Wednesday, 27 January 2016
Free pdf download of latest issue of PNZ
Yes, you heard right. All of the contributors to this issue of Poetry NZ Yearbook have agreed to make their work available on a free pdf download from the PNZ website here. (Look near the top of the left margin, in little red letters: "Free PDF download." Click there).
We've sold pdfs of the past few issues of the magazine (issues 46-49), and will continue to do so, but this time you can have it for free if you wish.
This is most unlikely ever to happen again. From next issue on sales and marketing will be handled by our new publisher, Massey University Press, who will presumably be selling their own e-book version of the magazine.
Of course, we're secretly hoping that you'll love the issue so much that you'll order your very own copy of the print edition, but that's up to you and your conscience.
This is meant simply as a gift to poetry-lovers everywhere, and I hope you'll receive it in that spirit.
Sunday, 24 January 2016
Te Reo surge in latest Poetry NZ [22/1/16]
Dr Robert Sullivan (6 September 2015) photograph: Bronwyn Lloyd
This article, based on a press release by Jennifer Little, Senior Communications Advisor at Massey University, appeared on the Voxy.co.nz website on 22 January 2016:
The question ‘what is New Zealand poetry?’ is the overriding one for editor Dr Jack Ross, as he sifts through hundreds of submissions for Poetry New Zealand. His answer? We need to hear more Māori voices.
To remedy his observation that Māori poets have been overlooked in New Zealand publishing, he invited Māori poet Robert Sullivan to feature in the 50th issue and be Dr Ross’s second as managing editor of Poetry New Zealand, the country’s longest-running poetry journal. The volume includes an insightful interview with the poet canvassing a range of issues such as biculturalism, poetry and identity.
Dr Sullivan, who has Irish and Māori (Ngāpuhi) ancestry, shares his views on the ethics and entitlement of non-Māori writers using Te Reo. "I used to think if you’re not Māori you shouldn’t be using Māori terms because you don’t understand the significance, but I’ve changed my mind about that," he says in the interview. "I think it’s better to promote the use of the language. But bringing it into poetry - well, readers of poetry can be quite pernickety. They’ll look it up, and they’ll actually deepen an understanding of Māori poetics."
Sullivan, who heads the creative writing programme at the Manukau Institute of Technology and edited a 2014 anthology of 60 Māori poets titled Puna Wai Kōrero: An Anthology of Māori Poetry in English (AUP), says he’s discovered more Māori poets since the book was published. "The story of Māori poetry in English and the story of Pasifika poetry in English is, I think, one that still needs to be told."
He says the National Kapa Haka competition, Te Matatini, represents hope for the future of poetry in Te Reo Māori. "They might call it dance, but the lyrics are all poetry. And it’s flourishing. It’s got its own spot on Māori television … it’s not just haka that are being performed, there are waiata, love songs, tangi."
His ten new poems featured in Poetry New Zealand delve into childhood memories of growing up in Auckland, as well as tributes to his parents and grandparents.
In his introductory editorial, Dr Ross makes the case for biculturalism as an underpinning element in defining New Zealand poetry. "For all its faults and omissions and blind spots, the Treaty remains the foundation of our state, and we can’t ignore the principles of biculturalism embodied in it," he writes.
And while he welcomes the concept of New Zealand "poetries" as a: "rich gamut of cultures and language which now exist in our islands expressing themselves in many languages and forms", he feels that "no definition of New Zealand poetry which attempts to sideline or depreciate poetry and song in Te Reo can be taken seriously."
He hopes more Māori poets will submit work in the future, in English and Te Reo Māori.
The 286-page volume, published last November by The Printery at Massey University, comprises poetry and prose poems by some 80 poets, including well-known names Elizabeth Smither, Owen Marshall, Peter Bland, Alistair Paterson, Siobhan Harvey and David Eggleton.
New Zealand poets based overseas and newcomers to New Zealand from diverse ethnic backgrounds are all part of the line-up, with a number of contributors either based in, or originating from, Bosnia, Canada, the United States, Scotland, Australia, and Japan.
Massey University writers include award-winning poet and Master of creative writing graduates Sue Wootton and Janet Newman, and award-winning poet and PhD in creative writing graduate Dr Johanna Emeney, as well as creative writing tutors Dr Matthew Harris and Dr Bronwyn Lloyd, and lecturer Dr Bill Angus.
Essays, commentary and reviews on new poetry publications by a host of local literary talents provide incisive explorations of some of the newest voices on the New Zealand poetry scene.
Dr Ross has signalled further changes to the publication, with the next issue to be published early in 2017 by Massey University Press - a new press launched in 2015 and headed by veteran publisher Nicola Legat. To shorten the length of time some contributors have had to wait for a decision, he’s decided to confine submissions to a three-month period: from May 1st to July 31st of each year, beginning in 2016.
Dr Ross - a poet, editor and critic who teaches fiction, poetry, and travel writing in the School of English and Media Studies at Massey’s Auckland campus - in 2014 replaced distinguished poet, anthologist, fiction-writer, critic and retiring editor Alistair Paterson, who oversaw Poetry New Zealand for 21 years.
The journal originated in 1951 when poet Louis Johnson began publishing his annual New Zealand Poetry Yearbook.
Was there a stand out poem for Dr Ross? "It's hard to single out any one person from so stellar a list of contributors, but I found the two pieces sent me by young poet Emma Shi sounded to me like messages from a strange new country I'd never visited before. She is, I believe, a powerful new talent whom I hope to hear much more from in the future," he says.
Tuesday, 17 November 2015
The Choice of a Cover Image for Yearbook 2
Cover image: Karl Chitham / Cover design: Anna Brown
The cover image for Poetry NZ Yearbook 2 comes from a series of maquettes by artist Karl Chitham (Ngāpuhi). At the time he made the models in question he was working as a curator at the Rotorua Museum, which may explain why this one appears to recall the famous pink and white terraces. Karl, however, has transformed them into congealed pools of white and sulphur-coloured paint, with a wharenui standing proudly on top.
Image: Karl Chitham
If you want to know more about Karl, currently employed as the new director of the Tauranga Art Gallery, do read the article here:
Given our choice of Robert Sullivan as our feature poet for this issue, Karl seemed the ideal choice for a cover artist. Especially as the two of us collaborated on the exhibition Fallen Empire (Dunedin: Blue Oyster Gallery) in 2012 (for which see more info here).
Robert Sullivan (2015)
There are many other people I would like to celebrate for their work on this issue: our administrator, Bronwyn Lloyd; our new social media guru, fiction and screen writer Matthew Harris; but our cover designer Anna Brown, of the Design Studio at Massey, deserves extra high praise for working to the narrowest of deadlines to come up with this wonderful cover for us:
Thanks, then, to one and all! The issue is now with the printers, and should be winging your way by the end of the month.
Tuesday, 13 October 2015
LOUNGE #47 Reading (21/10/15)
The completion of the latest issue (Yearbook 2 / Issue #50) of Poetry NZ will be celebrated next week at one of the nzepc's celebrated LOUNGE readings in Old Government House, Auckland.
Here are the details of the event:
LOUNGE #47
with readers:
Stu Bagby
Peter Bland
Roger Horrocks
Sophia Johnson
Michele Leggott
Bronwyn Lloyd
Vana Manasiadis
Elizabeth Morton
Lisa Samuels
Robert Sullivan
MC: Jack Ross
Wednesday 21st October, 5.30-7.00 pm
At Old Government House
Auckland University City Campus
corner of Princes St and Waterloo Quadrant
Free entry. Food and drinks for sale in the Buttery.
Information Michele Leggott, or 09 373 7599 ext. 87342
The LOUNGE readings are a continuing project of the New Zealand Electronic Poetry Centre (nzepc), Auckland University Press and Auckland University English, Drama and Writing Studies, in association with the Staff Common Room Club at Old Government House, and — in this case — Poetry NZ.
See you there!
There will be a number of giveaways during the evening: free copies of Tender Girl, by Lisa Samuels; A Clearer View of the Hinterland, by Jack Ross; and a voucher for a free copy of the unfortunately-not-yet-back-from-the-printer Poetry NZ Yearbook 2.
•
Photos by Tim Page:
Lounge 47
Stu Bagby
Peter Bland
Roger Horrocks
Sophia Johnson
Michele Leggott
Bronwyn Lloyd
Vana Manasiadis
Liz Morton
Lisa Samuels
Robert Sullivan
MC: Jack Ross
Thursday, 25 June 2015
Poetry NZ Yearbook now available as a pdf !
The Poetry NZ Yearbook 1 [issue #49] is now available as a pdf download from the Poetry NZ website.
Just go to the current issue page, and you'll find a link in the sidebar.
As with issues 46, 47 and 48, which also have this feature enabled, there is a small charge of $NZ10.
We hope that any of you who missed the print edition for any reason will be grateful to have it available in this form (I'm grateful, too, to be able to say that I'm relieved to have been able to correct a couple of typos in this version of the text!).
Sunday, 22 February 2015
Talking Cats and Other Creative Creatures [20/2/15]
Defining NZ 28 (Feb 2015): 28
The above feature article, by Jennifer Little, appeared in the February 2015 issue of Massey's Defining NZ magazine:
“Sparks of light in an ocean of stultifying babble, laser beams penetrating the Stygian darkness of our contemporary linguistic wasteland” – this bold vision is articulated by Dr Jack Ross in his introduction to the poems he chose in his debut as managing editor of the Poetry New Zealand yearbook.
Ross’s editorship of New Zealand’s longest-running poetry journal, which first appeared in 1951, marks a literary coup for Massey – and for the School of English and Media Studies – as its new publisher.
With poems by new and diverse voices – from one on bullying called "Life is Unfair" by an adolescent girl to a poetics professor and feature poet Lisa Samuels’ “extravagantly experimental” works of linguistic acrobatics, plus several translated from foreign languages and many more from local and international poets – Ross’s issue #49 was launched auspiciously on Halloween at the Albany campus and in Wellington in December.
The bumper selection of 117 poems by 93 poets was siphoned from well over a thousand submissions sent in via post and email. Two essays, a review and brief notices of 25 new poetry books and magazines are also included in a fatter new format published annually instead of the previous two slimmer volumes a year.
Ross took on the role after being approached by former editor Alistair Paterson and publisher John Denny. He’d been the feature poet and cover image on issue #22, and is the author of several works of experimental poetry, including City of Strange Brunettes (1998), Chantal's Book (2002), and To Terezin (2007), as well as in foreign languages with Celanie, (which he translated from German – via French – into English). He also co-edited the trilogy of audio and text anthologies Classic, Contemporary and New NZ Poets in Performance (AUP, 2006-8).
His desire to surprise and stimulate readers of Poetry New Zealand is exemplified in a poem by Christchurch-based Chinese poet Wei Sun. It contains Ross’s favourite line in the book; “Holy shit! A talking cat!” – from the poem titled "OCD and Conversations with Cat".
The poem’s quirky yet touching surrealism underscores his search for “a freshness of outlook. There has to be something about each poem that makes me ask the question; ‘Is this a poem?’”
Also in the limelight was Creative Writing senior lecturer Dr Thom Conroy’s debut novel The Naturalist (Random House), true story set in 19th century New Zealand, Germany and London about German naturalist, botanist and explorer Dr Ernst Dieffenbach. It topped the Nielsen Weekly bestseller list for New Zealand fiction for weeks.
Creative Writing tutor and award-winning fiction writer Tina Makereti’s novel Where the Rekohu Bone Sings (Random House) also made the Nielsen Weekly bestseller list and was widely acclaimed for its original take on the cross-cultural complexities of being Māori, Moriori and Pakeha.
Poetry collections by the head of Massey’s Spanish language programme Dr Leonel Alvarado and creative writing tutors Joy Green and Tim Upperton were published as the Kete series by Manawatū’s HauNui Press -– packaged in handmade flax kete.
Award-winning playwright and theatre lecturer Associate Professor Angie Farrow’s new book of short plays, Falling and other short plays (Steele Roberts) was launched in December amid a season of her plays performed in Palmerston North, with a new season planned for Wellington this year.
To top off an exceptional year, the school co-hosted the Australasian Association of Writing Programmes conference (AAWP) at the Wellington campus from November 30 to December 2, held back-to-back with a colloquium on “Placing the Personal Essay”.
The events attracted a swathe of New Zealand and Australian creative writing and teaching talent. The launch of the Aotearoa Creative Writing Research Network (ACWRN), developed by Thom Conroy, was a welcome initiative for those attending to connect more readily across distances as a community of academics, artists and teachers.
These are just highlights in a year of abundant literary output and success by staff and students, says Associate Professor Joe Grixti, head of the School of English and Media Studies.
“With numerous public readings, book signings, theatre performances, media interviews and reviews that accompany publication, Massey’s name is increasingly becoming synonymous – not just with agribusiness, veterinary science and social work – but with highly original creative writing.
“It's very timely for us to be nurturing provocative new voices and perspectives – we need creative ways to illuminate and understand the complexity of human experiences beyond the mainstream.”
Massey teaches a range of undergraduate creative papers internally and by distance (travel, fiction, poetry, theatre) as well as a Master of Creative Writing. For more information go to www.massey.ac.nz
Friday, 20 February 2015
Reviews of Stephen Oliver's Intercolonial available online
Celebrated NZ / transtasman poet Stephen Oliver writes in to say that a number of reviews of his recent book Intercolonial can now be accessed online:
- Patricia Prime for Takahe, NZ Poetry Journal
- Nicholas Reid for Antipodes: A Global Journal of Australian and New Zealand Literature, December 2014
- Stephen Conlon, Dean of the English Department, Assumption University, Bangkok, Thailand / Asian Journal of Literature, Culture & Society
- Denys Trussell on Beattie's Books Blog, August 2013
He also reminds me that his video poem "The Great Rogatus" is now available on youtube.
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