I am looking forward to heading to Featherston’s Booktown at the beginning of May. I am doing several events with children and several adult ones, including a two-hour poetry workshop with children (if you know any that might like to come to that!).
A poetry feast on offering too! There are short popUP poetry readings in the hall – I am reading about 11 am.
Here are a few poetry highlights (there are more):
Listen to Selina Tusitala Marsh at the Fish’n’Chip Supper
Catch the fabulous energy of the Show Ponies crew with MC Jordan Hamel
My poetry workshop for children
Catch up with Rose Lu (ok not poetry but this will be great!)
More poetry! Get ready for a little truth-telling from Caro DeCarlo, Emma Barnes, Vana Manasiadis, Rachel McAlpine and Helen Rickerby.
Continuing our series of Late Nite Lit events, emerging poets Mike Fitzsimons, Tim Grgec, Tayi Tibble and Sam Duckor-Jones will square off against more established Aotearoa poets Paula Green; New Zealand’s first Pasifika Poet Laureate, Selina Tusitala Marsh; and Rachel McAlpine in a poetry collision. If the event runs to schedule and there aren’t prone bodies all over the stage, MC Mary McCallum will invite members of the audience to take the mic. Poetry Collision is supported by Creative New Zealand.
I get to make my poetry picks for the Book Awards!
Poetry New Zealand Yearbook 2021, ed Tracey Slaughter, Massey University Press
Poetry New Zealandis our longest running poetry magazine – it features essays and reviews, along with substantial room for poems. Tracey Slaughter has taken over the editorial role with the 2021 issue, a wide-ranging treat. A poet and fiction writer, she teaches creative writing at the University of Waikato. Her new collection of short stories, Devil’s Trumpet, has just been released by Victoria University Press.
Winners of the Poetry New Zealand Poetry Prize and the Poetry New Zealand Yearbook Student Poetry Competition are included. Aimee-Jane Anderson-O’Connor is the featured poet. To celebrate the arrival of the new issue – with 182 poems by 129 poets – I invited a few to read.
Cadence Chung reads ‘Hey Girls’ (First Prize, Year 12, Poetry New Zealand Yearbook Student Poetry Competition)
Brecon Dobbie reads ‘Diaspora Overboard’
Nida Fiazi reads ‘the other side of the chain-link fence’
Lily Holloway reads ‘The road to the hill is closed’
Michele Leggott reads ‘Dark Emily’
Aimee-Jane Anderson-O’Connnor reads ‘Cat’ and ‘If the heart is meat made electric’
Kiri Piahana-Wong reads ‘Before’
essa may ranapiri reads ‘Hineraukatauri & Her Lover’ (for Ruby Solly)
Jack Ross reads ‘Terrorist or Theorist’. Listen here
Michael Steven reads ‘The Gold Plains’
Cadence Chung is a student at Wellington High School. She first started writing poetry during a particularly boring maths lesson when she was nine. Outside of poetry, she enjoys singing, reading old books, and perusing antique stores.
Brecon Dobbie recently graduated from the University of Auckland with a BA in English and Psychology. She is currently writing as much as possible and trying to navigate her place in the world. Some of her work has appeared in Minarets Journal, Howling Press and Love in the time of COVID Chronicle.
Nida Fiazi is a poet and an editor at The Sapling NZ. She is an Afghan Muslim, a former refugee, and an advocate for better representation in literature, particularly for children. Her work has appeared in Issue 6 ofMayhem Literary Journal and in the anthology Ko Aotearoa Tātou | We Are New Zealand.”
Lily Holloway (born in 1998, she/they) is a forever-queer English postgraduate student. Her creative writing has been published in Starling, Scum, The Pantograph Punch, Landfall and other various nooks and crannies (see a full list at lilyholloway.co.nz/cv). She is an executive editor of Interesting Journal and has a chapbook forthcoming in AUP New Poets 8. Lily is based in Tāmaki Makaurau, is a hopeless romantic and probably wants to be your penpal!
Michele Leggott was the New Zealand Poet Laureate 2007-09 and received the Prime Minister’s Award for Literary Achievement in Poetry in 2013. Recent collections include Vanishing Points (2017) and Mezzaluna: Selected Poems (2020). Michele coordinates the New Zealand Electronic Poetry Centre (nzepc) with colleagues at the University of Auckland. In 2017 she was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand.
Aimee-Jane Anderson-O’Connor writes thanks to the support of some of the best people on this big watery rock.
Kiri Piahana-Wong (Ngāti Ranginui) is a poet and editor, and she is the publisher at Anahera Press. Her poems have appeared in over forty journals and anthologies, most recently in tātai whetū: seven Māori women poets in translation,Solid Air: Australian and New Zealand Spoken Word and Set Me on Fire(Doubleday, UK). Her first poetry collection, Night Swimming, was released in 2013; a second book, Give Me An Ordinary Day (formerly Tidelines), is due out soon. Kiri lives in Auckland with her family.
essa may ranapiri / tainui / tararua / ootaki / maungatautari / waikato / guinnich / cuan a tuath / highgate / thames / takataapui / dirt / dust / whenua / there is water moving through bones / there are birds nesting in the cavities
Jack Ross works as a senior lecturer in creative writing at Massey University. To date he’s published three novels, three novellas, three short story collections, and six poetry collections, most recently The Oceanic Feeling (Salt & Greyboy Press, 2021). He was the managing editor of Poetry New Zealand Yearbook from 2014-2019, and has edited numerous other books, anthologies, and literary journals. He blogs here.
Michael Steven was born in 1977. He is an Auckland poet.
Harry Ricketts teaches English Literature and creative writing at Victoria University of Wellington Te Herenga Waka. His Selected Poems will be coming out from Victoria University Press later this year.
The Takapuna Poetry Tour features contemporary poets performing poems in response to Takapuna and its writing history. Join us for spoken word and poetry on the streets. Poets include Jack Ross, Renee Liang, Kiri Piahana Wong, Elizabeth Morten and Ruby Porter.
From 22 April to 16 May, some of Auckland’s most enthusiastic city-lovers will be celebrating their place with free walking tours throughout our city’s neighbourhoods and I’m delighted to let you know the programme for the Urban Walking Festival 2021 is now online.
At the heart of the festival are 37 walks hosted by city-loving guides and local residents who will share the stories, beloved experiences and hidden gems of their local neighbourhood. The extensive programme includes urban hikes, guided tours, sensory explorations and opportunities to dance as well as an exciting mix of community-initiated walks and a stimulating programme of talks and films reflecting on walking in the city.
The Urban Walking Festival 2021 is inspired by the annual international festival of free, citizen-led walking conversations Jane’s Walks which celebrate writer and urban activist Jane Jacobs. Jane’s Walks happen across the globe and encourage people to share stories about their neighbourhoods, discover unseen aspects of their communities and use walking as a way to connect with their neighbours.
This year we’re delighted to include two free open-air screenings of Citizen Jane: Battle for The City in our festival line-up. This fascinating documentary follows Jane Jacob’s fight to save historic New York City from wholesale demolition and redevelopment during the 1960s. Screenings will be held in the city at Aotea Square and in Takapuna at 38 Hurstmere.
We couldn’t hit the streets without Eke Panuku and Auckland Transport whose support and assistance has helped us to grow the Urban Walking Festival 2021 to what it is today, with highlights such as:
Walking In Lockdown.
Five writers, including Russell Brown, Nisha Madhan, Karlo Mila, Zech Soakai and Kennedy Warne, tell their stories of walking in a time of COVID-19.
Henderson Night Hikoi.
Discover the night ecology of Henderson by exploring the hidden bush spots and trails around the Opanuku stream and Waikumete streams as the night falls over the town centre.
The Takapuna Poetry Walk and Citizen Jane: Battle for the City.
A poetry walk from Takapuna Beach to 38 Hurstmere, followed by an outdoor screening of the documentary Citizen Jane: Battle for the City.
Silent Disco City Walks.
Two new routes from the award-winning Silent Disco Citywalk, offering an energetic, multi-sensory outdoor experience and a new perspective on Ponsonby and Grey Lynn.
From Moses to Merge.
An urban hīkoi led by people who have lived experience of sleeping rough through the Karangahape Road precinct
NZ Poetry Shelf 