Your vision has slipped. You didn’t notice it at first—it’s hard to notice things when they’re gradual—but it’s as if someone snuck into your line of sight every night and sanded down the horizon until its edges were soft and staticky, sharp lines vibrating. The distance, now, is more distant. You made the mistake of…
I have always been drawn to the coast, even if it hurts, even if everyone says it is no longer safe. Even as years pass, as I feel myself changing, no longer the child I was, I am pulled back to that place, the stretch of pebble and mud on the new shore between Alexandra…
Clarissa had to touch everything, and it had become a problem. A hydra-headed problem that grew worse by the day. It reared one of its heads in the china shop, and I looked quickly for a sword. All I had were words. ‘Clarissa, careful!’ I said. ‘It’ll break.’ Mute flashes shot off the glazed black…
A car honks for you in the driveway. You tell Dad you’re hanging out with friends. ‘Nice day for it,’ he yells, hammering away at something in the backyard. Dads don’t ask follow-up questions, not like mums do. You slide into the backseat behind Evie and Pania, your best mates. Loose bobby pins are scattered in…
show you’re working out by liz breslin. Dead Bird Books (2025). RRP: $35. PB, 82pp. ISBN: 9780473751500. Reviewed by Sylvan Spring. ‘we were born to deviations / gentle ferocious / unexpected ways.’ This first line of the last poem in liz breslin’s show you’re working out feels central to the story they carry us through…
Pastoral Care by John Prins. OUP (2025). RRP: $35. PB, 246pp. ISBN: 9781991348104. Reviewed by Erica Stretton. John Prins’ debut short story collection Pastoral Care probes at the nature of care, of caring, and of safety: what can be sacrificed to stay safe? Prins is a master of pressing hard on small details to evoke…
No Good by Sophie van Waardenberg. AUP (2025). RRP: $24.99. PB, 80pp. ISBN: 9781776711789. Reviewed by Hebe Kearney. No Good is a striking, clear, and soft collection of poetry. It holds the tension of these disparate adjectives perfectly, and while it is at times a sorrowful work, it is never a disheartening one. Upon reading…
Hoods Landing by Laura Vincent. Āporo Press (2025). RRP: $35. PB, 256pp. ISBN: 9780473745684. Reviewed by Laura Borrowdale. Laura Vincent’s Instagram, @hungryandfrozen, used to be full of bird’s eye images of delectable plates of aspirational food: pasta with harissa and beans curled lovingly on a pea green plate, mint choc chip ice cream with a…
Before the Winter Ends by Khadro Mohamed. Tender Press (2025). RRP: $30.00. PB, 289pp. ISBN: 9780473737405. Reviewed by Neema Singh. Khadro Mohamed’s stunning debut novel Before the Winter Ends could be read as a companion piece to her award-winning 2022 poetry collection We’re All Made of Lightning: the vivid imagery of Aotearoa New Zealand, Somalia,…