Reviewed by Elizabeth Heritage See all reviews Editors: David Eggleton, Vaughan Rapatahana, Mere Taito Publisher: Massey University Press ISBN: 9781991016584  Date published: 11 April 2024 Pages: 328 Format: Paperback RRP: $39.99 Buy at Mighty Ape All books bought via this link help us to review more books from Aotearoa — thank you for supporting local books and authors   Katūīvei: Contemporary Pasifika Poetry from Aotearoa New Zealand is the latest in a decades-long line of anthologies of Pasifika poetry written in English. The title is a neologism created by editors David Eggleton ..read more

See all reviews Author: Lee Murray Publisher: The Cuba Press ISBN: 9781988595771 Date published: 2 April 2024 Pages: 138 Format: Paperback RRP: $28 Buy at Mighty Ape All books bought via this link help us to review more books from Aotearoa — thank you for supporting local books and authors   Alongside our cover reveal for Fox Spirit on a Distant Cloud the book’s author Lee Murray, artist Kim Lowe and designer Christine Ling discuss creating cover art for a book that bends genres and blends mythology, poetry and the true stories of women of the Chinese diaspora in Aotearoa. Scroll to the ..read more

See all reviews Editor: Lynley Edmeades Publisher: Otago University Press ISBN: 9781990048647 Date published: 27 November 2023 Pages: 208 Format: Paperback RRP:$30 Buy at Mighty Ape All books bought via this link help us to review more books from Aotearoa — thank you for supporting local books and authors   ‘The Tiriti Translator’ by Jilly O’Brien and ‘Aloneness’ by Tim Saunders were announced the dual winners of The 2023 Caselberg Trust International Poetry Prize late last year. First published in Landfall 246 and extracted together with kind permission from each poet here on Kete. The ..read more

Reviewed by Elizabeth Heritage See all reviews Publisher: @maorilitblog Date published: November 2023 Format: Paperback   Pūhia is a new journal of Māori art and literature produced by the anonymous reviewer behind the popular and influential @maorilitblog account on Instagram. Curious, I messaged the kaiwhakatika to ask about the journal’s name and was told that it comes from Te Ao Hou, the bilingual quarterly (1952–75) of the old Department of Māori Affairs (now available online via Papers Past). One issue contained stories by schoolchildren called ‘Pūhia te Weri’, or ‘Shoot the Centip ..read more

To say Jade Kake is busy is an understatement. With not one, but two books published in 2023 (while also working in her day job as director and architectural and urban designer at architectural firm Matakohe and as a senior lecturer at AUT) she was in need of a summer holiday — big time. Kake’s two 2023 books couldn’t be more different — her debut novel, Checkerboard Hill tells the story of Ria, a Māori woman raised in Australia who is navigating complex trans-Tasman family dynamics. Also published in 2023 was Rewi:Āta haere, kia tere, a biography of acclaimed and somewhat mysterious architect ..read more

See all reviews Editors: Vaughan Rapatahana and Kiri Piahana-Wong Publisher: Penguin New Zealand ISBN: 9780143777953 Date published: 29 August 2023 Pages: 416 Format: Paperback RRP:$37 Buy at Mighty Ape All books bought via this link help us to review more books from Aotearoa — thank you for supporting local books and authors   Te Awa o Kupu is a stunning new collection of poetry and stories by contemporary Māori writers. It is one of two volumes in a series and is edited by Vaughan Rapatahana and Kiri Piahana-Wong (series editor: Vaughan Rapatahana). The Burst Pipe by Michael O’Leary ‘W ..read more

Author: Robyn Maree Pickens Publisher: Otago University Press ISBN:9781990048609 Date Published: 16 August Pages: 88 Format: Paperback RRP: $25.00   Happy National Poetry Day! Wherever you find yourself, we hope you have the chance to take part in one of the 150+ events planned to celebrate all things verse. This week, we’ve published a poem a day and we end on Phantom Billstickers National Poetry Day with a selection from Tung, the debut collection from award-winning Ōtepoti-Dunedin poet, Robyn Maree Pickens. Praise the warming world (Try to)  — after Adam Zagajewski Try to praise ..read more

Reviewed by David Gadd See all reviews Author: Richard von Sturmer Publisher: Titus Books ISBN: 9781738594504 Date published: August 2023 Pages: 150 Format: Paperback RRP:$38.00   This is a book that is more than a book, one of those rare works which transcends itself and takes the reader on a journey of discovery and reflection. In 2020 Richard von Sturmer was the writer in residence at the University of Waikato and the project he set himself was to visit some of the smaller, lesser travelled parts of the Waikato. Not for him Hamilton’s main drag or Matamata’s Hobbiton. He then rendered ..read more

Reviewed by Greg Fleming See all reviews Author: Dominic Hoey, design by Trudi Hewitt Publisher: Dead Bird Books ISBN: 9781869409906 Date published: August 2023 Format: Paperback RRP:$35   Hoey is not your regular Kiwi writer — he hasn’t come up through the various university programmes for writers, has little formal education, is dyslexic and has lived a hardscrabble life around Auckland — working at a variety of dead-end, minimum wage jobs and as a musician (music fans may know him better as Tourettes), performance poet, short story writer, podcaster, teacher and novelist (his latest ..read more

Author: Morgan Bach Publisher: Te Herenga Waka University Press ISBN:9781776920815 Date Published: 10 August Pages: 76 Format: Paperback RRP: $25.00   Aotearoa celebrates Phantom Billstickers National Poetry Day on Friday when poetry will pop up in churches, bookshops, libraries and out on the streets through music, poets sharing an open mic, book launches, poetry walks and more. Here at Kete, we’ve started early with a poem each day this week. pasture is from Morgan Bach’s second collection Middle Youth. pasture South of the sea road, in winter, the hills, folded tight as bundled cloth ..read more