Tag Archives: Poetry Shelf Audio Spot

Poetry Shelf cafe readings: Sue Wootton

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Poet and novelist Sue Wootton’s most recent poetry collection is The Yield (Otago University Press, 2017), which was a finalist in the 2018 Ockham New Zealand book awards. She has held the Robert Burns Fellowship, the NZSA Beatson Fellowship and the Katherine Mansfield Menton Fellowship. In 2025 she was awarded the Kathleen Grattan Prize for a Sequence of Poems, for a suite of sonnets called ‘Holding Patterns: Seven songs of pots, jars, bowls and vases’. Sue lives in Ōtepoti Dunedin, and is the publisher at Otago University Press. 

Poetry Shelf celebrates new books: Serie Barford reads from Sleeping with Stones

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Sleeping with Stones, Serie Barford, Anahera Press, 2021

Serie reads ‘The midwife and the cello’

Serie reads ‘Piula blue’

Serie Barford was born in Aotearoa to a German-Samoan mother and a Palagi father. She was the recipient of a 2018 Pasifika Residency at the Michael King Writers’ Centre. Serie  promoted her collections Tapa Talk and Entangled Islands at the 2019 International Arsenal Book Festival in Kiev. Her latest poetry collection, Sleeping With Stones, was launched during Matariki, 2021.

Anahera Press page

RNZ Standing Room Only interview

Kete Books Grace Iwashita-Taylor review

Poetry Shelf audio: Tim Grgec reads from All Tito’s Children

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All Tito’s Children, Tim Grgec, Victoria University Press, 2021

An intro:

Tim reads ‘Infectious Divides’:

Tim reads ‘Lost Tendencies’:

Tim Grgec was the 2018 recipient of the Biggs Family Prize for Poetry. Having failed to achieve his childhood dream of playing for the Black Caps, he now has delusions of becoming a great writer. His first book, All Tito’s Children, is out now with Victoria University Press.

Victoria University Press page

Poetry Shelf celebrates new books: Dinah Hawken reads from Sea-light

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Sea-light, Dinah Hawken, Victoria University Press, 2021

Cover: Breaker Bay, Looking South, Gerda Leenards, 2007

Dinah Hawken reads ‘Haze’, ‘The sea’ and ‘Faith’ from Sea-light

Dinah Hawken is one of New Zealand’s most celebrated poets. She was born in Hāwera in 1943 and now lives in Paekākāriki. Sea-light is her ninth collection of poetry.

Few writers have the skill to return to the land and the sea with such originality and genuine knowing as Hawken.’ —Sarah Jane Barnett, NZ Booksellers

‘As a poet she utilises economy on the line to build richness above, between and beyond. That plainness of talking makes the impact even stronger, deeper, wider.’ —Paula Green, NZ Poetry Shelf

Victoria University Press page

Poetry Shelf celebrates new books: Jack Ross reads from The Oceanic Feeling

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Jack Ross reads four poems from The Oceanic Feeling, Salt & Greyboy Press, 2021

Jack Ross works as a senior lecturer in creative writing at Massey University. He is the author of five poetry collections and eight works of fiction, most recently Ghost Stories (Lasavia Publishing, 2019) and The Oceanic Feeling (Salt & Greyboy Press, 2021). He blogs here

Notes to The Oceanic Feeling

Jack reads and comments on ‘1942’

Poetry Shelf celebrates the Ockham NZ Book Awards Poetry Longlist: Natalie Morrison reads from Pins

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Natalie Morrison reads from Pins, Victoria University Press, 2020

Natalie Morrison has an MA in Creative Writing from the International Institute of Modern Letters, where she received the Biggs Family Prize for Poetry in 2016. She lives and works in Wellington. Pins is her first book and is on the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards Poetry Category longlist. 

Victoria University Press page

Poetry Shelf launch of Pins

Poetry Shelf interviews Natalie

Poetry Shelf connections: Sam Duckor-Jones reads two poems

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Photo credit: Rebecca Hawkes

 

 

 

 

1. Lesson Six

I worked briefly at a very posh school. These kids had everything and neither they nor their teachers cared much about art except how to collect it. The walls had actual Colin McCahons on them. And the desks in the art rooms were very clean. It was a real big shame and I didn’t have the cahones to make much of a diff.

 

 

 

 

2. Report

I worked for a couple of years at a community art studio. A free creative space for anyone having a little trouble and it was so beautiful and rich (rich with mana & love & creativity that it is…. Funding, I imagine, continues to be a struggle). Wednesday mornings the staff met and reported on the attendees projects and progress…………………….. This poem, Report, is drawn from those meetings, tho names have been changed, of course.

 

 

Sam is a writer and artist who lives in Wellington. His first poetry collection, People from the Pit Stand Up, was published by VUP in 2018. He is represented by Bowen Galleries.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Poetry Shelf audio spot: Jenny Powell reads ‘Kaleidoscope’

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Jenny Powell reads ‘Kaleidoscope’  from her collection Trouble (Cold Hub Press, 2014).

 

 

Jenny Powell is a Dunedin poet who has written seven individual and two collaborative volumes of poetry as well as a cross-genre book about human movement, The Case of the Missing Body (University of Otago University Press, 2016). She has worked with artists and musicians in a variety of formats. Jenny enjoys performing her work, and is part of the southern touring poetry duo, J & K Rolling.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Poetry Shelf audio spot: Lynn Davidson reads ‘Even though it’s not the beginning’

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Lynn Davidson reads ‘Even though it’s not the beginning’ from Islander (2109, Victoria University Press)

 

 

 

Lynn Davidson is the author of five collections of poetry and a novel, Ghost Net, along with essays and short stories. She grew up in Kāpiti, Wellington and currently lives in Edinburgh.

 

My review of Islander

Victoria University Press author page

 

 

 

Poetry Shelf audio spot: Jordan Hamel reads ‘Tammy the Briscoes Lady Plans my Funeral’

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Jordan Hamel reads ‘Tammy the Briscoes Lady Plans my Funeral’ (published in the Poetry NZ Yearbook 2020)

 

 

Jordan Hamel is a Pōneke-based poet and performer. He was the 2018 New Zealand Poetry Slam champion and competed at the World Poetry Slam Championships in 2019. He has poems published or forthcoming in Sport, takahē, Poetry NZ Yearbook 2020, Mimicry, Mayhem, Queen Mob’s Teahouse and elsewhere.

 

Poetry NZ 2020