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Birds of the Years
In my suburban South-East Auckland upbringing, birds unique to Aotearoa lived in non-fiction books. If there were birds on the playground, they were seagulls. Three-and-a-half kilometres, as the gull flies, between my primary school and the nearest beach. The land had been farmland until suburban sprawl needed to extend and stretch further. Once, it was…
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2021 reviews in review
Kia ora! It’s been, yet again, a minute. In lieu of actually brand-spanking new content, here’s a round-up of my book reviews on RNZ throughout 2021. Yes, it’s the year I got back into the Unity Books radio reviewage chair, and this time around it was all RNZ, all the time, none of the regional…
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review — i am a human being
Jackson is a great human and a stellar poet, and so I decided to review their new collection I Am A Human for the Unity Books Auckland website (oh yeah, by the way, we have one of those now, look at all those titles and think about the fact that aaaaall those titles were loaded…
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Endurance
I went back under shortly after the nurse spoke to me. There are no more memories of the post-surgical ward, where they watch you so carefully to make sure your body remembers how to breathe and pump blood and fire neurons and all the things that it might not be so crash hot at after…
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new work – atlas/pantograph punch
Exciting developments in writing life, one of which is a long time coming in a couple of ways. In the more general, longer term way, I FINALLY have a creative piece in a print literary journal. Hurrah! In the specific, shorter term way, I submitted this piece over a year ago, and it was allocated…
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AWF17
Last weekend I spent a day (and a skerrick of the evening before) roaming Auckland Writers Festival and reviewing sessions for Booksellers NZ. Because you can take the bookseller out of the bookshop etc etc… You can find the six reviews I wrote here – alongside some from other reviewers.
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A year(ish) of music
Been a while since I’ve linked to pieces that I’ve written. I mean, admittedly, I’ve not done a huge amount of extra stuff this past year, but my usual glorious New Zealand Musician articles have kept on keeping on. So here’s a wee round-up. (Excludes CD reviews.) Anna Coddington. My favourite interviews are the rare occasions…
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Sleater-Kinney at the Powerstation February 29th 2016
AKA the most important gig of adult life. In my teenage years, there were three bands that I ADORED at various times. The White Stripes were my first ever true musical love. I saw them at Big Day Out 2006. The Dresden Dolls were an integral part of my older teenage years. I didn’t make…
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Review: How Does It Hurt?
Booksellers NZ review blog – How Does It Hurt? by Stephanie de Montalk. Here’s my latest review for Booksellers NZ. I felt a very deep connection with elements of this book – a memoir/essay collection/non-fiction wonderland focusing on chronic pain. Stephanie’s own experiences are at once entirely different and so very familiar to my own. Every page held…
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Review: The Mime Order
Briar Lawry reviews The Mime Order by Samantha Shannon on Newstalk ZB with Tim Fookes I’m currently working on a few long-ish form book reviews for a couple of places – and when those are complete, I will link to them here – but in the meantime, here is a link I meant to post a…