Bird Life by Anna Smaill. THWUP (2023). RRP: $38.00. PB, 296pp. ISBN: 9781776921249. Reviewed by S. J. Hook. No one wants to begin a literary review quoting 90s self-help guru Steven Covey, author of 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Especially since our two main protagonists, Dinah and Yasuko, may not be who Covey had…
a liminal gathering: Elixir & Star Grief Almanac 2023, edited by Iona Winter. Elixir & Star Press (2023). RRP: $32.99. PB, 188pp. ISBN: 9780473689179. Reviewed by Hester Ullyart. It is the day of a dear friend’s father’s funeral. I open the new collection resting on my desk. The epigraph reads: ‘Love knows not its own…
Tsunami with Mushrooms: Poems & Stories by Te Awhina Rangimarie Arahanga. Steele Roberts (2023). RRP: $25.00. PB, 174pp. ISBN: 9781738589272. Reviewed by Moata McNamara. Te Awhina Rangimarie Arahanga, of Ngāti Tūwharetoa, Te Ati Haunui a Paparangi, and Ngāti Hauiti ki Rata descent, has a rich and varied background as writer, curator and heritage and historical advisor.…
You Are My Sunshine and Other Stories by Octavia Cade. Stelliform Press (2023). RRP: $31.00. PB, 208pp. ISBN: 9781778092640. Reviewed by Alexander Pyles. The slow-moving horror of extinction and knowledge of what humanity could have done differently pervades Octavia Cade’s debut collection, You Are My Sunshine and Other Stories. The inherent grief embedded in some…
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Tongariro National Park: an artist’s field guide, by Desmond Bovey. Craig Potton (2023). RRP $39.99. PB, 200pp. ISBN 9781988550510. Reviewed by Andrew Paul Wood. It might be argued that our national parks are already works of art in their own right. In that respect, Tongariro is one of the most beautiful. Artist Desmond Bovey’s beautiful…
Tung by Robyn Maree Pickens. OUP (2023). RRP: $25.00. PB, 87pp. ISBN: 9781990048609. Reviewed by Michelle Elvy. Robyn Maree Pickens is an art writer, poet, curator, and text-based practitioner, all of which is evident in her debut poetry collection. Tung opens with an invitation, a weaving of words and wonder on the page: Brush the…
Artists in Antarctica edited by Patrick Shepherd. MUP (2023). RRP: $80. HB, 240pp. ISBN: 9781991016270. Reviewed by James Norcliffe. I couldn’t help but gather adjectives from the first few pages of this handsome book: brutal, fearsome, desolate, hostile, extreme, unforgiving, bleak, inhospitable, unpredictable, forbidding… There is in fact a thesaurus load of such adjectives to describe…
Tsunami by Ned Wenlock. Earth’s End Publishing (2023). RRP: $27.99. PB, 278pp. ISBN: 9780473655679, Reviewed by Matt Scowcroft. I’m a bit of an art masochist. I want to be hurt by the books I read, and I often find stories in which everything is alright in the end unsatisfying. I don’t think that is unusual —…
Talia by Isla Huia. Dead Bird Books (2023). RRP: $30.00. PB, 87pp. ISBN: 9781991150639. Reviewed by Ariana Tikao. Talia is Isla Huia’s (Te Ātihaunui-a-Pāpārangi, Uenuku) debut poetry collection published by the Auckland-based indie publisher Dead Bird Books. It consists of 35 poems full of pūrākau, of fascinating images, of our atua Māori, and people – alive…