Blog
-
A Wild Life: Photographs from the backcountry of Aotearoa
By Shaun Barnett (Potton & Burton, 2024) The epilogue of Dave Hansford’s Kahurangi closes with some words from one of Shaun Barnett’s last interviews, before he died from cancer in 2024. “The more I learn about the connectivity of diversity, the connectivity of things,” he said, “it gives me a profound sense of joy.” A…
-
Book review: Kahurangi – The Nature of Kahurangi National Park and Northwest Nelson
By Dave Hansford (Potton & Burton, 2024) Aotearoa’s second largest national park, Kahurangi National Park is known for its epic tramping, diverse landscapes, wealth of fossils, and extraordinary range of flora and fauna, including great spotted kiwi, cave spiders and a giant carnivorous Iand snail (the Powelliphanta, which can grow as big as a gym…
-
Poetry review: /slanted
By Alison Glenny (Compound Press, 2024) /slanted is Alison Glenny’s third poem collection, full of the sort of poems that I find hard to explain and easy to deeply, deeply love. The word ‘ECHO’ echoing multiple-y across the page, for example, fading out then gone, as echoes do and are in the mountains. /slanted is…
-
Poetry review: HOOT!
Words from the Ōtepoti Writers Lab community 2019–2024 Edited by Eliana Gray and liz breslin(Rivulet Press, 2024) Ōtepoti Writers Lab, or ŌWL, was a writerly thing of collective beauty, collective beauty which has now been anthologised in HOOT!. Launched in 2019 by Prospect Park Productions (run by H-J Kilkelly and Emily Duncan), ŌWL was, H-J…
-
Koe: An Aotearoa ecopoetry anthology
Edited by Janet Newman and Robert Sullivan (Otago University Press, 2024) Coined in the 1990s, ecopoetry is work that delves into the relationship between the human and nonhuman worlds, often presented with an awareness of the damage and losses the former has imposed upon the latter. It is, Janet Newman notes in the introduction to…
-
Book reviews: mammals and lizards
New Zealand’s Native Mammals: When and where to see them –by Carolyn King (Upstart Press, 2024) Geckos & Skinks: The remarkable lizards of Aotearoa – by Anna Yeoman (Potton & Burton, 2024) When it comes to wildlife, Aotearoa is known primarily for its birds, which isn’t surprising, because we really do have an exceptional and…
-
Music review: The Dreams of Our Mothers’ Mothers!
Mousey (2024) This is the third album from the brilliant Ōtautahi-based and Silver Scroll nominated songwriter Mousey (aka Sarena Close). This time she wants it darker. A less upbeat offering than her first two releases, Lemon Law (2019) and My Friends (2022), The Dreams of Our Mothers’ Mothers! delves into themes of family estrangement, something…
-
Music Review: Blue Mind
Tess Liautaud (2024) A Franco-American who is sometimes based in Ōtautahi and spent a time living in and gigging around the Southern Lakes, Tess Liautaud has been bringing her brand of alt-country / Americana (the team at Flying Out called it “rootsy Canterburycana”) to our speakers and stages for a few years snow. Blue Mind…
-
Gear review: Rab Ultrasphere 4.5 Sleep Mat
When both warmth and low weight are crucial, the award-winning Ultrasphere 4.5 is the ultimate packable, featherlight air mat. Its groundbreaking design includes two layers of heat-reflective TILT, which reduce radiant heat loss and offset air chambers that trap heat within the construction, allowing you to recharge comfortably without the need for high-volume insulation. Combined…