National Poetry Day in Wellington: Mākaro Press does parks and buckets

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Poets in the Park
A panoply of poets perform their work for passersby and prescient perchers. Bring a packed or purchased lunch to hear poets of Mākaro Press and Steele Roberts, whose offices peek over the park. Come and hear: Harvey Molloy • Kerry Popplewell • Tim Jones • Maggie Rainey-Smith • Keith Westwater • Pete Carter • Robyn Cooper • Peter Stuart • Stefanie Lash • Polina Kouzminova • Jamie Trower.
Entry Details: Free. Open to all ages.
Date/Times: 26 August, 12-1.15pm
Location: Glover Park, Ghuznee Street, Wellington city.
Contact: makaropress@gmail.com

Buckets of Poets
Poets busk their poems beside the ebullient bucket fountain of Cuba Mall. Bring your lunch and be prepared to be blown away by the poets of Mākaro Press and Steele Roberts, whose offices are in the Cuba precinct. Come and hear: Harvey Molloy • Kerry Popplewell • Tim Jones • Maggie Rainey-Smith • Keith Westwater • Pete Carter • Robyn Cooper • Peter Stuart • Stefanie Lash • Polina Kouzminova • Jamie Trower.
Entry Details: Free. Open to all ages.
Date/Times: 26 August, 2-3.15pm
Location: The bucket fountain, Cuba Mall, Wellington.
Contact: makaropress@gmail.com

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National Poetry Day in Wellington: next up Unity Books and it looks very good indeed

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Six Poets In Sixty Minutes
Celebrate National Poetry Day by heading to Unity Books to listen to Hera Lindsay Bird, Harvey Molloy, Bill Nelson, Rachel O’Neill, Kerrin P Sharpe and Tim Upperton read from their work.
Entry Details: Free. Open to all ages.
Date/Times: Friday 26 August, 1-2pm
Location: Unity Books, 57 Willis Street, Wellington
Contact: Dylan Sherwood wellington@unitybooks.co.nz

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National Poetry Day in the Herald: some thoughts, a favourite poem and ten poems that have stuck to me

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The NZ Herald invited to share some thoughts on poetry for National Poetry Day. Here is my contribution in full, including a favourite poem and a list of poems that have stuck to me.

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Paula with Courtney Sina Meredith’s fabulous Tail of the Taniwha

 

Josephine likes lyric poetry

 

Josephine likes the way a poet will pull in a bird or a ladder

or an old coat and the bird and the ladder and the old coat

will tremble and shiver and ebb and flow just like the sea

so you will fall upon the fullness of each and it will make

you shift on your chair and almost stop breathing.

 

From New York Pocket Book Seraph Press, 2016

 

 

Poetry is a form of music. There are no rules you can’t break. Poems can tell stories, make lists, leave things out, share secrets, make things up, confess things, protest in a loud voice. A good poem can take you out in the world and turn you upside down so everything looks different. It can push you down a steep slope that is really exhilarating or put you in front of something strange or wonderful so you just have to stop and linger as though you are in a bush clearing or on an unfamiliar street or peeking through a door ajar. Sometime the hairs on the back of your arm might stand on end, especially when you hear a good poem read out loud (Bill Manhire, Michele Leggott, David Eggleton). Good poems can sometimes misbehave (Hera Lindsay Bird) or make you suck your cheeks in because they tang with life (Emma Neale) or make you swop shoes (Sarah Jane Barnett, Anna Jackson, Helen Rickerby). We don’t have to get everything in a poem. A good poem is where a poet takes shoes and socks off and stands in a southern stream in the middle of winter. Anything is possible. Some poems don’t suit us and some poems are a match made in heaven (Tusiata Avia, Bernadette Hall, Joan Fleming, Ian Wedde, Chris Price, Gregory O’Brien, Murray Edmond, Elizabeth Smither, Steven Toussaint).

 

 

A favourite poem

I love Rachel Bush’s ‘Sing Them’ because she is singing out of near death, unfolding lines until they ‘float,’ and there is love and memory, even at ‘the cold leftover end/ of the rind of winter,’ and I feel sad as I read but she lets the world shine and each phrase is extraordinary.

 

 

Ten New Zealand poems that have stuck to me (sticky poems)

Jenny Bornholdt ‘The Rocky Shore’

James Brown ‘The Bicycle’

Anne Kennedy ‘Sing-Song’

Michele Leggott ‘Blue Irises’

Margaret Mahy ‘Down the Back of the Chair’

Bill Manhire ‘Hotel Emergencies’

Selina Tusitala Marsh ‘Fast Talking PI’

Cilla McQueen ‘Being Here’

CK Stead ‘Auckland’

Hone Tuwhare ‘Rain’

 

 

 

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Best Books I never wrote – Mahy Manhire, Neale and McQueen

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To celebrate my new poetry collection, Fairfax invited me to share some book titles for their regional papers. It is very fitting the weekend I am at the glorious IBBY Congress in Auckland, my first pick is by Margaret Mahy.

 

The Lion in the Meadow, Margaret Mahy

No matter what I write, Margaret Mahy’s fiendishly elastic, daringly inventive way with words is like my phantom grandmother. Take a lion, a matchbox, a boy and a mum and you get a classic story to which New Zealander writers are all in debt. The ending is genius and still gives me goosebumps.

 

for the other three  … see here

Poetry Day Wellington: second up – The National Library

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Poetry Day at the National Library

  • Date: Friday, 26 August, 2016
  • Time: 12.10pm – 1.00pm
  • Cost: Free
  • Location: Te Ahumairangi (ground floor), National Library, corner Molesworth and Aitken Streets
  • Contact Details: For more information, email Peter.Ireland@dia.govt.nz

Poetry at its best with Wellington poets Anna Jackson, Magnolia Wilson, Ashleigh Young, James Brown and John Dennison in a lunchtime reading at the National Library.

The poets will read their own work and poems by poets they like. Bring your lunch if you wish, and be early for a good seat.

 

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Congratulations to a very fine poet! Sue Wootton’s good news

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Sue Wootton longlisted for University of Canberra Vice-Chancellor’s Poetry Prize 2016

Monday, 15 August 2016

Sue Wootton headshotWarmest congratulations from all at OUP to Sue Wootton, whose poem ‘Strange Monster’ has been longlisted for the University of Canberra Vice-Chancellor’s International Poetry Prize 2016. Sue’s poem is one of 60 selected from over 1200 entries. Head judge Simon Armitage will determine the winning poem, which will be announced on Friday 16 September at the Poetry on the Move festival.

Sue’s collection The Yield will be published by Otago University Press in 2017.

Poetry Day in Wellington looks like a poetry crawl – First up Vic Books

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I am off to Wellington for Poetry Day and research. So much poetry on offer. Very delighted to be part of the Seraph Press event at Vic Books.

 

 

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Poetry Day’s Divine Muses in Auckland

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A stellar line-up of New Zealand poets for one evening

Siobhan Harvey : Jenny Bornholdt : Riemke Ensing Maris O’Rourke : Vivienne Plumb : Gregory O’Brien

Come and hear these wonderful writers read their work in the sumptuous surroundings of the  Gus Fisher Art Gallery, 74 Shortland Street, Auckland

26 August 2016 6.30 – 8 pm FREE ENTRY – All ages welcome.

The evening also showcases the winner and runners-up of the 2016 NEW VOICES Emerging Poets Competition. Judged this year by poet and editor Vana Manasiadis.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Brings together a stellar line-up of New Zealand poets for one evening

Siobhan Harvey : Jenny Bornholdt : Riemke Ensing Maris O’Rourke : Vivienne Plumb : Gregory O’Brien

Come and hear these wonderful writers read their work in the sumptuous surroundings of the  Gus Fisher Art Gallery, 74 Shortland Street, Auckland

26 August 2016 6.30 – 8 pm FREE ENTRY – All ages welcome.

The evening also showcases the winner and runners-up of the 2016 NEW VOICES Emerging Poets Competition. Judged this year by poet and editor Vana Manasiadis.

 

These Rough Notes – Damien Wilkins Interview

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I heard I rumour you wrote this book in a matter of weeks? How did you do that? What influence did this rapid writing have on the shape of the book?

If I knew how I did it, I’d do it all the time. At the moment I’m not sure if it was a lightning strike or a working method. But let me just praise speed for a moment. I teach creative writing and one of the themes of that world is that it’s very hard to write a book. You’re working with people for whom writing is new. They struggle. You struggle with their struggle. I believe in that struggle. But there are other ways to go about things. I was impressed that César Aira says he never revises. He’s published something like eighty books. The other thing on my mind was the work of painter Euan Macleod. I’d written a piece for Art New Zealand on his big retrospective show. One thing amazed me: the speed of his composition. I really envy painters their brushes and their splatter, their approximateness. Language isn’t paint. It’s a world of care and creeping along. But what would it be like to run ahead instead of go my usual sideways?

 

For the rest of the interview go here

IKA Creative Writing Prize

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IKA Creative Writing Prize 2016

The Ika Creative Writing Prize* is a competition for writers who live in the greater Auckland area.

There are two categories:

  • High school students in Years 12-13
  • Adults aged 18 years or older.

Share the stories within and around you, in a forum that celebrates your passion and expression. Your life writing or creative non-fiction can be on any theme – examples include personal essays, reviews, and memoirs.

Entries will be judged by authors Robert Sullivan and Sue Orr.

The prizes

Prizes for first place and first runner-up will be awarded in each category.

  • First prize: A scholarship of $2,300 to study creative writing at MIT
  • First runner-up: a Booksellers gift voucher to the value of $100.

Get inspired

A master class with Sue Orr will run for two hours on Saturday 11 June 2016.

Join like-minded writers and get technical tips and creative inspiration from the experts. You can also bring your ideas and drafts along for feedback and discussion.

Register for the creative writing master class.

Entry details

Entries open on Friday 1 July, and close on Friday 26 August 2016.

  • Only one entry per person is permitted.
  • Submissions may be up to 4,000 typed words in total.

To enter, please complete the online entry form, which will be live until 5pm on Friday, 26 August 2016.