Tag Archives: poetry shelf cafe readings

Poetry Shelf cafe readings: Ethan Christensen

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Ethan Christensen is a writer from parents, grandparents, and tīpuna based in Coromandel Town. His work features in publications across Aotearoa and Australia, and he co-edited the penultimate issue of Overcom Magazine in 2024. In 2025, he won the Peter Wells Short Fiction Most Promising Young Writer award, presented by Samesame but different. In the breaths of community and belonging, he hopes others can see themselves in the experiences he puts to page, whatever they may be. You can find more of his published mahi on Instagram, @eth_christ.

Poetry Shelf cafe Readings: Alexandra Cherian

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Alexandra reads and talks poetry

Alexandra Cherian (she/they) is a filmmaker, writer, and girltwink extraordinaire from Te Whanganui-a-Tara. She has been published in bad apple, Takahē, Starling and Overcom among others, and is a founding member of queer filmmaking collective The New New. In 2025, she completed her Masters in Creative Writing at the International Institute of Modern Letters.

Poetry Shelf Cafe Readings: Harry Ricketts

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Harry reads from Bonfires on the Ice, along with earlier poems.

Harry Ricketts taught for many years in the English Programme at Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington. He has published around 30 books, including literary biographies, essays and twelve collections of poems (most recently, Selected Poems). First Things, published by Te Herenga Waka Press, is the first instalment of a two-volume memoir. He lives in Te Whanganui-a-Tara/Wellington and is mad about cricket and coffee. Persuasion is his favourite novel, Les Enfants du Paradis his favourite movie. Bonfires on the Ice has just appeared from Te Herenga Waka Press.

Te Herenga Waka University Press page

Poetry Shelf Cafe Reading: Anne Kennedy

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Anne reads a selection of her poems

Anne Kennedy’s most recent books are The Sea Walks into a Wall, The Ice Shelf and, as editor, Remember Me: Poems to Learn by Heart from Aotearoa New Zealand. She is the current editor of AUP’s New Poets series. Awards include the Prime Minister’s Award for Poetry, the NZ Post Book Award for Poetry and the Montana Book Award for Poetry. Anne lives in Tāmaki Makaurau. 

Poetry Shelf Cafe Readings: Richard von Sturmer

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Welcome to the new Cafe Reading series on Poetry Shelf. Listening to poets read and talk poetry in cafe settings is a joy. To share a taste of this, I have invited some poets to read and talk poetry over the coming months. Enjoy!

Richard von Sturmer reads two tankas

Richard von Sturmer is a New Zealand writer. He was born on Auckland’s North Shore in 1957. His recent works are the acclaimed memoir, This Explains Everything (Atuanui Press, 2016), Postcard Stories (Titus Books, 2019), and Resonating Distances (Titus Books, 2022).

In 2020 he was the University of Waikato’s writer-in-residence. His book Walking with Rocks, Dreaming with Rivers: My Year in the Waikato (Titus Books, 2023) was written during his residency.

In 2025 his new collection of poetry, Slender Volumes (Spoor Books, 2024), was shortlisted for the Mary and Peter Biggs Award for Poetry at the 2025 Ockham Book Awards.