Category: t114

A4-sized fairy / archived cry

I can live where a girl I was a sparrowmake room!appear but not for much longer, I think It was all ‘coloured glass, crushed into the skin / on her legs / and on the concrete before thatas she fell asleep / shining’ Orwas it ‘better to see a webthe world as it is and to tryshow upto arrive’? That…

First Wool

I was working in my aunt’s wool shop for a season           when a woman came in wanting unusual                        yarn for a wall hanging. Nothing I could show her tickled her fancy. Then I remembered my sister’s first wool.           She had been learning to spin                        and several hanks of her beginner efforts                                     were kicking around— crazy knots looping back onto themselves,           then…

Pylades and Electra, 1935

His first gift for them both a pair of bicycles. She watches while he pushes up the street: posture, forearms. A beatto recognise each other’s bright and golden eye, then they’re pedallingand off. Cycle clips at his achilles, her skirts above her knees. The city is a macadam grid. The city is a weft of…

Phone sex

Phone sex! Are you fucking kidding?How would we get off on sound?I’m not free to splurt your biddingAll my family are aroundGod knows where these words are headingEarth is small and mean and round I’m not free to splurt your biddingAll my family are aroundNow an old in-joke is spreadingNow another drink is downedGod knows…

The Book of Guilt

The Book of Guilt by Catherine Chidgey. THWUP (2025). RRP: $38. PB, 400pp. ISBN: 9781776922246. Reviewed by Erica Stretton. Catherine Chidgey’s ninth novel, The Book of Guilt, was released in May and has already received strong reviews both in Aotearoa and abroad. Adding to the discourse around one of our most acclaimed authors—twice winner of…

Slowing the Sun

Slowing the Sun by Nadine Hura. Bridget Williams Books (2025). RRP: $40. PB, 240 pp. ISBN: 978199130169. Reviewed by Māia Te Whetū. Nadine Hura’s Slowing the Sun is the kind of book you have to put down for a few days once you realise you’re nearing its end, when the pinch of pages between the…

Overseas Experience

Overseas Experience by Nicola Andrews. Āporo Press (2025). RRP: $30. PB, 92 pp. ISBN: 9780473745677. Reviewed by Melissa Oliver. It can sometimes be hard, when a work of art holds a light up to your deep insecurities, to look at it objectively. But in Overseas Experience, Nicola Andrews takes your hand and doesn’t let go…

Oceans Between Us: Pacific Peoples and Racism in Aotearoa

Oceans Between Us: Pacific Peoples and Racism in Aotearoa edited by Sereana Naepi. AUP (2025). RRP: $40. PB, 272pp. ISBN 9781776711253. Reviewed by Tracey Sharp. We know the statistics. Pacific peoples in Aotearoa consistently rank lower than non-Pacific populations across nearly every measure—health, wealth, home ownership, longevity, educational attainment, and wellbeing—and higher in incarceration rates.…

Joss: A History

Joss: A History by Grace Yee. Giramondo Publishing (2025). RRP: $33. PB, 96pp. ISBN: 9781923106314. Reviewed by Cybonn Ang. Following the success of her multi award-winning debut, Chinese Fish—a novel-in-verse exploring the struggles of a Chinese immigrant family in Aotearoa New Zealand—author Grace Yee once again dips her pen into the marvelous well of antipodean…