Hard to settle, haven’t got my copies yet, but look what Seraph Press has.
Two launches in one week.
A box of books like a box of birds
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An Ode to the Very Good Dumpling Food Truck
Very Good Dumplings
no rain nor hail nor thunder how surprising
surprising my first very good dumplings
warm and perfect, fresh dumpling bites
of Japan light such lovely rumba on the tongue
or Nepal’s soothing balm and how embarrassing
I do a warm and perfect jig in the mongrel dog wind
by the sea at Cox’s Bay sweet herb salad to the side
the cobalt blue sky a clean sheet of a day
Paula Green
Oh my gosh! The Very Good Dumpling Truck will be at Cox’s Bay Wednesday to Saturday from 11 am until 3pm. I will drive in especially for these!
Poetry NZ open for submissions
From editor Jack Ross:
From today (Sunday, May 1st: Mayday) onwards, Poetry NZ is open for submissions for the next yearbook. This will be appearing in Late February / early March next year, from our new publisher Massey University Press, and thereafter at the beginning of each year.
Submissions close on 31st July.
For further advice on how to submit, please look at this page on our website. Please note: no more than five poems at a time, of any length, on any theme, in any style. This editor has also written a few advisory comments of his own in this post, below.
As well as poetry, we’re also interested in essays and other prose comments on poetics and allied subjects. Remember, too, that all poems sent in for this issue are eligible to be considered for the Poetry NZ Poetry Prize, as mentioned in another post below.
See here for journal site
On editing – Sarah Jane Barnett interviews Ashleigh Young
A new post at The Red Room:
I like to read and review New Zealand poetry, and because I live in Wellington quite a few of these collections come from Victoria University Press. When Ashleigh Young began working as their editor, I began to notice her careful hand on the collections. I asked Ashleigh a few questions about being an editor.
—
Sarah Jane Barnett: I was watching the show Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee and Jerry Seinfeld asked Barack Obama, ‘If politics was a sport, what sport would it be?’ So, if editing was a sport, what sport would it be?
Ashleigh Young: I was about to say cricket – long bouts of brooding interrupted by sudden bouts of high-speed action and head-clutching – but you can say that about almost anything. About life. I wonder if maybe editing is a bit like tenpin bowling. Every bit of editorial interference is a small act of violence, essentially trying to knock things down – but there’s this attempt at elegance, at the graceful flourish. And then there’s the stubborn beauty of the pins that remain standing. Also, tenpin bowling is the sport of grudging office team-building that ends up being quite fun.
Just contradicting myself, though, I think there’s something intrinsically un-sporty about editing. The writer and the editor shouldn’t feel like they’re adversaries grappling for ultimate power. No one should be spraying champagne around if they ‘win’. They can do that at the book launch.
For the rest of the interview go to Sarah’s blog: here
Auditions for Flock Ensemble Poetry Performance
The Divine Muses Poetry Reading & Unity Books Auckland – 2016 EMERGING POETS COMPETITION
Entry now open for: New Voices – Emerging Poets Competition
Judge – poet and teacher Vana Manasiadis
Results announced at Divine Muses Poetry Reading on National Poetry Day, 26th August 2016
First Prize: $200 in Unity Book’s book tokens Second Prize: $100 in Unity Book’s book tokens
Closing Date: 1st August 2016
The competition is open only to writers considered ‘emerging’
i.e. have not published one or more books (fiction, poetry, nonfiction) with a New Zealand or overseas publisher,
and
is a current or former undergraduate (BA, Hons, BSc, BComm etc) or Masters student attending The University of Auckland, Auckland University of Technology, Manukau Institute of Technology and Massey University (Albany Campus, Auckland only)
Poetry Shelf Poem – Heidi North-Bailey’s ‘The Women’ is like a delicious sweet almond with a bitter sweet kernel
Mary McCallum from Mākaro Press and Heidi North-Bailey have given me permission to post this marvelous mother poem from Heidi’s debut poetry collection. The poem is so beautifully lyrical, exquisitely layered, the gaps large and resonant, the line of women vital; the hidden stories pull you back for another look, and then another. This is one of my favourite poems of the year to date.
©Heidi North-Bailey 2015
Submissions open for Sweet Mammalian
SUBMISSIONS
Send us your writing, be it a roar, purr, or pip-squeak.
Sweet Mammalian aims for diversity and inclusiveness—we want all different kinds of poetry, from all different kinds of writers. In order to make this possible we need your submissions, so send us your thrilling writing!
Submit up to 5 poems of any length. Please send your work in a word doc attachment to sweetmammalian@gmail.com and include a short bio note in the body of the email.
Submissions for Issue Four are open now. We’ll be accepting submissions until the end of August.
Go here
Poetry Shelf Poem: ‘Listening In’ by Lynley Edmeades
Listening In
The mere presence of her was the necessary part.
Over-hearers, their little coves of ears
were, of course, listening in.
Together, we could hear history
painting a diagram of itself, and things began
to form layers. My mother’s hand
upon the pillow, the pillow soft upon the bed.
©Lynley Edmeades from As the Verb Tenses Otago University Press 2016
This mother poem is a perfect advertisement for a collection that shows how real life can give poetry a vital tang; that poems excised from who you, where you and where you are from sometimes lack the power to kick start your heart from daily routine. The gaps are resplendent. The detail: lyrical, tender, uplifting, deliciously layered.
Everything slows down to a leisurely pace.
Elsewhere in the book: ‘You’re wondering what to do with this, this slowness.’
Absorb and connect. Absorb and connect. This is a terrific debut (oh! and a stand-out cover).
Cyphers – Irish J0urnal has a NZ poetry feature
Last night I dreamed I was heading to Europe (only way I will be doing this is in a poem!) but the airplane was more like a truck so I pulled out at the last moment. Much better to open a parcel this morning and find a cluster of NZ poems in an Irish setting.
Plus Roger Hickin from Cold Hub Press shares some thoughts on NZ poetry.
NZ Poetry Shelf 