Each time I came home I wanted to escape again. This time, I have ..read more

Miriam Sharland, Palmerston North City Library, Bruce McKenzie Booksellers and Otago University Press warmly invite you to the launch of Heart Stood Still by Miriam Sharland. To be launched by Ingrid Horrocks. 6:00pm–7:30pm Thursday 9 May 2024 Mezzanine Floor, Palmerston North City Library All welcome! Please RSVP to publicity@otago.ac.nz for catering purposes ABOUT THE BOOK: Miriam Sharland’s eco-memoir Heart Stood Still is the latest title in the Ka Haea Te Ata series from Otago University Press, a series dedicated to casting light on issues of importance in Aotearoa today. In early 2020 ..read more

photo credit: Claire Lacey To celebrate the inclusion of At the Point of Seeing by Megan Kitching (Otago University Press, 2023) on the Ockham NZ Book Award Poetry short list, I am reposting a reading Megan did for Poetry Shelf from her collection and the review I wrote. Megan’s terrific collection is a book to be celebrated indeed. The awards will be announced at an Auckland Writers Festival Event on May 15th. The reading ‘Headlands’ ‘Crematorium’ ‘Houseplants’ Megan Kitching, At the Point of Seeing, Otago University Press, 2023 The poem The Inlet’s Shore flat and prosey &nbs ..read more

Experimental His fiction is uncompromisingly experimental his book Ghost Stories may well be his most accessible I was a bit disconcerted to find that ‘uncompromisingly experimental’ line in my publisher’s write-up on Facebook tired of airport books? bored by Tom Clancy and Dan Brown? wearied by puerile web sites? seeking a challenge? try a “novel” by Dr Jack Ross said Michael Morrissey a few years further back à propos of The Imaginary Museum of Atlantis it’s hard to remember why I felt it so necessary to print half the pages upside down it certainly caused pain to the printers who had to r ..read more