Abstract
Introduction
Ruminating on the current state of New Zealand poetry in their Introduction to Essential New Zealand Poems, Siobhan Harvey, James Norcliffe and Harry Ricketts emphasise the genre’s diversity:
Contemporary poetry can be personal and public … It can be condensed or distilled, rambling or bardic. It can be serious and comic … It can be for the page, the stage, the blog, the chat-room … New Zealand poetry takes its influences from the present, the past, from Asia and the Pacific, from Europe and America.
These sentiments hold true for authors of fiction and drama as well, with creative energies delving inwards but also stretching backwards, outwards, and forwards, with the past, the global present, and possible futures all enticing writers.
Several novelists found inspiration in the historical record. The journey of German naturalist and ethnographer Ernest Dieffenbach to New Zealand in 1839 provides the basis for Thom Conroy’s The Naturalist. The 1865 murder of an Otahuhu family is the departure point for Rosetta Allan in Purgatory, while Charlotte Randall’s The Bright Side of My Condition is based on the true story of four convicts marooned on one of the Snares Islands for almost a decade in the early nineteenth century. Tina Makereti juxtaposes the past with the present in Where the Rēkohu Bone Sings, Mere leaving a repressive home in search of romance in the 1880s and Lula rediscovering meaning through reconnecting with her mother’s whanau in the twenty-first century. Paul Thomas’ Detective Tito Ihaka journeys into the less distant past in Fallout, investigating a cold case set against a backdrop of a newly nuclear-free New Zealand. The contemporary world was not overlooked, with Jenny Pattrick finding hope in a run-down timber town in Heartlands and Laurence Fearnley exploring the connection points between an artist, a vet and a diver in Reach. Disappointment is the legacy of Owen Marshall’s protagonist in Carnival Sky, the very believable Sheff learning to let go but longing for a world in which there is more. Strange, fantastical alternate worlds were celebrated in Regeneration, a collection of New Zealand speculative fiction edited by Anna Caro and Juliet Buchanan. Magical realms enchanted in several young adult narratives, with Mandy Hager’s protagonist forming a connection with a whale in Singing Home the Whale, Rachael Craw blending paranormal romance and science fiction in Spark, and David Hair moving between parallel worlds in Magic and Maketu.
Current poet laureate Vincent O’Sullivan published a moving volume of short stories, Families, that captures the tensions, dramas, and ordinary moments of family life with masterful understatement and a poignant eye for detail. Human temperament is likewise the focus of Sarah Quigley’s Tenderness. David Hill writes of the stories: “Opposites attract, so tenderness is counterpointed by bickering, betrayal, rueful reconciliations. Teeth and claws glint a good deal. Characters can be astonishingly selfless or gloriously selfish, feral or fabulous … They look at one another with wonder or distaste” (New Zealand Herald, 5 July).
Robert Sullivan and Reina Whaitiri draw together Māori poetic voices in their splendid edited collection Puna Wai Kōrero: An Anthology of Māori Poetry in English. Notable collections of poetry include Fleur Adcock’s The Land Ballot, which reflects on the importance of place and identity through the history of her grandparents’ winning of a tract of Mt Pirongia bush in a 1915 land auction, and Michelle Leggott’s Heartland, which traces significant personal and ancestral journeys to New Zealand, to Gallipoli, and, perhaps most haunting of all, the journey of her widowed great-grandmother with her husband’s body from Auckland to New Plymouth. Family connections are the leitmotif of Elizabeth Smither’s Ruby Duby Du, written to her granddaughter, and Jillian Sullivan’s Parallel, the culmination of the work that won her the Kathleen Grattan Award in 2011. Sullivan has an eye for the poignant intersections of family life, such as this meditation on her daughter’s room in “The One”:
We all have a room we enter through and a room from which we’ll leave and some, by grace, get to share the room where another goes or stays.
The Pacific lured poets Leilani Tamu and Gregory O’Brien. Tamu’s The Art of Excavation was inspired by the dissatisfaction about academic engagements with the Pacific she experienced during her 2013 Fullbright-Creative New Zealand residency at the University of Hawaii. Her poetic responses range from Pacific legends, to her own ancestry, to contemporary events such as the devastating 2009 tsunami. In Whale Years O’Brien intersperses his poems with etchings, maps and weather charts. Elizabeth Grayford praises the timely reminder that “we are all tagata pasifika, whether by birth or by migration, and that our own well-being is inextricably linked to the health of the ocean in which we live” (New Zealand Books 25.2, p24).
Stylistic innovations were a feature of New Zealand literature in 2014. Sugar Magnolia Wilson experimented with both physical form and language in Pen.Pal, a fold-out pamphlet in black card covers that consists of a series of letters from a teenage inhabitant of the suburban bush to her pen pal. Anna Jackson describes the work as “just one breath-taking sequence that captures the weirdness and devastating emotional honesty of teenaged written language in a poetic memoir so skilfully and originally shaped it might be the first modern classic of the genre it invents” (Landfall, 228, p181). Hinemoana Baker also experiments with form in Waka / Mouth, her haunting “Estuary” spreading across double page and allowing for horizontal and vertical readings. In an attempt to capture the energy and pace of New York, Tim Wilson adopts a staccato, rapid style, liberally peppered with exclamation marks, in his novel New Pigs. 2014 was a particularly notable year for the graphic novel, with publications by Dylan Horrocks (Sam Zabel and the Magic Pen) and Ant Sang (The Dharma Punks).
This year’s recipient of the Bruce Mason Playwriting Award was Ralph McCubbin Howell, whose magical The Bookbinder had its Wellington premiere in February 2014. This one-man show, directed by Hannah Smith, tells its story through words, objects (books, pop-up paper art, a bottle of black ink, a jug of water, books, a lamp), shadow play, and sound effects. Playmarket continue their excellent promotion of play scripts, publishing plays by Michelanne Forster, William Brandt, Miranda Harcourt and Stuart McKenzie, as well as a collection, 8 Classroom Plays. Two very different worlds created by Arthur Meek have likewise made it from the stage to the page: nineteenth-century colonial encounters in On the upside down of the World (based on Lady Martin’s 1884 Our Maoris) and the powerful landscapes of contemporary Central Otago in Trees beneath the Lake.
A number of significant memoirs were published this year. Reflecting on origins and the formative years of childhood link Ian Wedde’s Grass Catcher, Witi Ihimaera’s Maori Boy, and Elspeth Sandys’ What Lies Beneath. Wedde, the recipient of the 2014 Prime Minister’s Award for Achievement in Poetry, meditates on an early life of transience and change and attests to the way in which home and a sense of belonging can be found in objects (such as the grass catcher of the title), narratives (such as the film The Creature from the Black Lagoon), and people (in particular his brother Dave). Ihimaera locates his own story within a wider community whakapapa, ranging through history and mythology, while Sandys’ shifts between her own memories and reimagined incidents and feelings from her parents’ past.
As usual, Katherine Mansfield inspired the most critical reflection, with international as well as local interest. A special issue of the Journal of New Zealand Literature explored everything from Mansfield’s child heroes, to her fairytale food, to her modern aesthetics. The work of children’s author Maragret Mahy was the focus of several papers in an issue of the Children’s Literature Association Quarterly. The first was published in 2014 in the first of a planned two-book companion to Maurice Gee’s fiction. Focusing on Gee’s Fiction for Young Readers, the collection of critical essays explores both the magic and the dark undertones of Gee’s fiction for children and young adults. Nineteenth-century New Zealand writing by Clara Cheeseman, Jessie Weston, Louisa Baker, Alfred Dommett, and Samuel Butler was profiled in The Victorian Colonial Romance with the Antipodes by Helen Lucy Blythe and Domestic Fiction in Colonial Australia and New Zealand edited by Tamara S. Wagner.
As always, the joy of new publications and exciting innovations was tempered with the sadness of loss. New Zealand farewelled Les Cleveland in 2014. He served for four and a half years in the Second New Zealand Expeditionary Force and documented the everyday experiences of military life in The Songs We Sang (1959); The Iron Hand: New Zealand Soldiers’ Poems from World War Two (1979) and Dark Laughter: War in Song and Popular Culture (1994). Michael Jackson pays tribute to “a man of few words, modest, uncomplaining, pragmatic, staunchly egalitarian” in his tribute in New Zealand Books (24.2, p16). There was also sadness at the closing of the Holloway Press after twenty years of publishing distinctive, meticulously crafted and aesthetically appealing books. The August exhibition at the Gus Fisher Gallery at the University of Auckland – Dark Arts: Twenty Years of the Holloway Press – provided an opportunity to celebrate the unique collaborations between authors and artists and the enduring power of the book as physical object.
Bibliography
Bibliographies
The bibliography for 2014 does not normally include references for book reviews and offers a very selective listing of non-fiction. Those seeking further information in these categories should consult the following sources:
Journal of New Zealand Literature ed Charles Ferrall Annual sub $25 Overseas NZ$35, US$25. One/two issues per year <www.waikao.ac.nz/wfass/jnzl/>.
Landfall ed David Eggleton Annual sub $49.95 Australia A$45 Rest of World US$42. Two issues per year <www.otago.ac.nz/press/landfall/>.
New Zealand Books eds Louise O’Brien and Harry Ricketts Annual sub $24.95 (individuals) $50 (libraries). Four issues per year <www.nzbooks.org.nz/>.
New Zealand Listener ed Pamela Stirling Annual sub $155. Fifty-two issues per year <www.listener.co.nz>.
Te Puna CD-ROM: Index New Zealand (INNZ), New Zealand National Bibliography (NZNB) RMIT Publishing for the National Library of New Zealand (Wellington) semi-annual [includes Pacific area imprints and bibliography].
<www.bookcouncil.org.nz> [includes entries on New Zealand writers from The Oxford Companion to New Zealand Literature (1998) updated].
<www.library.auckland.ac.nz/subjects/nzp/nzlit2/authors.htm> [works by, and biographical and critical material on, selected New Zealand and Pacific authors, updated].
<www.nram.org.nz> [National Register of Archives and Manuscripts, updated].
< www.teara.govt.nz/en/biographies > [Dictionary of New Zealand Biography online; includes entries on 3000 New Zealanders of note; ongoing].
<www.nzepc.auckland.ac.nz> [New Zealand Electronic Poetry Centre; hub for New Zealand and Pacific poetry resources; ongoing].
<www.nzetc.org> [New Zealand Electronic Text Centre; online archive of New Zealand and Pacific texts and heritage materials; ongoing].
<www.teara.govt.nz> [Te Ara: The Encyclopaedia of New Zealand; ongoing].
Poetry
Adcock, Fleur The Land Ballot 96pp Victoria University Press (Wellington) Pb $30.00.
Alvarado, Leonel Driving with Neruda to the Fisn n Chips 82pp HauNui Press (Palmerston North) Pb $20.00.
Baker, Himemoana Waka / Mouth 63pp Victoria University Press (Wellington) Pb $25.00.
Barr, Miriam Bullet Hole Riddle 64pp Steele Roberts Aotearoa (Wellington) Pb $19.99.
Bates, Jess Holly Real Fake White Dirt 45pp Anahera Press (Auckland) Pb $24.99.
Beautrais, Airini Dear Neil Roberts 63pp Victoria University Press (Wellington) Pb $25.00.
Bland, Peter Hunting Elephants 60pp Steele Roberts Aotearoa (Wellington) Pb $19.99.
Borrell, Nola Take Back Our Sky 130pp New Zealand Poetry Society (Wellington) Pb $27.00.
Butcher-McGunnigle, Zarah Autobiography of a Marguerite 94pp Hue & Cry Press (Auckland) Pb $25.00.
Caoilinn, Hughes Gathering Evidence 60pp Victoria Unviersity Press (Wellington) Pb $25.00.
Charles, Joe Blackberry Pie: 48 New Zealand Ballads 104pp Wily Publications (Christchurch) Pb $34.99.
Cooke, Kay McKenzie Born to a Red-Headed Woman 76pp Otago University Press (Dunedin) Pb $25.00.
Davidson, John Snapshots of Berlin 73pp Goethe-Institute New Zealand (Wellington) Pb $30.00.
Dennison, John Otherwise 64pp Auckland University Press (Auckland) Pb $24.99.
Dobson, Emily The Lonely Nude 65pp Victoria University Press (Wellington) Pb $25.00.
Faith, Rangi Spoonbill 101 66pp Puriri Press (Auckland) Pb $27.50.
Fell, Cliff The Good Husbandwoman’s Alphabet 32pp Last Leaf Press (Motueka) Pb $20.00.
Fraser, Alexandra Conversation by Owl-Light 71pp Steele Roberts Aotearoa (Wellington) Pb $19.99.
Fry, Robin Love Song of the Wading Bird 54pp Submarine (Eastbourne) Pb $25.00.
Gallas, John Pacifictions 36pp Cold Hub Press (Lyttleton) Pb $19.50.
Gibb, John The Thin Boy & Other Poems 43pp Cold Hub Press (Lyttleton) Pb $19.50.
Green, Joy Surface Tension 88pp Haunui Press Ltd (Palmerston North) Pb $20.00.
Green, Paula The Letterbox Cat & Other Poems 93pp Scholastic (Auckland) Pb $19.50.
Harlow, Michael Sweeping the Courtyard: The Selected Poems of Michael Harlow 186pp Cold Hub Press (Lyttelton) Pb $39.95.
— Heart Absolutely I Can 60pp Mākaro Press (Eastbourne) Pb $25.00.
Harvey, Siobhan Cloudboy 78pp Otago University Press (Dunedin) Pb $25.00.
Hines, Kerry Young Country 200pp Auckland University Press (Auckland) Pb $34.99.
Howard, David The Speak House 44pp Cold Hub Press (Lyttleton) Pb $19.50.
Ireland, Kevin Feeding the Birds 60pp Steele Roberts Aotearoa (Wellington) Pb $19.99.
Jackson, Anna I, Clodia, and Other Portraits 76pp Auckland University Press (Auckland) Pb $24.99.
Jagger, Bryony Orchestral Sketches 138pp Heartbreak Publishing (Auckland) Pb $38.
Jansen, Adrienne The Curioseum: Collected Stories of the Odd & Marvellous 160pp Te Papa Press (Wellington) Pb $29.99.
Jones, Marion Reminiscences 83pp Steele Roberts Aotearoa (Wellington) Pb $19.99.
Kempen, Robert Saying Sights 8pp Puriri Press (Auckland) Pb $17.00.
Langford, Gary Unit 6, 3 Quake Poems 86pp Steele Roberts Aotearoa (Wellington) Pb $19.99.
Lash, Stefanie Bird Murder 70pp Mākaro Press (Eastbourne) Pb $25.00.
Leggott, Michele J. Heartland 114pp Auckland University Press (Auckland) Pb $27.99.
Leilani, Tamu The Art of Excavation 79pp Anahera Press (Auckland) Pb $24.99.
Locke, Terry Ranging around the Zero 70pp Steele Roberts Aotearoa (Wellington) Pb $19.99.
Loney, Alan and Max Gimblett eMailing Flowers to Mondrian 28pp Melbourne Hawk Press (Melbourne) Pb AUS$30.
MacLeod, Rod The Unknown Sea: An Anthology of Poems on Living and Dying 144pp Steele Roberts Aotearoa (Wellington) Pb $29.99.
Manhire, Bill Cicada 69pp Ferbank Studio (Wellington) Pb $85.
Marshall, Owen The White Clock 94pp Otago University Press (Dunedin) Pb $25.00.
McFarland, Robin The Rime of the Venal Insurer 41pp Plot Press Limited (Christchurch) Pb $9.99.
McMillan, Maria Tree Space 80pp Victoria University Press (Wellington) Pb $25.00.
McQueen, Cilla Edwin’s Egg and Other Poetic Novellas 264pp Otago University Press (Dunedin) Pb $39.95.
Miller, Alice The Limits 51pp Auckland University Press (Auckland) Pb $24.99.
O’Brien, Gregory Whale Years 104pp Auckland University Press (Auckland) Pb $27.99.
O’Conner, John Whistling in the Dark 95pp HeadworX Publishers (Wellington) Pb $28.00.
Olds, Peter You Fit the Description: The Selected Poems 272pp Cold Hub Press (Lyttleton) Pb $49.99.
Orr, Bob Odysseus in Woolloomooloo 60pp Steele Roberts Aotearoa (Wellington) Pb $19.99.
O’Sullivan, Vincent Being Here: Selected Poems 238pp Victoria University Press (Wellington) Pb $40.00.
Pirie, Mark Poems for My Father 15pp The Night Press (Wellington) Pb $15.00.
Pope, Lindsay Headwinds 66pp Submarine (Eastbourne) Pb $25.00.
Posna, Lee Arboretum 20pp Compound Press (Auckland) Pb $15.00.
Powell, Jenny Trouble 46pp Cold Hub Press (Lyttleton) Pb $19.50.
Powles, Nina Girls of the Drift 19pp Seraph Press (Wellington) Pb $20.00.
Pule, John Puhiatau The Bond of Time: An Epic Love Poem 88pp Canterbury University Press (Christchurch) Pb $25.00.
Rickerby, Helen Cinema 80pp Mākaro Press (Eastbourne) Pb $25.00.
Ricketts, Harry Half Dark 63pp Victoria University Press (Wellington) Pb $25.00.
Sampson, Sam Halcyon Ghosts 96pp Auckland University Press (Auckland) Pb $24.99.
Samuel, Frances Sleeping on Horseback 80pp Victoria University Press (Wellington) Pb $25.00.
Shadbolt, Peter Voyage Around a River: The Hokianga 74pp Steele Roberts Aotearoa (Wellington) Pb $24.99.
Sharpe, Kerrin P. There’s a Medical Name for This 68pp Victoria University Press (Wellington) Pb $25.00.
Simonovic, Gus Allowed and Aloud 69pp Printable Reality (Auckland) Pb $25.00.
Smith, Campbell Lines of Love: Selected Poems 63pp Steele Roberts Aotearoa (Wellington) Pb $20.00.
Smith, Marty Horse with Hat 77pp Victoria University Press (Wellington) Pb $30.00.
Smither, Elizabeth Ruby Duby Du 40pp Cold Hub Press (Lyttelton) Pb $19.50.
Stuart, Peter Alan Coracle 77pp Submarine Poetry (Eastbourne) Pb $25.00.
Sullivan, Jillian Parallel 62pp Steele Roberts Aotearoa (Wellington) Pb $19.99.
Sutton, Bill Jaberwocky: Poems 2007-13 64pp Steele Roberts Aotearoa (Wellington) Pb $19.99.
Taylor, Apirana The Breathing Tree: New Poems 55pp Canterbury University Press (Christchurch) Pb $25.00.
Thomson, MaryJane Fallen Grace: Poems 30pp The Night Press (Wellington) Pb $20.00.
Thomson, Stuart Trifles & Truffles 72pp Steele Roberts Aotearoa (Wellington) Pb $20.00.
Thomspon, Paul The Colour of Water: (Or, a Circumnavigation in Three Watches) 36pp Wai-te-ata Press (Wellington) Pb $80.00.
Tse, Chris How to Be Dead in a Year of Snakes 80pp Auckland University Press (Auckland) Pb $24.99.
Upperton, Tim The Night We Ate the Baby 53pp Haunui Press Ltd (Palmerston North) Pb $20.00.
Weston, Tom Only One Question 73pp Steele Roberts Aotearoa (Wellington) Pb $24.99.
Wilson, Sugar Magnolia Pen.Pal fold-out pamphlet Spaghetti Press (Wellingon) price on application.
Drama
Farrow, Angie Falling and Other Short Plays 172pp Steele Roberts Aotearoa (Wellington) Pb $29.99.
Forster, Michelanne Don’t Mention Casablanca 81pp Playmarket (Wellington) Pb $25.00.
Meek, Arthur On the Upside Down of the World: A Play 40pp Profit & Delight (Wellington) Pb $15.00.
— Trees Beneath the Lake: A Play 123pp Profit & Delight (Wellington) Pb $20.00.
Richard Finn, Holly Gooch, Philippa Werry, Mark A. Casson, Michelanne Forster, Leilani Unasa, Stephanie Matuku, and Claire Ahuriri Stage Adventures: 8 Classroom Plays 125pp Playmarket (Wellington) Pb $27.00.
William Brandt, Miranda Harcourt and Stuart McKenzie Two Verbatim Plays: Verbatim & Portraits 92pp Playmarket (Wellington) Pb $24.50.
Fiction
Agnew, Leonie Conrad Cooper’s Last Stand 223pp Puffin Books (Auckland) Pb $19.99.
Allan, Rosetta Purgatory 328pp Penguin (Auckland) Pb $30.00.
Atkins, Ben Drowning City 256pp Random House (Auckland) Pb $37.99.
Attwood, Derin The Caves of Kirym 344pp BigWords-Books (Ashhurst) Pb $30.00.
Baker, Tihema Watched 346pp Huia Publishers (Wellington) Pb $25.00.
Barwell, Anne Shades of Sepia 194pp Dreamspinner Press (Tallahassee, FL) Pb US$14.99.
Beale, Fleur I Am Rebecca 272pp RHNZ Children’s (Auckland) Pb $19.99.
Bowker-Wright, Gemma The Red Queen 220pp Victoria University Press (Wellington) Pb $30.00.
Broadbent, Adele Trouble in Time 260pp Scholastic New Zealand Limited (Auckland) Pb $19.50.
Brocker, Susan 1914: Riding Into War 216pp Scholastic New Zealand Limited (Auckland) Pb $19.50.
Brown, Kerry Donovan Lamplighter 160pp Victoria University Press (Wellington) Pb $28.00.
Carty, Kate Run Thomas Run 271pp Escalator Press (Wellington) Pb $32.00.
Christopher, Adam Hang Wire 373pp Angry Robot (Nottingham) Pb US$14.99.
Clayton, Shannon Four of a Kind 501pp Black Rose Publications Montreal Pb $21.00.
Cochrane, Geoff Astonished Dice: Collected Short Stories 240pp Victoria University Press (Wellington) Pb $30.00.
Colson, Janet The Shark Party 308pp Escalator Press (Wellington) Pb $30.00.
Conroy, Thom The Naturalist: A Novel 384pp Vintage (Auckland) Pb $37.99.
Craw, Rachael Spark 464pp Walker Books (Newtown, NSW) Pb $24.99.
Dawe, Ted Into the River 276pp Longacre (Auckland) Pb $19.99.
Dawley, Linda Wee Mac 141pp The Little Red Hen Community Press (New Zealand) Pb $21.95.
Direen, Bill Utopia Rag 133pp Tank Press (Middlemarch) Pb $18.
Dolman, Dinah A History of Crime: The Southern Double Cross 261pp Ravensbourne Books Limited (Auckland) Pb $35.00.
Dukes, Breton Empty Bones: and Other Stories 184pp Victoria University Press (Wellington) Pb $30.00.
Dunsford, Cathie Occupy Omaha 72pp Global Dialogues Press (Matakana) Pb $4.99.
Falkner, Brian Ice War 392pp Walker Books Australia Pty Ltd (Newton NSW) Pb $21.99.
Fearnley, Laurence Reach 288pp Penguin (Auckland) Pb $38.00.
Ford, Holly Blackpeak Station 352pp Bantam (Auckland) Pb $19.99.
— Blackpeak Vines 320pp Bantam NZ (Auckland) Pb $36.99.
Frame, Janet Owls Do Cry 304pp Text Publishing (Melbourne) Pb AUS$12.95.
Gilbert, Paul The Sovereign Hand 460pp Steam Press (Wellington) Pb $35.00.
Graeme, Lay James Cook’s New World 318pp Fourth Estate (Auckland) Pb $36.99.
Hager, Mandy Singing Home the Whale 352pp RHNZ Children’s (Auckland) Pb $19.99.
Haines, Julie Swimming with Big Fish 322pp Orakei Press (Auckland) Pb $29.99.
Hair, David Magic and Makutu 317pp HarperCollins Publishers (Auckland) Pb $24.99.
Hampson, Sebastian The Train to Paris 304pp The Text Publishing Company (Melbourne) Pb AUS$29.99.
Harris, Jill The Red Suitcase 240pp Submarine (Eastbourne) Pb $25.00.
Hill, David No Safe Harbour 128pp Puffin (Auckland) Pb $19.99.
— The Deadly Sky 272pp Puffin (Auckland) Pb $19.99.
Hollis, A. Elton Going to Monte Solaro 196pp FAHN (Auckland) Pb $20.00.
Horrocks, Dylan Sam Zabel and the Magic Pen 221pp Victoria University Press (Wellington) Pb $35.00.
Jacka, Juliet Night of the Perigee Moon 201pp Scholastic (Auckland) Pb $19.50.
Keukelaar, Jeannette Different Worlds 278pp BigWords Books (Northland) Pb $29.99.
King, Natalie Awakening 272pp Penguin Books (Auckland) Pb $19.99.
Koea, Shonagh Landscape with Solitary Figure 264pp Vintage (Auckland) Pb $29.99.
Leaton, Stephen Vivienne’s Blog 387pp Eunoia Publishing (Auckland) Pb $45.00.
Low, Nic Arms Race: And Other Stories 224pp The Text Publishing Company (Melbourne) Pb AUS$27.99.
Lynch, Sarah-Kate Heavenly Hirani’s School of Laughing Yoga 288pp RHNZ Black Swan (Auckland) Pb $37.99.
Mackenzie, Anna Donnel’s Promise 352pp Longacre Child (Auckland) Pb $19.99.
Makereti, Tina Where the Rēkohu Bone Sings 280pp Vintage (Auckland) Pb $37.99.
Mannering, Paul Engines of Empathy 250pp Paper Road Press (Wellington) Pb $32.99.
Marriott, Allan The Witzke Woman 197pp Wily Publications (Christchurch) Pb $29.99.
Marshall, Owen Carnival Sky 296pp Vintage (Auckland) Pb $37.99.
— Owen Marshall Selected Stories ed. Vincent O’Sullivan 622pp Vintage (Auckland) Pb $39.99.
Mayo, Catherine The Bow 362pp N.S.W. Walker Books Australia (Newtown, N.S.W.) Pb AUS$17.95.
McGill, David Stamp in the Creek 206pp Silver Owl Press (Paekakariki) Pb $29.95.
McKay, Sandy Charlotte and the Golden Promise 111pp Puffin Books Auckland Pb $14.99.
Moir, Tanya The Legend of Winstone Blackhat 240pp Vintage (Auckland) Pb $37.99.
O’Sullivan, Vincent The Families: Stories 251pp Victoria University Press (Wellington) Pb $35.00.
Pattrick, Jenny Heartland 328pp Black Swan (Auckland) Pb $36.99.
Pawley, J.L First Flight 466pp Nineteenth House Publishing (Auckland) Pb $20.00.
— Second Chance 475pp Nineteenth House Publishing (Auckland) Pb $16.99.
Price, Felicity A Jolt to the Heart 520pp Blackjack Publishing (Christchurch) Pb $29.95.
Quigley, Sarah Tenderness: Stories 347pp Vintage (Auckland) Pb $37.99.
Randall, Charlotte The Bright Side of My Condition 248pp Penguin Books (Auckland) Pb $30.00.
Richardson, Paddy Swimming in the Dark 288pp Upstart Press Ltd (Auckland) Pb $34.99.
Ryan, J.E. The Glass Projector 218pp Steam Press (Wellington) Pb $20.00.
Sang, Ant The Dharma Punks 423pp Earth’s End (New Zealand) Pb $39.99.
Singh, Nalini Archangel’s Shadows 384pp Gollancz (London) Pb £8.99.
— Night Shift 384pp Berkley Books (New York) Pb US$7.99.
— Shield of Winter 431pp Gollancz (London) Hb £16.99.
Sleigh, Thomasin Ad Lib 224pp Lawrence & Gibson (Wellington) Pb $27.00.
Thomas, Paul The Dancing Gypsy 285pp Good Hope Publishing House (Picton) Pb $25.00
— Fallout 287pp Upstart Press (Auckland) Pb $34.99.
Wallace, Desna Canterbury Quake: Christchurch, 2010-11 174pp Scholastic (Auckland) Pb $18.50.
Wilson, Tim News Pigs 200pp Victoria University Press (Wellington) Pb $30.00.
Translations
Cleave, Paul Sha Ren Ji Yin: Blood Men trans of Blood Men (2010) into Chinese 351pp (Taibei Shi) Pb $40.
Dodd, Lynley Hairy Maclary no te Teri a Tanarahana trans of Hairy Maclary from Donaldson’s Dairy (1983) into Maori by Waihoroi Shortland 36pp Mallinson Rendel (Wellington) Pb $17.99.
Mansfield, Katherine Wa wa wu / The Doll’s House trans of Doll’s House and Other Stories (1922) into Chinese by Xie Yaoling yi 358pp Mu Ma Wen Hua Shi Ye Gu Fen You Xian Gong Si (Xinbei Shi) Hb AUS$45.
Letters and Autobiography
A Job to Do: New Zealand Soldiers of “The Div” Write about Their World War Two ed John Gordon 368pp Exisle Publishing (Auckland) Hb $49.99.
Brash, Don Incredible Luck 330pp Trokia (Auckland) Pb $35.
Brow, Helena Wisniewska Give Us This Day: A Memoir of Family and Exile 255pp Victoria University Press Pb $40.
Crabb, Jo My Two Heavens: A Cooking Life between Martinborough and a Village in France 272pp Random House (Auckland) Pb $39.99.
de Montalk, Stephanie How Does It Hurt? 381pp Victoria University Press (Wellington) Pb $40.
Edmond, Martin Barefoot Years 100pp Bridget Williams Books (Wellington) Pb $14.99.
Gee, Maurice Creeks and Kitchens: A Childhood Memoir 51pp Bridget Williams Books (Wellington) Pb $14.99.
Gunn, Kirsty Thorndon: Wellington and Home: My Katherine Mansfield Project 124pp Bridget Williams Books (Wellington) Pb $14.99.
Ihimaera, Witi Māori Boy: A Memoir of Childhood 400pp Vintage (Auckland) Pb $39.99.
Keith, Hamish and Elizabeth, Hana and Ngarino Ellis Robert Ellis 311pp Ron Sang Publications (Auckland) Hb $295.
Lilburn, Douglas Memories of Early Years and Other Writings ed Robert Hoskins 152pp Steele Roberts (Wellington) Hb $39.99.
Sandys, Elspeth What Lies Beneath: A Memoir 240pp Otago University Press (Dunedin) Pb $40.00.
Smith, Dot Dot: Queen of Riverstone Castle 304pp Random House (Auckland) Pb $39.99.
Wedde, Ian The Grass Catcher: A Digression about Home 288pp Victoria University Press (Wellington) Hb $40.00.
Anthologies
A Treasury of NZ Poems for Children ed Paula Green 288pp Random House Children’s (Auckland) Hb $37.99.
Essential New Zealand Poems: Facing the Empty Page selected by Siobhan Harvey, James Norcliffe and Harry Ricketts 320pp Godwit (Auckland) Pb $45.00.
Faction 3: New Zealand Comic Anthology ed Damon Keen and Amie Maxwell 86pp 3 Bad Monkeys (Auckland) Pb $24.95.
Mad Honey: A Collection of Writing by New Zealand Teenagers ed Glyn Strange 138pp Clerestory Press (Christchurch) Pb $24.95.
New Zealand Bedtime Treasury 240pp Puffin (Auckland) Hb $45.00.
Nga Korero o Ngati Wai: A Kete full of Ngati Wai Stories and Poems ed Stephanie Chamberlain, Lenna Milton, Vicki Hall, Jess Ngatai, Carly Blenkhom 93pp Ngatiwai Trust Board (Whangarei) Pb $24.95.
Puna Wai Kōrero: An Anthology of Māori Poetry in English ed Robert Sullivan and Reina Whaitiri 416pp Auckland University Press (Auckland) Pb $49.99.
Regeneration: New Zealand Speculative Fiction II ed Anna Caro and Juliet Buchanan 293pp Random Static (Wellington) Pb $24.95.
Tell You What: Great New Zealand Nonfiction 2015 ed Jolisa Gracewood and Susanna Andrew 233pp Auckland University Press (Auckland) Pb $29.99.
The Unknown Sea: An Anthology of Poems on Living and Dying ed Rod MacLeod 144pp Steele Roberts Aotearoa (Wellington) Pb $29.99.
Words that Matter: 10 Years of Seraph Press ed Helen Rickerby 28pp Seraph Press (Auckland) Pb $20.00.
Criticism
The Critic’s Part: Wystan Curnow Art Writings 1971–2013 ed Christina Barton and Robert Leonard 512pp Victoria University Press (Wellington) Hb $80.
Domestic Fiction in Colonial Australia and New Zealand ed Tamara S. Wagner 240pp Pickering & Chatto (London) Hb £60.00.
“Geologic Fictions: Science, Imperialism, and Transnational Literatures of Deep Time” Teresa Shewry Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment 21(2) 253–270.
“The Many Indigenous Bodies of Kai Tahu” Khyla Russell and Samuel Mann Indigenous Bodies: Reviewing, Relocating, Reclaiming ed Jacqueline Fear-Segal and Rebecca Tillett 179–189 University of New York Press (Albany, New York) Hb US$90.00.
“New Zealand Women Traveller Writers: From Exile to Diaspora” Janet Wilson in Diasporas, Cultures of Mobilities, ‘Race’ 1. Diasporas and Cultures of Migrations ed J. Misrahi-Barak and C. Raynaud pp295–322 PU de la Méditerranée (Monptelier) PB €34.
Selected Essays on Canadian, Australian and New Zealand Literatures Igor Maver Cambridge Scholars (Newcastle upon Tyne) Hb £39.99.
“Stomachs and Serials in Nineteenth-Century Dunedin” Rosi Crane Script & Print: Bulletin of the Bibliographical Society of Australia and New Zealand 38(3) pp134–143.
Theatricality, Dark Tourism and Ethical Spectatorship: Absent Others Emma Willis 256pp Palgrave Macmillan (New York) Hb £50.00.
Then It Was Now Again: Selected Critical Writing Murray Edmond 324pp Ataunui Press (Pokeno) Pb $45.00.
“Through the Long Corridor of Distance”: Space and Self in Contemporary New Zealand Autobiographies Valérie Baisnée 156pp Rodopi (Amsterdam) Pb €40.00.
The Victorian Colonial Romance with the Antipodes Helen Lucy Blythe 256pp Palgrave Macmillan (New York) Hb £57.50.
“Visual Identity in Niupepa Māori Nameplates and Title-Pages: From Traditional to Aspirational” Lachy Paterson Script & Print: Bulletin of the Bibliographical Society of Australia and New Zealand 38(2) pp67–79.
Baker, Louisa Alice “The Antipodal House Beautiful: Louisa Alice Baker’s Colonial Aesthetic” Kirby-Jane Hallum in Domestic Fiction in Colonial Australia and New Zealand ed Tamara S. Wagner pp135–144 Pickering & Chatto (London) Hb £60.00.
— “The Colonial Newspaper as a Stepping Stone for the Victorian New Zealand Writer: A Case Study of Louisa Alice Baker” Stefanie Rudig Script & Print: Bulletin of the Bibliographical Society of Australia and New Zealand 38(1) pp26–38.
Baxter, James K. “Patrick White and James K. Baxter: Public Intellectuals or Suburban Jeremiahs?” Mark Williams in Patrick White Centenary: The Legacy of a Prodigal Son ed Bill Ashcroft and Cynthia Driesen pp354–367 Cambridge Scholars (Newcastle upon Tyne) Hb £57.99.
Brathwaite, Errol “Enter the Japanese Imperial Marine: Postwar Comedy and Errol Brathwaite’s An Affair of Men” Daniel McKay Arcadia: Internationale Zeitschrift für Literaturwissenschaft 49(2) pp368–391.
Cheesman, Clara “Antipodal Home Economics: International Debt and Settler Domesticity in Clara Cheeseman’s A Rolling Stone” Philip Steer in Domestic Fiction in Colonial Australia and New Zealand ed Tamara S. Wagner pp145–159 Pickering & Chatto (London) Hb £60.00.
Gee, Maurice Maurice Gee: A Literary Companion: The Fiction for Young Readers ed Elizabeth Hale 208pp Otago University Press (Dunedin) Pb $35.00.
George, Miria “Forging Native Idioms: Canadian and Australasian Performances of Indigeneity in an Age of Globalization” Marc Maufort in Figuren des Globalen: Weitbezug und Weiterzeugung in Literature, Kunst und Medien ed Christian Miser and Linda Simonis pp703–715 Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht (Göttingen, Germany) Hb €79.99.
Jones, Lloyd “The Creation of Space: Narrative Strategies, Group Agency and Skill in Lloyd Jones’ The Book of Fame” John Sutton and Evelyn B. Tribble in Mindful Aesthetics: Literature and the Science of Mind pp141–160 Bloomsbury (New York) Hb US$110.00.
—“Great Expectations A Hundred and Fifty Years Later: Strategies of Appropriation” Barbara Klonowska in Reflections on/of Dickens ed Ewa Kujawska-Lis and Anna Krawczyk-Łaskarzewska pp222–234 Cambridge Scholars (Newcastle upon Tyne) Hb £49.99.
Mansfield, Katherine “Children as Artists: Katherine Mansfield’s ‘Innocent Eye’” Tracy Miao Journal of New Zealand Literature 32(2) pp143–166.
—“Feeling Things – A Response to Katherine Mansfield’s Fiction” Emily Perkins Journal of New Zealand Literature 32(2) pp17–30.
—“From the Store to the Story: Katherine Mansfield and the Process of Rewriting” Davide Manenti Journal of New Zealand Literature 32(2) pp167–181.
—“‘In Their Nakeds’: Katherine Mansfield, Freud and Neurasthenia at Bad Wörishofen” John Horrocks Journal of New Zealand Literature 32(2) pp121–142.
—“Katherine Mansfield’s Fairytale Food” Sarah Shieff Journal of New Zealand Literature 32(2) pp68–84.
—“Katherine Mansfield and the Working Classes” Charles Ferrall Journal of New Zealand Literature 32(2) pp106–120.
—“Katherine Mansfield’s Russian Mask: Boris Petrovsky and the Poetry of Rhythm” Richard Cappuccio Journal of New Zealand Literature 32(2) pp182–202.
—“‘Manuka bushes covered with thick spider webs’: Katherine Mansfield and the Colonial Gothic Tradition” Erin Mercer Journal of New Zealand Literature 32(2) pp85–105.
—“Milk, Blood, Ink: Mansfield’s Liquids and the Abject” Diana R. Harris Journal of New Zealand Literature 32(2) pp52–67.
—“On a View from the Rims: Katherine Mansfield and Emily Carr” Mary Ann Gillies in Virginia Woolf and the Common(wealth) Reader: Selected Papers from the Twenty-Third Annual International Conference on Virginia Woolf ed Helen Wussow and Mary Anne Gillies pp94–106 Clemeson University Press (Clemeson) Pb $24.95.
—“Phenomenology Begins at Home: The Presence of Things in the Short Fiction of Katherine Mansfield and Virginia Woolf” Aimee Gasston Journal of New Zealand Literature 32(2) pp31–51.
— “‘Simplicity and Art Shades Reign Supreme’: Costume, Collectibles, and Aspiration in Katherine Mansfield’s New Zealand” Jane Stafford in Virginia Woolf and the Common(wealth) Reader: Selected Papers from the Twenty-Third Annual International Conference on Virginia Woolf ed Helen Wussow and Mary Anne Gillies pp77–86 Clemeson University Press (Clemeson) Pb $24.95.
— Veiling and Unveiling: Mansfield’s Modern Aesthetics” Janet Wilson Journal of New Zealand Literature 32(2) pp203–225.
Mahy, Margaret “‘A Very Mysterious World’: Placing Margaret Mahy” Claudia Marquis Children’s Literature Association Quarterly 39(1) pp105–149.
— An Unreal House Filled with Real Storms: The Inaugural Margaret Mahy Memorial Lecture Elisabeth Knox pp1-12 Victoria University Press (Wellington) Pb $10.00.
— “‘Knitted up Again’: Remembering Margaret Mahy” Anna Smith Children’s Literature Association Quarterly 39(1) pp130–139.
— “Made in New Zealand: Place and Enchantment in Margaret Mahy’s Picture Books” Clare Bradford Children’s Literature Association Quarterly 39(1) pp111–120.
— “Margaret Mahy: Embodying Feminism” Roberta Seelinger Trites Children’s Literature Association Quarterly 39(1) pp140-149.
— “Re-Viewing Margaret Mahy: Languages of Language and Imagination” Christine Wilkie-Stibbs Children’s Literature Association Quarterly 39(1) pp121–129.
Ihimaera, Witi “Recognition, Political and Interpersonal: Gay Tribalism in Witi Ihimaera’s The Uncle’s Story” Yanwei Tan Modern Fiction Studies 60(2) pp366–386.
Singh, Nalini “Out of This World: (Arch)Angles as the New Vampires? Nalini Singh’s Angels of Blook” Andreea Serban in Reading the Fantastic Imagination: The Avatars of a Literary Genre ed Dana Perec pp200–217 Cambridge Scholars (Newcastle upon Tyne) Hb £44.99
Sullivan, Robert “‘This Poem Is a Sea Anchor’: Robert Sullivan’s Anchor” Jane Stafford in Patrick White Centenary: The Legacy of a Prodigal Son ed Bill Ashcroft and Cynthia Driesen pp458–469 Cambridge Scholars (Newcastle upon Tyne) Hb £57.99.
Weston, Jessie “‘What Is in the Blood Will Come Out’: Belonging, Expulsion and the New Zealand Settler Home in Jessie Weston’s Ko Mére” Kirstine Moffat in Domestic Fiction in Colonial Australia and New Zealand ed Tamara S. Wagner pp161–176 Pickering & Chatto (London) Hb £60.
Non-fiction
Child Poverty in New Zealand Jonathan Boston and Simon Chapple 296pp Bridget Williams Books (Wellington) Hb $50.
Don’t Spoil My Beautiful Face: Media, Mayhem and Human Rights in the Pacific David Robie 361pp Little Island Press (Auckland) Pb $40.
Dumont d’Urville: Explorer and Polymath Edward Duyker 761pp Otago University Press (Dunedin) Hb $70.
Gutter Black: A Memoir Dave McArtney 319pp Harper Collins (Auckland) Pb $45.00.
John Key: Portrait of a Prime Minister John Roughan 253pp Penguin (Auckland) Pb $38.
Journey to a Hanging: The Events That Set New Zealand Race Relations back by a Century Peter Wells Vintage (Auckland) $45.
The Mighty Totara: The Life and Times of Norman Kirk David Grant 511pp Random House (Auckland) Hb $50.
Richard Seddon: King of God’s Own – The Life and Times of New Zealand’s Longest-serving Prime Minister Tom Brooking 584pp Penguin (Auckland) Hb $65.
Speeches That Shaped New Zealand: 1814-1956 Hugh Templeton, Ian Templeton & Josh Easby 384pp Hurricane Press (Cambridge, NZ) Pb $49.99.
The Voyagers: Remarkable European Explorations of New Zealand Paul Moon 256pp Penguin Group (NZ) (Auckland) Pb $40.00.
White Ghosts, Yellow Peril: China and New Zealand 1790–1959 Stevan Eldred-Grigg with Zeng Dazheng 383pp Otago University Press (Dunedin) Hb $55.
Journals
Katherine Mansfield Masked and Unmasked: Journal of New Zealand Literature ed Charles Ferrall, Anna Jackson, Harry Ricketts, Marco Sonzongni and Peter Whiteford 32(2) 225pp Pb $25.
Landfall 228 ed David Eggleton 208pp Pb $29.95.
Pacific Highways: Griffith Review 43 ed Julianne Schultz and Lloyd Jones 288pp Text Publishing (Melbourne) Pb $35.
Vital Signs: Landfall 227 ed David Eggleton 208pp Pb $29.95.