Some highly recommended reading for our national lockdown! Starling keeps in me in touch with younger writers – so looking forward to reading this new issue. Always discover exciting new poets.

Mantras and metamorphoses, headlines and horoscopes, farmville and floods: Starling 12 is here, with the best new poetry and prose from New Zealand writers under 25.

Featuring new work from Xiaole Zhan, Rachel Trow, Leah Dodd, Lily Holloway, Brecon Dobbie, Jenny Nimon, Ruby Macomber, Melissa Oliver, Maddie Ballard, Rose Peoples, Rhys Feeney, Khadro Mohamed, Amelia Kirkness, Holly H Bercusson, Bianca Rogers-Mott, Liam Hinton, Maddi Rowe, Sophie van Waardenberg and Sarah Lawrence!

Also featuring two new poems from guest writer Grace Iwashita-Taylor, an interview with the great Carolyn DeCarlo and Jackson Nieuwland, and stunning cover art from Wellington artist Maisie Chilton.

Starling Issue 12 is also the first Starling issue prepared with the support of the new Starling Editorial Committee: Claudia Jardine, Sinead Overbye and Tate Fountain.