Landfall 245, edited by Lynley Edmeades, reviews editor David Eggleton
Otago University Press, 2023

Landfall 245, edited by Lynley Edmeades, is rich in reading, from poetry through fiction to nonfiction and reviews. What better way to celebrate its arrival than a suite of readings in the online Poetry Shelf Cafe. Grateful thanks to all the participants – this is a treat indeed!

my review here

Otago University Press page

Medb Charleton 

‘Letter to the Editor’

Medb Charleton is originally from Sligo, Ireland. Her poetry has been published in Landfall, Sport, Poetry New Zealand and Turbine | Kapohau. 

Ruben Mita

‘No Good’

Ruben Mita is a poet, musician and ecology student in Pōneke. He has been published in multiple outlets and won the 2022 Story Inc. IIML Poetry Prize. He likes fungi, fires and some noises.

Alexandra Fraser

‘Love Was Not on the Programme’

Alexandra Fraser lives in the west of beautiful Tāmaki Makaurau surrounded by kauri and tree-fern. She has been published in magazines and anthologies in Aotearoa and internationally, and has been highly placed in many poetry competitions.  Alexandra is a member of the Isthmus creative and critique group of poets, whom she met while completing the Master Creative Writing at AUT. She has published two poetry collections through Steele Roberts (‘Conversation by Owl-Light’ (2014), ‘Star Trails’ (2019)) and is working on two more – one on history and ecology, the other on networks.

Brett Reid

‘White Irises’

Brett Reid lives in Tāmaki Makaurau. When he’s not reading or writing, or having a beer, Brett is likely to be cycling, swimming or walking the latest greyhound he and his wife Helen are fostering. As well as Landfall, his poems have previously appeared in takahé, a fine line, the fib review, and Sentinel Literary Quarterly.

Jodie Dalgleish

‘The Edge of the Sea or Sea Rose (1977)’

Jodie Dalgleish is a New Zealand writer, curator, and sound artist living in Luxembourg. Her poetry has been published in Landfall, Poetry Aotearoa Yearbook, Shearsman, Long Poem Magazine, Poetry Salzburg Review, Azure and Les Cahiers Luxembourgeois. She holds a master’s in creative writing from Auckland University of Technology Te Wānanga Aronui o Tāmaki Makau Rau.

Link to ‘Sea Rose’, the painting by Joanna Margaret Paul

Bill Nelson

Photo credit: Ebony Lamb

‘Bird Life’

Bill Nelson is the author of Root Leaf Flower Fruit (2023) and Memorandum of Understanding (2016). His poems have appeared in anthologies and journals in New Zealand and overseas, as well as in dance performances, art galleries and on billstickers. In 2009 he won the Biggs Family Prize in Poetry from the International Institute of Modern Letters, and he is a founding editor of Up Country: A Journal for the NZ Outdoors. He lives in Te Whanganui-a-tara Wellington with his partner, two children and his dog, Callimachus Bruce.

Tim Grgec

Photo credit: Ebony Lamb

‘Swimming to Australia’

Tim Grgec is a writer and public servant based in Te Whanganui-a-tara | Wellington. His first book, All Tito’s Children, was published by Te Herenga Waka Press in 2021.

Evangeline Riddiford Graham

‘Treatment Plan’

Evangeline Riddiford Graham is the author of the poetry chapbooks Gineshoi (hard press) and La belle dame avec les mains vertes (Compound Press). Her recent writing can be found in Landfall, Art News, Sweet Mammalian, and The Spinoff. She lives in Lenapehoking New York City, where she hosts the poetry podcast Multi-Verse.