Writing+

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

Reviewed for Poetry New Zealand Yearbook 2019, published in 2019: The first 30 or so pages of Jenny Powell’s new collection, South D Poet Lorikeet, have the echo of a story. An etching of a life, from birth through girlhood into womanhood. At times ominous, at others lovely, I can’t tell you who she is. … Continue reading Book Review: South D Poet Lorikeet, by Jenny Powell

Reviewed for Booksellers NZ, first published on 6 November 2018 There are two things which I think make a great selected works collection and they are nothing to do with the metric foot or rhyme; they are much more prosaic. When I open a selected works of poetry I want to see initial publication information … Continue reading Book Review: poeta, by Cilla McQueen

Reviewed for Booksellers NZ, first published 18 September 2018 Coming To It is a collection of selected poems from throughout Sam Hunt’s career (though it also includes many new poems). To review a poet who’s been working for over 50 years, who’s so well known, who’s been recognised by the Prime Minister and the Queen … Continue reading Book Review: Coming to it, by Sam Hunt

Reviewed for Booksellers NZ, first published on 23 August 2018 Owen Marshall and Grahame Sydney have come together in poetry and photography for this collection, View From The South, which is a beautiful, hardcover, small coffee table book – in the best sense. Each page is roomy and the poetry and photography often work in … Continue reading Book Review: View from the South, by Owen Marshall, with Grahame Sydney