Reviews

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

Reviewed for Booksellers NZ, a version first published on 16 April 2019 Poets like to say that content is form and form is content. It gets said enough to be true, but reading Erik Kennedy’s There’s No Place Like the Internet in Springtime reminded me that to the average reader (and I’m not sure how … Continue reading Book Review: There’s No Place Like The Internet in Springtime, by Erik Kennedy

Reviewed for Booksellers NZ, first published on 2 April 2019 In a single poetry collection you’re able to tell what is currently occupying a poet (it might be personal, like their family breakdown, or esoteric, like the role of science in art) and their next work usually comes with its own obsession. But over the … Continue reading Book Review: Selected Poems, by Brian Turner

Reviewed for Booksellers NZ, first published on 26 March 2019 It helps to approach Gregory Kan’s new work Under Glass expecting a creative encounter rather than a series of poems which will tell you something. If you anticipate rightly you’ll have a great experience, because poetry will not always offer what you’d expect.  I don’t … Continue reading Book Review: Under Glass, by Gregory Kan

Reviewed for Poetry New Zealand Yearbook 2019, published in 2019:  In his collection On Edge, Damian Ruth has complied poetry from years of writing and publishing. These poems are organised into three parts: part one, ‘On Edge’ (which we’ll come back to); part two, ‘A boy on a bicycle’; and part three, ‘Before the dead … Continue reading Book Review: On Edge, by Damian Ruth