Author: Elizabeth Kirkby-McLeod

This short-story first appeared in Takahe 98, released in April 2020: It’s impossible anything being said could be that funny. Like bellowing monkeys at the zoo, the neighbours laugh to be heard laughing; they guffaw, and roar, and you know in your heart they are animals. They start around lunchtime and go long into the … Continue reading Close Neighbours: a short story

This opinion piece first appeared on Newsroom, on 2 April 2020: Here’s a joke for our times: what should we do if we know the aliens are coming? Lower the interest rates. Perhaps it’s not really a joke, for it’s not that funny. Because as important as it is that we see our economists and … Continue reading It’s time for moral courage

I remember watching the Christchurch earthquakes from afar. In my Auckland home, a new baby at my feet, I folded washing while watching the tragedy unfold. I learnt later that apparently the 2011 earthquake which did the most damage, the one which killed, is considered by scientists to be an aftershock of the first quake … Continue reading Book Review: Contents Under Pressure by Gail Ingram

This essay first appeared on The Sapling, on March 19, 2020: In the late 1990s the world was always about to end on screen. An asteroid is coming! Aliens are arriving! A volcano is erupting! But don’t worry – Will Smith is here! In movies like Armageddon and Independence Day humanity pulls together and overcomes … Continue reading Is it fair to pass on our despair?

Reviewed for Poetry New Zealand Yearbook 2020, first published in March 2020: Back Before You Know stands out from other New Zealand poetry book of the last year both in its physical and poetic forms. Physically it’s a beautiful little book, appearing handmade and wrapped in card. Compound Press, who print and bind books in … Continue reading Book Review: Back Before You Know by Murray Edmonds

This essay first appeared on Newsroom under the title 'How to write about a father’s suicide' on February 12, 2020: In 2012 when I was four months pregnant and still doubled over with morning sickness, I lost my father. Isn’t that vague, as if I wore him out on a cold morning, put him down … Continue reading Origins

Reviewed for Booksellers NZ, first published on June 24, 2019 Since 2018 Emma Neale has been the editor of Landfall, someone who judges and selects, curates and discards creative work on a daily basis. But she is also still a writer, producing her own work, defining her own voice and in her latest poetry collection, To the … Continue reading Book Review: To The Occupant, by Emma Neale

Reviewed for Booksellers NZ, first published on 16 May 2019 the moon in a bowl of water is a collection of prose poems, most of which are small journeys, tiny stories or precise portraits. But reading the collection sent me down a Michael Harlow rabbit hole, I even burrowed out a book he wrote over 20 … Continue reading Book Review: the moon in a bowl of water, by Michael Harlow

Originally reviewed for Booksellers NZ, reprinted in 'English in Aotearoa, Issue 96, May 2019 In Aspiring Daybook by Annabel Wilson,  Elsie Winslow returns home to live with her father, Simon, and help care for her terminally ill brother, Sam.  Her former lover Frank lives nearby. We share in Elsie’s life for a year through this … Continue reading Book Review: Aspiring Daybook, by Annabel Wilson

Originally reviewed for Booksellers NZ, reprinted in 'English in Aotearoa, Issue 96, May 2019 I met Michael Steven in person before I met him in his poetry.  I was attending a poetry workshop and Steven was seemingly able to hold and recall random poets, poems, even languages at will.  I can’t even recall the author … Continue reading Book Review: Walking to Jutland Street, by Michael Steven