undressing in slow motion by Michael Giacon. Michael Giacon (2024). RRP $30. PB, 99pp. ISBN: 9780473707743. Reviewed by Angus Smith. As both a debut collection and one written by a queer septuagenarian, it’s perhaps unsurprising that Michael Giacon’s undressing in slow motion is preoccupied with the concept of time. From the opening dedication ‘in questo…
Tidelines by Kiri Piahana-Wong. Anahera Press (2024). RRP: $25. PB, 40pp. ISBN: 9780473710163. Reviewed by Tracey Sharp. At Te Ahua Point, sitting high above the rugged coastline of Piha in West Auckland, stands the pou of Hinerangi. Hinerangi, a beautiful and chiefly tūpuna of Te Kawerau ā Maki (tangata whenua of the area now known…
The Raven’s Eye Runaways by Claire Mabey. Allen and Unwin (2024). RRP: $24.99. PB, 336pp. ISBN: 9781991006820. Reviewed by Laura Borrowdale. The best children’s literature riffs on the literature that has come before it, and few forms are as codified as fantasy adventures. The echoes of pint-sized heroes and heroines and the monsters they have…
Still Is by Vincent O’Sullivan. THWUP (2024). RRP: $30. PB, 122pp. ISBN: 9781776922093. Reviewed by Tim Grgec. I never got a chance to read Vincent O’Sullivan at university. He lectured in the English department at Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington and was made an emeritus professor long before I arrived. I knew the name,…
Hine Toa by Ngāhuia Te Awekōtuku. HarperCollins (2024). RRP: $39.99. PB, 336pp. ISBN: 9781775542322. Reviewed by Isla Huia. Hine Toa is the blazing memoir from activist, rangatira, and advocate for the underdog, Ngāhuia Te Awekōtuku. Te Awekōtuku’s early days at the pā of Ōhinemotu, her conflicted rangatahitanga as a student and wāhine takatāpui, and her…
Fox Spirit on a Distant Cloud by Lee Murray. The Cuba Press (2024). RRP: $28. PB, 138pp. ISBN: 9781988595771. Reviewed by Nurus Van Vliet. What a thrill and an honour it was to read this book. Author Lee Murray’s novel-in-verse, Fox Spirit on a Distant Cloud, is evocative from cover to cover and reading it…
Everything That Moves, Moves Through Another edited by Jennifer Cheuk. 5ever Books (2024). RRP: $65. PB, 231pp. ISBN: 9780473713560. Reviewed by Vera Hua Dong. Everything That Moves, Moves Through Another is a lavish tapestry of sounds and shapes of languages, colours and aromas of spices, and most of all, of the lightness and heaviness of…
We brought back lacquerware plates that we had painted with almond sap and sprinkled with coloured mica as if we were masters—a drop of dust and a knowing nod, greeted by the sound of hands meeting—as if we were the most important part of the process. And the starts of chapters are marked with torn receipts, where I had asked how she would…
His emanation was at least five emanations away from the main emanation;Someone had counted; someone else had counted twice;But how many emanations had he left before he departed entirely from their field of vision,From their plane of compresence and suffering?That was hard to tell.Could be four; could be eighteen;It could that he had passed the…
1. My dog is a retired racing dog called Luca. I’m not allowed to call him a rescue, and I’m not allowed to use his image to promote anti-racing propaganda so all I’ll say is he arrived to us with a broken tail and one and a half ears and a deep terror of the…