Poetry Shelf collage review: The girl who was swallowed by ice and snow by Bernadette Hall and Kathryn Madill

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The girl who was swallowed by ice and snow
Bernadette Hall and Kathryn Madill
The Tuirau Arcade, 2026

Bernadette Hall and Kathryn Madill shared an Artists in Antarctic Award in 2004, a memorable experience that drew them into creative collaborations and an enduring and close friendship.

The girl who was swallowed by ice and snow is an ice-aching poem exhibition story fable haunting collaboration with text by Bernadette and paintings by Kathryn. An exhibition was displayed from 17 March to 13 April 2026 at City Art Depot Gallery, Christchurch.

Sometimes I pick up a book, and it is perfect timing, a book that fills the gap or ache or hunger of now. I open the The girl who was swallowed by ice and snow, and get that electric connection, this is the book I need to be reading, this slender book that opens out into thickets of discovery, recognition, delight.

Sul is sixteen, born on a Sunday, she is full of grace, but for some self-smashing, self-unacccountable reason, she plunges into a crippling state of silence. A state of frozen ice. But then, after days and months entrapped, upon hearing her name called in the middle of the night, she moves. She begins walking moving walking moving with ice limbs through garden forest beach.

Sul is moving with a comfort quilt draped across her shoulders, through a radically changed world, with horrifying things sliding off a banquet table, with no desire, just ice. And here we are in the mysterious terrain of fable, with a tugging desire to be walking, to be naming things, with a moon ladder, with the world’s fabled beginnings, with the fingertap of the dead and death, in some scenes.

And yes we are in the terrain of fable when a rescue Ice Warden cares for Sul, with uncertain and maybe unstable time passing, and dear Sul is fed snow berries and sea lettuce and stories.

The Ice Warden takes her to the sharpest ice shard imaginable, figuratively, and literally, there in the Antarctica scene, to a frozen ice hut, to an ice bridge collapsed, to scrapping sled dogs and to where men are trapped in blizzard death, trapped in stagger and collapse, and the death-watch Ice Warden unwittingly offers a turning point, an epiphany moment for dear Sul.

More than anything, I am busting through ice to care for and be cared for, for Sul to be cared for and to care for. For you to care for and be cared for. Musing within this precious moment on how to care for the person next to me, how to be held in warm embrace, how to recognise what I want and need when desire is a big thin unstable wedge.

Bernadette’s writing is a visual canvas, painterly with detail, economical, lyrical, rich in effect. The sentences exude an exquisite honeyed fluency, even when writing of ice and shards and death and the dead, uncertain times and timings. The sublime rhythm and simplicity accentuates the haunting, the fablesque, the real world.

Kathryn’s artwork, comprising watercolours and monoprints, is a dark-light visionary narrative, also lyrical with haunting rhythms, and if you place your ear tenderly against an image, you will hear the mysterious haunting dream. The pitch black intimate night of the painting. I am, for example, drawn deep into the empty chair, the velvety red smudges, the suspended moon. The rippling paint texture catching the intimate interior world of Sul.

I am shimmering and shivering and thawing and dreaming beyond and within the layers of this extraordinary wee book. Thank you.

The photo was taken in the City Art Depot in Otautahi Christchurch

“On March 17 at the City Art Gallery in Ōtautahi Christchurch, my YA short story ‘The Girl Who Was Swallowed by Ice and Snow’ will be launched. It is a collaboration with the Dunedin artist, Kathryn Madill, 1,800 words from me and 17 paintings from her. Set in an Antarctic dreamscape, it explores the phenomenon of silence, the kind of silence the young can vanish into. To save themselves. As I did when my dad died in front of me when I was 16 years old. His Irish heart giving out. So it has taken me 22 years to make this artwork. How wonderful to celebrate the making now with Kathryn.” Bernadette Hall

Bernadette Hall is Otago born and bred. Following a long and much enjoyed career as a high school teacher in Dunedin and Christchurch, she has for the last eighteen years lived in a renovated bach at Amberley Beach in the Hurunui, North Canterbury, where she has built up a beautiful garden. Fancy Dancing is her eleventh collection of poetry. In 2015 she collaborated with Robyn Webster on Matakaea, Shag Point, an art /text installation exhibited at the Ashburton Art Gallery. In the same year she was awarded the Prime Minister’s Award for literary achievement in poetry. In 2017 she was made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to literature in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Dunedin artist Kathryn Madill is an established New Zealand artist. Her paintings, drawings and prints explore fragments of literature, legend and landscape. Within these delicate works, we find poised moments of human experience stalled against the grey of day, the dark of night, the barren contours of a desolate landscape. Madill has been a consistent exhibitor at City Art Depot since our first exhibition in 2001.

The exhibition: The girl who was swallowed by ice and snow, City Art Depot Gallery, Christchurch, 17 March to 13 April 2026 exhibition link. gallery

The publisher: The Tuirau Arcade thetuirauarcade@gmail.com

An event June 19th

An event: Waimakariri Libraries invite lovers of stories and beautiful art to enjoy a lively book talk to celebrate ‘The girl who was swallowed by ice and snow’, a book written by Bernadette Hall with accompanying artworks Kathryn Madill.

This special event features images of the original artworks by Kathryn Madill, and a reading from the book by Bernadette Hall. This beautiful book is 20 years in the making, with roots that go back to their shared 2004 residency in Antarctica.

Poetry Shelf noticeboard: AUP New Poets 12 launch

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Join us to celebrate the publication of AUP New Poets 12, featuring collections by Zephyr Zhang, Loretta Riach and Anuja Mitra.

‘‘AUP New Poets 12 carries on the high standard set by the series and gives a fuller canvas to three young poets who I know we will read much more from in the years to come. Open-hearted, funny and extremely current, Anuja Mitra, Loretta Riach and Zephyr Zhang all write engrossing collections that deliver on the promise of their appearances in local and international journals.’
— Francis Cooke

Tuesday 7 July
6pm

Time Out Bookstore
432 Mount Eden Road
Auckland

Come along for readings and light refreshments. Series editor Anne Kennedy will be launching the book, which will be available to purchase courtesy of our generous hosts and the authors available to sign your copy.

Read more about the book

Poetry Shelf noticeboard: Zarah Butcher-McGunnigle book launch

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Join Zarah Butcher-McGunnigle for the New Zealand launch of two powerful and innovative collections, Leaves Fall Off to Create Drama and Autobiography of a Marguerite, both published in April by Giramondo.

The launch will be hosted by Hana Pera Aoake, and feature readings from Hana, JM Francis, Josephine Kitsen and Siobhan Harvey, as well as the author herself.

Copies of Zarah’s books will be on hand for purchase, with light refreshments available.

This event is free, but please register your attendance via Humanitix. We hope to see you there!

Poetry Shelf Playing Favourites: Adrienne Jansen chooses Peter Rawnsley and Gabrielle Huria

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Origins

Born in a time of war,
I rose at dawn to watch
troop ships gather
in Wellington Harbour.

I come
from pressed uniforms,
boarding schools, the smell
of pipe tobacco.

I come
from Hail Marys and Paternosters,
fragrance of incense, the smack
of a strap.

I come
from the pungency of green needles,
sitting quiet in the crown of a pine tree.

I come
from moonlight, appassionata and
a passion for the music of Beethoven.

I come
from a chatter-box kid
and the cut and thrust of argument

I return
by the chatter, the music,
the tree and the discipline,
to the quiet harbour.

Peter Rawnsley
from Paper Cups (forthcoming Marmac Media)

Adrienne Jansen:

I’ve been reading the third collection of poems by Peter Rawnsley. Peter’s second collection was published by Cuba Press, who describe him on their website as ‘one of Aotearoa’s best-kept secrets.’ I agree, he’s a much under-recognised poet. He combines a sharp intellect, a wide reading base – particularly in science – a love of the natural world, a love of music, and a thoughtful Catholic faith. That’s a big spread.

And that’s why I chose his poem ‘Origins’, which opens his forthcoming collection. It’s a down-to-earth poem, that doesn’t have some of the imaginative leaps and mystery of some of his other work, but it draws together each aspect of his life in that succinct way that poetry can. Form is very important to Peter, and his choice of three 4-line stanzas, three 3-line stanzas, then one last 4-line stanza, will be careful and deliberate. I often don’t pay much attention to form, so it’s always interesting to see this unobtrusive but careful use of form. And of course the poem returns to where it began.

I’ve also been reading Pakiaka, which is the first volume of poetry from Gabrielle Huria (Ngāi Tūāhuriri/Ngāi Tahu). It’s one of those small beautifully produced books of poetry which feels like a gift. There’s a long poem in it called ‘How to Be a Good Ngāi Tahu.’ Rather than describe it, I’m going to include a couple of excerpts here. But go and find the whole thing. Read the whole book.

“Know your kai, how to get it, where to get it, how to work it, how
to store it, and how to cook it.

Have a freezer packed with kai.

Have much more kai than you need just in case a relation calls,
in which case over-feed them with everything you’ve gather.

Be ready to make a big feed 24/7 – there’s no such thing as a
snack.”

“Have rights to a tītī island.

If you don’t have rights, marry someone who has.

If you can’t do that, have a standing annual order with a birder
for a few buckets.

On the island if you have rights, you have a say.

If you married into the rights, keep your mouth shut – just do the work.

Don’t be a slacker every anywhere, especially not on the island.

Ngāi Tahu know how to work.

Lazy Ngāi Tahu must be half something else, probably from
the north.”

Gabrielle Huria
from Pakiaka, Canterbury University Press, 2025

Adrienne Jansen writes poetry, fiction and non-fiction for both adults and children. She’s published several collections of poetry, and is the co-founder of Landing Press, a small Wellington publisher of poetry that many people can enjoy. In 2026 they are working on an anthology of poems about water. She lives at Tītahi Bay, north of Wellington.

Peter Rawnsley is a retired public servant living in Porirua, New Zealand. Paper Cups, his third collection, will be published by Marmac Media, July 2026. He has also published Light Cones (Mākaro Press 2018) and Stones & Kisses (Cuba Press 2024.)

Gabrielle Huria is Ngāi Tūāhuriri/Ngāi Tahu. She lives with her extended whānau at Tuahiwi in North Canterbury. Gabrielle is a keen practitioner of Ngāi Tahu mahinga kai (traditional food gathering). Her collection of poems Pakiaka is part family chronicle and part a settling of accounts – a depiction of being Ngāi Tahu in a modern world.

Poetry Shelf Speaks Out For To With: Requiem for A Pony by Kerrin P Sharpe

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REQUIEM FOR A PONY                                                           i.m. Antarctic ponies                                              1907– 1913

Ice melts
Pony faces
Requiem sound

                        +

Stable song                
(pony choir)

Are we up
Are we down
Do we stand
On the ground?
Do we run
Do we walk
What to do
With all this talk?

                        +

Reading

When the sky bent
Over the ponies
And gave them
A deep blue kiss
They were already cold

                        +

Psalm: for Captain Lawrence Oates
(pony voices)

You led us through ice pastures
Over frozen waters
You stayed when the cruellest 
Blizzards left us belly-deep
In snow
At times we hardly moved
Such terrible tiredness
Only you knew we had become
Ghosts
Like a Sanctuary Lamp
You comfort us still

                        +

Homily 

In the blizzard 
At Camp 15
Ponies wore vestments
Of ice
Kept the faith
Remember them
In the driven snow
Of altar cloths
In the click of sledgeometers
In the cry of the wind
The skull of a skua
When sun slips
Through leadlight windows
It leaves patterns
Think microscopic slides
Of pony hair
Flutters of fringe fibre
Their own DNA

                        +

 Raise your voices

For ponies that swayed
On boats for seven weeks
And could never sit down
For those that broke legs
For those terrified
By killer whales
Yet jumped on command
For those that fell
Into crevasses
For those that heard
The gun
For those who saw it

                        +

Supper
(pony voices)

At the foot of the Glacier
We died on the altar of ice 
For you
Snow buried our blood
Remember those of us you froze
Those of us you ate

                        +

Benediction

Farewell our blessed ponies
Now the sledges
Are loaded with your
Courage your perseverance
Your Spirit and faithfulness
May you dwell forever
In the House of Ice

                        +

Sestina for Pony Choir

Ice 
Pony
Sky
Falling
Song
Remembers

Remembers
Ice
Song
Pony
Falling
Sky

Sky 
Remembers
Falling
Ice
Pony
Song

Song
Sky
Pony
Remembers
Ice
Falling

Falling
Song 
Ice                                                                                                                               
Sky
Remembers
Pony

Pony
Falling
Remembers
Song
Sky
Ice

Pony song
Falling sky
Remembers ice

                        +

Post Requiem Photo Tribute
(pony voices)

An open mouth                                   of moving photos
We walk towards                                 or away from
Solid and persuasive                          as a mass choir
Ice maps the glow                               of snow melts darkness
With a smooth tongue                         nestles like eggs
In the petrie dishes                             of floating bays
Wakes our stables                              with the loneliness
Stares at us                                         stares at us
Till we’re not sure                                not sure
                                    What to do

Kerrin P Sharpe

Kerrin P Sharpe has published five collections of poetry (with Te Herenga Waka University Press, Wellington). She has also had poems published in a wide range of journals including Oxford Poets 13 (Carcanet Press), Blackbox Manifold, Poetry (USA), berlin lit (Germany), PN Review and Stand (UK). She has also appeared in Best New Zealand Poems and in 2021 and 2025 received Michael King Writers’ residencies.

Kerrin:  “I wrote this poem on my Michael King residency in November 2025. To get inside the minds of the ponies I read all I could about them. One source that was inspiring was the book The Lost Photographs of Captain Scott by David M Wilson.”

Poetry Shelf Monday Poem: car music by Amy Marguerite

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car music

i cried  
in front of my manager 
and it wasn’t  
comfortable  
it was  
the opposite 
of uncomfortable

just passed  
two goats  
headbutting  
by the expressway 
teaching each other 
common risk  
or self-preservation

i did not want  
a strand of new hair  
to tickle  
my old face! 
it was just a thought 
without a face 
to cry on 

i think i grieve 
differently 
like everybody else

i know exactly 
what i cannot mean 
at all times  
and that seems a bit holy  
and disgusting 
like marriage 
or drinking alone

i’ll unliken that  
to this 
then to now 
then sleep 
find myself  
living still  
on both sides of the bed

and when i look back 
on the new dream  
and feel so  
ahead 
i’m pulling tears  
from an ancient 
moment

breaking through  
in front of nothing  
like no god 
everywhere

Amy Marguerite

Amy Marguerite (she/her) is a poet and peer support worker living in Pukekohe. Amy’s debut collection over under fed was published by Auckland University Press in March 2025. Her essay on the new generation of Aotearoa poets features in Te Whāriki: Reading Ten New Poets from Aotearoa, published by Auckland University Press in October 2025.

Poetry Shelf noticeboard: Little Prayers performance at Loemis Festival

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Little Prayers is presented at Lōemis Festival on Saturday 13 June 2026 at 6:00 pm, in the Hall of Memories at the National War Memorial, Pukeahu Park, Pōneke.


One of this year’s most powerful events is Little Prayers, which includes a song cycle piece by pianist and composer Norman Meehan, performed with vocalist Hannah Griffin and a small chamber ensemble in the Hall of Memories at the National War Memorial. The work sets poems by Bill Manhire, centred on his 2016 sequence Known Unto God, written for the centenary of the Battle of the Somme, and framed by Huia and Little Prayers – texts shaped by profound loss, the extinction of a native bird and the 2019 Christchurch mosque attacks.

For MNZ interview with Norman Meehan

Poetry Shelf noticeboard: Tuwhare Residency Programme 2026

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Kia ora!

Tuwhare Residencies are open for applications.

We have 3 residencies on offer:

✊🏾Te Pane Kākā o Tuwhare – Tuwhare Poetry Residency.

✊🏾Te Ringatoi o Tuwhare – Tuwhare Creative Residency.

✊🏾Te Kaituhi o Tuwhare – Tuwhare Creative Writing Residency.

Applications are available at here https://honetuwhare.org.nz/tuwhare-residency/

Art work: Tracey Tawhiao, 2025. Buy her art at: Tracey Tawhiao