Blog Archives

Slurries of history, Hugh Roberts

Posted on December 1, 2007 by NZ Books

The Year of Adverbs Elizabeth Smither Auckland University Press, $14.95, ISBN 9781869403942 Just Poetry Alistair Te Ariki Campbell HeadworX, $19.99, ISBN 9780473124982 The Pop-up Book of Invasions Fiona Farrell Auckland University Press, $25.00, ISBN 9781869403881 Villon in Millerton James Norcliffe…

Tagged with: Alistair Te Ariki Campbell, Auckland University Press, Elizabeth Smither, Fiona Farrell, HeadworX, Hugh Roberts, Issue 80, Summer 2007
Posted in Literature, Poetry, Review

Braided narratives, Stephen Harris

Posted on June 1, 2007 by NZ Books

Different Kinds of Pleasure Elizabeth Smither Penguin, $28.00, ISBN 014302065X My Name Was Judas C K Stead Harvill Secker, $28.00, ISBN 9781846550126 Elizabeth Smither is adept at sounding the depths of the seemingly incidental moment or quotidian encounter. Laura Bening,…

Tagged with: C K Stead, Elizabeth Smither, Harvill Secker, Issue 78, Penguin, Stephen Harris, Winter 2007
Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review

Poem – Elizabeth Smither

Posted on June 1, 2006 by NZ Books

Carol’s eggs Each girl child contains her eggs. Carol keeps under her bed one dozen in a carton, safe from plundering friends and flatmates. Eggs make a meal, a girl is eggs. Poached or scrambled, eggs are quick. In…

Tagged with: Elizabeth Smither, Issue 74, Winter 2006
Posted in Poem

Swamp thing, Elizabeth Smither

Posted on June 1, 2005 by NZ Books

Elizabeth Smither seeks out A Girl of the Limberlost. I can still remember my fear of the swamp. Was it because of The Hound of the Baskervilles? But A Girl of the Limberlost held a deeper kind of fear when…

Tagged with: Elizabeth Smither, Issue 70, Winter 2005
Posted in Imprints

Fingerprints over everything, Lawrence Jones

Posted on March 1, 2003 by NZ Books

Red Shoes Elizabeth Smither Godwit, $29.95, ISBN 18569621034 The Sea Between Us Elizabeth Smither Penguin, $27.95, ISBN 0143018590 Reviewing You’re Very Seductive William Carlos Williams 25 years ago, Lauris Edmond complained that in the poems we did not “feel that…

Tagged with: Autumn 2003, Elizabeth Smither, Godwit, Issue 61, Lawrence Jones, Penguin
Posted in Fiction, Literature, Poetry, Review

Poem – Elizabeth Smither

Posted on June 1, 2002 by NZ Books

Singing in the rain I am caught at the bus stop like Gene Kelly only I have an umbrella. Only two days before I said to someone we miss all those good experiences: getting drenched and here is my…

Tagged with: Elizabeth Smither, Issue 58, Winter 2002
Posted in Poem

Poem – Elizabeth Smither

Posted on December 1, 2000 by NZ Books

The Oxford comma A little knot of writers at a prize-giving ceremony, standing uncertainly, looking at the stage and the side table with scrolls and envelopes containing magical cheques, we discuss to show erudition and hide fear the Oxford…

Tagged with: Elizabeth Smither, Issue 52, Summer 2002
Posted in Poem

Still in the ascendant, Anne French

Posted on December 26, 1999 by NZ Books

The Lark Quartet Elizabeth Smither Auckland University Press, $19.95, ISBN 1 86940 216 2 Now here’s a curious thing. The Elizabeth Smither who burst fully formed out of the New Zealand literary forehead 25 years ago, back in 1975, turns…

Tagged with: Anne French, Auckland University Press, Elizabeth Smither, Issue 41
Posted in Literature, Poetry, Review

Poem – Elizabeth Smither

Posted on December 26, 1999 by NZ Books

The moon “If you have time tonight” says the TV hostess “Look at the moon. It’s full and particularly beautiful.” So I do. After preparing a meal and washing the dishes, settling myself for evening I pay a call from…

Tagged with: Elizabeth Smither, Issue 41
Posted in Poem

Poem – Elizabeth Smither

Posted on June 1, 1999 by NZ Books

A dentist’s view of heaven No drill, no syringes, no mouth washes no cotton padding like tiny bolsters no excavating a tooth like a collapsed house in which at the bottom remains like a family safe in a doodlebug…

Tagged with: December 2000, Elizabeth Smither, Issue 46
Posted in Poem