Blog Archives
The mess we’re in, Anne Kennedy
Lifting Damien Wilkins Victoria University Press, $30.00, ISBN 9781776561025 In the opening scene of Lifting, Amy, a department store detective, is pursuing a “Person of Interest” (POI) – a ubi-quitous, parka-wearing woman who is probably about to nick the wallets…
Tagged with: Anne Kennedy, Damien Wilkins, Issue 119, Spring 2017, Victoria University Press
Posted in Fiction, Literature
Posted in Fiction, Literature
Walking in the real world, Owen Marshall
Dad Art Damien Wilkins Victoria University Press, $30.00, ISBN 9781776560561 Acoustic engineer Michael Stirling is divorced, in contact through a dating site with apparently grieving Chrissie, tending a father in a dementia unit, living in Wellington’s Sanctum Apartments having lost…
Tagged with: Damien Wilkins, Issue 114, Owen Marshall, Victoria University Press, Winter 2016
Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review
Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review
Thomas Hardy’s heart, Roger Robinson
Max Gate Damien Wilkins Victoria University Press, $30.00, ISBN 9780864738998 Thomas Hardy often wrote about death’s little ironies. There’s a poem in the voice of a dead and forgotten woman whose dog, who has also forgotten her, is burying his…
Tagged with: Damien Wilkins, Issue 104, Roger Robinson, Summer 2013, Victoria University Press
Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review
Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review
Character testing, Damien Wilkins
Novelist Damien Wilkins on the ups and downs of reviewing other writers. The first book review I wrote was for the New Zealand Listener in 1986. It was of Russell Haley’s novel The Settlement. I’d just spent two years in…
Life cycles, Murray Bramwell
Somebody Loves Us All Damien Wilkins Victoria University Press, $38.00, ISBN 9780864736161 The title of Damien Wilkins’ sixth novel, Somebody Loves Us All, comes from a line by the American poet Elizabeth Bishop. The poem is called “Filling Station”…
Tagged with: Autumn 2010, Damien Wilkins, Issue 89, Murray Bramwell, Victoria University Press
Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review
Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review
Author as dinner companion, Sue McCauley
The Cowboy Dog Nigel Cox Victoria University Press, $29.95, ISBN 0864735448 The Fainter Damien Wilkins Victoria University Press, $29.95, ISBN 0864735308 In a way the titles say it all. It’s as if, in naming these novels (Cox’s sixth, Wilkins’ fifth),…
Tagged with: Damien Wilkins, Issue 78, Nigel Cox, Sue McCauley, Victoria University Press, Winter 2007
Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review
Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review
Nigel Cox, Damien Wilkins
Nigel Cox (1951-2006) We pay tribute to the novelist’s life and work with this 2004 Tarzan Presley launch speech by his friend and fellow-novelist Damien Wilkins. Tarzan Presley, as the title tells us, is a topical story about an unusual…
Always something to behave about, Damien Wilkins
Posted in Comment