Blog Archives

Ineludible envanishings Jane Stafford

Posted on December 5, 2015 by NZ Books

Blanche Baughan: Selected Writings Damian Love (ed) Erewhon Press, $30,00 ISBN 9780473309435 It is hard work establishing and maintaining a local canon when authors vanish and books slide in and out of print. Moreover, by definition, a canon stretches over…

Tagged with: Blanche Baughan, Damian Love, Erewhon Press, Issue 112, Jane Stafford, Summer 2015
Posted in Fiction, Literature, Poetry, Review, Short stories

The dangers of pre-existing narratives, Jane Stafford

Posted on May 29, 2014 by NZ Books

Where the Rekohu Bone Sings Tina Makereti Vintage, $38.00, ISBN 9781775535188 Twentieth- and 21st-century New Zealand literature contains two utterly different narratives, each incorporating an almost diametrically opposed world view. On the one hand, there is the Pakeha narrative of…

Tagged with: Issue 106, Jane Stafford, Tina Makereti, Vintage, Winter 2014
Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review

Crying duffers, Jane Stafford

Posted on August 30, 2013 by NZ Books

The Luminaries Eleanor Catton Victoria University Press, $35.00, ISBN 9780864738950 This is an extraordinary work. It is over 800 pages long, with a cast of characters to match and an intricately complex plot – or web of plots – revealed…

Tagged with: Eleanor Catton, Issue 103, Jane Stafford, Spring 2013, Victoria University Press
Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review

The quality question, Chris Else

Posted on March 1, 2013 by NZ Books

The Auckland University Press Anthology of New Zealand Literature Jane Stafford and Mark Williams (eds) Auckland University Press, $75.00, ISBN 9781869405892 I have a conflict of interest here: I am one of those writers with a substantial body of published…

Tagged with: Auckland University Press, Autumn 2013, Chris Else, Issue 101, Jane Stafford, Mark Williams
Posted in Literature, Review

Problems with facts, Jane Stafford

Posted on March 1, 2012 by NZ Books

The Parihaka Woman Witi Ihimaera Vintage, $38.99, ISBN 9781869797294 New Zealand’s first novel, Taranaki: A Tale of the War, was written by a British (possibly Irish) army officer, Henry Butler Stoney, who served in the conflict. With a speed…

Tagged with: Autumn 2012, Issue 97, Jane Stafford, Vintage, Witi Ihimaera
Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review

Bovver boys

Posted on December 1, 2011 by NZ Books

What they wrote A taste of contributor comments over our first 20 years On New Zealand Books My hope is that New Zealand Books will provide a forum for frank discussion that dares to rise above the suffocating confines…

Tagged with: Alan Duff, Alan Knowles, Barbara Else, Bernard Carpinter, Bill Manhire, Bill Sewell, Bruce Stewart, Charles Ferrall, Chris Else, Chris Knox, Christopher Tremewan, Colin James, Dale Williams, David Hill, Diane Hebley, Guy Somerset, Hamish Keith, Harry Ricketts, Heather Murray, Hilary Stace, Iain Sharp, Issue 96, Jane Bowron, Jane Stafford, Jane Westaway, John Campbell, Linda Burgess, Linley Boniface, Mark Williams, Murray Edmond, Nelson Wattie, Peter Wells, Roger Robinson, Sue McCauley, Summer 2011, Tom Beard, William Brandt
Posted in Comment

There and now, Janet Wilson

Posted on December 1, 2009 by NZ Books

Floating Worlds: Essays on Contemporary New Zealand Fiction Anna Jackson and Jane Stafford (eds) Victoria University Press, $40.00, ISBN 9780864736017 The increased tempo of public debate in the last decade over issues such as public policy and the arts, canon…

Tagged with: Anna Jackson, Issue 88, Jane Stafford, Janet Wilson, Summer 2009, Victoria University Press
Posted in Essays, Literature, Non-fiction, Review

Fierce bliss, Jane Stafford

Posted on September 1, 2009 by NZ Books

The Angel’s Cut Elizabeth Knox Victoria University Press, $35.00, ISBN 9780864736000 In Elizabeth Knox’s 1998 novel The Vintner’s Luck an old French peasant from 19th century Burgundy who sees the angel Xas is carted off to the asylum; in its…

Tagged with: Elizabeth Knox, Issue 87, Jane Stafford, Spring 2009, Victoria University Press
Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review

Bring on the gothic, Jane Stafford

Posted on September 1, 2007 by NZ Books

Fire Deborah Challinor Harper Collins, $39.99, ISBN 9781869506001 Wild Latitudes Barbara Else Vintage, $27.99, ISBN 9781869418670 A Secret Mind Kaye Kelly Black Swan, $27.99, ISBN 978869417819 Sylvia lay awake listening to the mournful cry of a morepork. Another noise, a…

Tagged with: Barbara Else, Black Swan, Deborah Challinor, Harper Collins, Issue 79, Jane Stafford, Kaye Kelly, Spring 2007, Vintage
Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review

Lost writers revisited, Elizabeth Webby

Posted on December 1, 2006 by NZ Books

Maoriland: New Zealand Literature 1872-1914 Jane Stafford and Mark Williams Victoria University Press, $39.95, ISBN 0864735227 In this excellent reassessment of an important phase of New Zealand’s literary and cultural history, Jane Stafford and Mark Williams challenge previous views of…

Tagged with: Elizabeth Webby, Issue 76, Jane Stafford, Mark Williams, Summer 2006, Victoria University Press
Posted in History, Literature, Māori, Non-fiction, Review, Sociology