Blog Archives
Issue 126 | Winter 2019
Volume 29 | Number 2 | Issue 126 | Winter 2019 Stephanie Johnson: Carl Shuker, A Mistake John McCrystal: Owen Marshall, Pearly Gates: A Novel Victor Rodger: John Broughton, Oscar Kightley and Erolia Ifopo, Gary Henderson, and Carl Nixon,…
Shocks and conversations, Mark Williams
The Friday Poem: 100 New Zealand Poems Steve Braunias (ed) David Bateman, $25.00, ISBN 9780473450281 Short Poems of New Zealand Jenny Bornholdt (ed) Victoria University Press, $35.00, ISBN 9781776562022 Two new poetry anthologies: one featuring beautifully composed small poems selected…
Tagged with: David Bateman, Issue 126, Jenny Bornholdt, Mark Williams, Steve Braunias, Winter 2019
Posted in Literature, Poetry
Posted in Literature, Poetry
Earnest but elusive, Hannah Newport-Watson
Under Glass Gregory Kan Auckland University Press, $25.00, ISBN 9781869408916 It’s common to talk about the “emotional landscape” of a book. Gregory Kan’s second poetry collection Under Glass transforms that figure of speech into something more – yet not entirely…
Tagged with: Auckland University Press, Gregory Kan, Hannah Newport-Watson, Issue 126, Winter 2019
Posted in Literature, Poetry, Review
Posted in Literature, Poetry, Review
Articulating an alternative, Julienne Molineaux
Government for the Public Good: The Surprising Science of Large-scale Collective Action Max Rashbrooke Bridget Williams Books, $50.00, ISBN 9781988545080 This is an optimistic book that aims to re-set the narrative on collective action and, in particular, how we discuss…
Tagged with: Bridget Williams Books, Issue 126, Julienne Molineaux, Max Rashbrooke, Winter 2019
Posted in Economics, Non-fiction, Politics & Law, Review
Posted in Economics, Non-fiction, Politics & Law, Review
And on the strangest sea, Paul Moon
New Zealand and the Sea: Historical Perspectives Frances Steel (ed) Bridget Williams Books, $60.00, ISBN 9780947518707 Ocean: Tales of Voyaging and Encounter that Defined New Zealand Sarah Ell Penguin Random House, $70.00, ISBN 9780143772675 Most histories of nations tend to…
Tagged with: Frances Steel, Issue 126, Paul Moon, Penguin Random House, Sarah Ell, Winter 2019
Posted in History, Non-fiction, Review
Posted in History, Non-fiction, Review
Finding the way back, Nicholas Reid
Now When it Rains – A Writer’s Memoir Jeffrey Paparoa Holman Steele Roberts, $35.00, ISBN 9780947493776 A boy needs a father, but things can go badly wrong if the father is not good at fathering. This seems to be one…
Tagged with: Issue 126, Jeffrey Paparoa Holman, Nicholas Reid, Steele Roberts, Winter 2019
Posted in Media, Non-fiction, Review
Posted in Media, Non-fiction, Review
Galling truth, Megan Dunn
Kaitiaki o te Pō: Essays John-Paul Powley Seraph Press, $35.00, ISBN 9780994134592 I am in two minds about John-Paul Powley’s Kaitiaki o te Pō – this is a good essay collection, even really good. But goodness is also Powley’s Achilles…
Tagged with: Issue 126, John-Paul Powley, Megan Dunn, Seraph Press, Winter 2019
Posted in Essays, Non-fiction, Review
Posted in Essays, Non-fiction, Review
Pressing on, James Hollings
Lasting Impressions: The Story of New Zealand’s Newspapers, 1840–1920 Ian F Grant Fraser Books, in association with the Alexander Turnbull Library, $69.50, ISBN 9780994136046 At a time when journalism is in crisis, with collapsing revenues and governments and elites indifferent…
Tagged with: Alexander Turnbull Library, Dr James Hollings, Fraser Books, Ian F Grant, Issue 126, Winter 2019
Posted in Media, Non-fiction, Review
Posted in Media, Non-fiction, Review
Obituary – Raymond Frank Grover (1931-2019)
Obituary Raymond Frank Grover (1931-2019) Brad Patterson Born in Matamata in 1931, the eldest son of a transient school-teaching family, Ray Grover’s early years were in small rural settlements at the Bay of Islands and on the Wanganui River. After…
Tagged with: Brad Patterson, Issue 126, Ray Grover, Raymond Frank Grover, Winter 2019
Posted in Obituaries
Posted in Obituaries
Obituary – Gordon Challis (1932-2018)
Obituary Gordon Challis (1932-2018) Cliff Fell Like other poets before him, Gordon Challis, who died in March 2018, had written his own epitaph, or an epitaph of sorts. In “Hard to Get at”, from his 2003 comeback collection, The Other…