Blog Archives

Language listening to itself, Peter Crisp

The Drummer Ian Wedde, Auckland University Press, $18.95 The poem is a place where language listens to itself. Often it can be an occasion for acute soundings, where nods and glances tug at every cadence. Poetry today can be edgy

See more ›

Tagged with: , , , ,
Posted in Literature, Poetry, Review

Volume marred by lack of critical analysis, Ruth Butterworth

Claiming the Law: Essays by New Zealand Women in Celebration of the 1993 Suffrage Centennial Elisabeth McDonald and Graeme Austin (eds), Victoria University Press, $29.95 I was brought up in a matriarchy, educated at a girls’ school by confident women

See more ›

Tagged with: , , , , ,
Posted in Gender, History, Non-fiction, Politics & Law, Review

Editorial – Issue 10

Paula Wagemaker: ‘Celebrating the Past, Challenging the Future’   We live in an age of slogans – quick statements dreamed up to promote an idea, sell a product, launch a campaign. Most are glib and irritating, but some, like certain

See more ›

Tagged with: , ,
Posted in Editorial

Strong collection from young poets, Rachel Bush

Sevensome Vivienne Plumb and Paola Bilbrough (eds), Calliope Press, $13.00 Seven women, young enough to be able to use a word like ‘km’ comfortably and all of them talented, combined to publish this book. When I first read it, a

See more ›

Tagged with: , , , , ,
Posted in Literature, Poetry, Review

Real‑life stories? Laura Kroetsch

Other Voices 3: Lifestories Ruth and Oz Kraus (eds), Brick Row/ Hallard Press, $19.95 Other Voices 3: Lifestories is one of those books you read and, midway through the page, stop, grab the phone and call anyone you can. It is,

See more ›

Tagged with: , , , , , ,
Posted in Biography, Essays, Non-fiction, Review

Issue 10 | Spring 1993

  Volume 3 | Number 2 | Issue 10 | Spring 1993 Paula Wagemaker: “Celebrating the Past, Challenging the Future” Letters Margot Roth: Anne Else (ed), Women Together: A History of Women’s Organisations – Nga Ropu Wahine o te Motu Margaret

See more ›

Tagged with: ,
Posted in Contents

Lost voices and parodic games, Harry Ricketts

Gipsy: A Fictional Sequence of Poems Kathleen Gallagher, Nag’s Head Press, $22.50 This is an unusual book, not least because it is so handsome an artefact. Hardbound, beautifully produced, illustrated with evocative linocuts by David Nepia, Gipsy is not the sort of

See more ›

Tagged with: , , ,
Posted in Literature, Poetry, Review

Colonial views, Gavin McLean

Massacre Bay: A 19th Century Saga of Colonial Life Ken Gunn, The Book Guild, $39.95 Ken Gunn’s handsomely produced hardback historical novel, Massacre Bay, takes us back to the early days of Pakeha settlement in Nelson province. It tells the

See more ›

Tagged with: , , , ,
Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review

‘Womanly skills and small-scale economies’ – old assumptions and fresh perspectives, Margot Roth

Margot Roth reviews a major suffrage year publication, and briefly comments on the difficulties of book reviewing in New Zealand.   Women Together: A History of Women’s Organisations in New Zealand ‑ Nga Ropu Wahine o te Motu Anne Else

See more ›

Tagged with: , , , , ,
Posted in Gender, History, Non-fiction, Review

Goodies and baddies, Barbara Murison

Johnny Whistler and the Royal Ruby Circus and Johnny Whistler and the Whizzbang Tandem Race Tom Bradley, HarperCollins (Tui), each $10.95 The Tom Bradley who enters our sitting rooms as a television newsreader is also a writer of some productivity.

See more ›

Tagged with: , , , ,
Posted in Children, Fiction, Literature, Review
Search the archive
Search by category