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Mentors and protégés, Margot Schwass

Mentors and protégés

Editor and writer Margot Schwass looks at Frank Sargeson and his circle.

“[There] is a notion about that I am leading a little group that I train to write in words of one syllable,” complains a leading New Zealand writer. “Dear oh dear, those who know me know that I am insatiably interested in a wide variety of writing.” Another writer emphatically rejects that he is leading a school “where everyone sound[s] the same”. Young writers, he says, “have to find a voice that is theirs, and that’s their business and no one else’s”.

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“One last regretful look”, Michael Jackson remembers Les Cleveland

“One last regretful look” Poet and anthropologist Michael Jackson remembers Les Cleveland (1921-2014) That Les Cleveland should die without a funeral may be read as a sign of how he chose to live – a man of few words, modest,

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The centre cannot hold, Tim Upperton

Poet Tim Upperton argues against order as a crucial element in successful poetry. Imagine some chickens in a yard. Each morning their owner appears, banging the side of a tin bucket full of grain, and the chickens crowd around to

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Always something to behave about, Damien Wilkins

Damien Wilkins pays tribute to Barbara Anderson (1926-2013).   With her cultured Anglo voice (boarding school in New Zealand and years as a naval wife in England), her title (she was Lady Anderson following Neil’s knighthood), her height, elegance, beads,

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I will do my best to be helpful, Ann Mallinson

Ann Mallinson shares a letter she received 20 years ago. Margaret Mahy was, among many other things, an ideas person. She loved discussing ideas, and those of us who were lucky enough to have her accept an invitation to stay

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Getting it covered, Jenny Nicholls

North & South magazine art director Jenny Nicholls looks into the future of book design. Recently I was sent a photography book published by Taschen – Mario Testino: Private View – to review. I had been looking forward to the

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Matters of form, Julia Marshall

Julia Marshall of Gecko Press wonders about the future of the book as artefact.  Recently, Frances, in charge of Gecko Press accounts, went to get her daily coffee at The Jimmy in Wellington and was asked where she worked. On her

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Cashing up, Jane Westaway

Jane Westaway sells a book and wonders how.  Eleven years ago I published a novel. Last Wednesday I received my latest royalty statement. Somewhere out there, I understand, are authors who, along with their statements, get cheques that go some

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Obsolescence is just the beginning, Peter Simpson

Director of The Holloway Press Peter Simpson celebrates the joy of letterpress. The Holloway Press is dedicated to letterpress printing, a technology rendered largely obsolete by the dawn of the digital age. Letterpress printing – that is, the direct impression

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No need for bookshelves, Guy Somerset

New Zealand Listener books and culture editor Guy Somerset tries to be brave about e-books.  It’s the bookmarks I’ll miss most. At least that’s what I used to think when I was a fervent advocate of the demise of the

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