Tataki Auckland Unlimited
Poetry review: AUP New Poets 10 – Tessa Keenan, romesh dissanayake and Sadie Lawrence
Edited by Anne Kennedy Auckland University Press (2024) Each new release from the AUP New Poets series, which showcases new voices in contemporary poetry, is a must read and has been an introduction for many of us to poets that have gone on to define Aotearoa’s modern literary scene, including Rebecca Hawkes, Sonja Yelich, Claudia…
Poetry review: Hopurangi—Songcatcher – Poems from the Maramataka
By Robert Sullivan Auckland University Press (2024) The poems in Hopurangi—Songcatcher are framed by the cycles of the Maramataka, the Māori lunar calendar. Having rejoined Facebook after a six-year absence, Robert Sullivan wrote and posted a poem a day for nearly three months, poems which are now collected here, in Hopurangi—Songcatcher. They explore a period…
Book review: Rapture – An Anthology of Performance Poetry from Aotearoa New Zealand
Edited by Carrie Rudzinski and Grace Iwashita-Taylor (Auckland University Press, 2023) “I fell in love at the poetry night / with the meter of the verse / steady rhythms and free-flowing rhyme / visionary prophets gliding on intuitive time / the hopeful expression of these beautiful minds” – Andy Coyle Some poetry is written for…
Poetry review: Remember Me – Poems to Learn by Heart from Aotearoa New Zealand
Edited by Anne Kennedy (Auckland University Press, 2023) Poetry is written as much for the ear as for the eye, and the more than 200 poems anthologised in Remember Me were chosen with this in mind. As editor Anne Kennedy explains in her introduction, these are works which “employ a kind of music to convey…
Push, push, roll
Nat Halliday revisits the time he skateboarded (yes, skateboarded) from Cape Reinga to Bluff. It’s 2008, and I am 31 years old. I’m in the Auckland Airport with a huge bag, some cash savings and a plan to travel the 2000 kilometres to the southern tip of New Zealand by skateboard. I should probably have…
Book review: BITER
by Claudia Jardine (Auckland University Press, 2022) Claudia Jardine is a bit of a polymath. She has an MA in classics from Victoria University of Wellington, is the reigning Christchurch Poetry Slam Champion, and is an independent musician. She is also very funny. BITER, her debut poetry collection, reflects all of the above. The book…
Book review – Not Alone: Walking Te Araroa Trail through New Zealand
By Tim Voors (Bateman Books, 2023) Not Alone is Dutch long-distance hiker Tim Voors’ second book about, well, walking a very long way. It serves as a follow up of sorts to The Great Alone: Walking the Pacific Crest Trail, for which he tackled the 4265 kilometres from Mexico to Canada on foot. This time,…
The satisfaction of a well-pressed shirt
“HAVE YOU EVER BEEN BUSH-BASHING WITH AN IRONING BOARD? IT’S AWFUL, IT’S REALLY AWFUL. BUT WE DID IT EVERY WEEKEND,” REMEMBERS SACHA KNIGHT. SACHA IS THE FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE AUCKLAND UNIVERSITY TRAMPING CLUB AND, CRUCIALLY, ONE OF THE FOUNDING MEMBERS OF ITS EXTREME IRONING DIVISION (EID). HIS NICKNAME IS TRAIN TRACKS. MORE ON THAT…
Book review: No Other Place to Stand – An Anthology of Climate Change Poetry from Aotearoa New Zealand
Edited by Jordan Hamel, Rebecca Hawkes, Erik Kennedy and Essa Ranapiri (Auckland University Press) Can poetry save us? In No Other Place to Stand, ninety-one writers with connections to Aotearoa New Zealand grapple with the biggest issue on the planet right now, and while the answer isn’t quite yes, it isn’t quite no, either. As…