Maeve, reading nzpoetryshelf.com/2020/01/30/p...

Out now ✨ two powerful collections on chronic illness, thinking patterns, family dysfunction, and the relationships between them by acclaimed author Zarah Butcher-McGunnigle. Find a special offer on ‘companion books’ Leaves Fall Off to Create Drama and Autobiography of a Marguerite: bit.ly/4lMmcfE

my diaries are so safe with ignatius!

"Barriers are sometimes conceptualised not as problems to be solved, but as tests of how committed applicants are to their art. And there’s always the fear that disclosure will count against you."

some lovely news: on monday i had the most validating doctor's appointment i've had in years, maybe ever? i've finally been referred to the pain clinic and received provisional diagnoses. it's so easy to take someone seriously? let's see so much more of that?

At 2pm this Sunday afternoon I'm part of a free reading with some other fine poets at Katherine Mansfield House and Garden - in the garden if the weather holds. More info here: www.katherinemansfield.com/event/poetry...

to quote this piece, "I was like whoa"

Dancing against the apocalypse: Helen Rickerby launches her book tonight at the Southern Cross (7pm), and yes, there will be a dance party!

this is so cool.

"Workers turned up and did their jobs, caring for patients, keeping hospitals running, and they deserved to be paid on time," PSA national secretary Fleur Fitzsimons said. "A payroll failure of this scale is not a minor inconvenience, it causes real hardship." www.rnz.co.nz/news/nationa...

Sometimes a prompt is useful if only because it gives you an instruction you can disobey, but disobey specifically

!!! ❤️

Come and dance to Helen's poetry!

Toitū te tiriti! A list of books on te tiriti from Volume books: volume.nz/volumebooks/...

"I want Poetry Shelf to offer both balm and protest banners in these calamitous times." ❤️ ❤️ ❤️

saturday is for reading and reminiscing! do come along to bad apple's last harvest, it will be so lovely and special. "All are welcome along for this one-night-only, party/funeral for the juiciest queer art and lit journal." tickets here (choose what you pay!) basementtheatre.co.nz/blogs/whats-...

Huge congratulations to Anna Jackson, whose book "Terrier, Worrier: A Poem in Five Parts" has been long-listed for the Okhams! www.nzbookawards.nz/new-zealand-...

yes, same. i love this so very much.

"...and I'll let you down bloody, poets: There is no such thing as endless distances. God can't even see which tattoos we bought..." !!! from Chloe Bryan https://www.havehashad.com/e924v

University of Waikato in Hamilton, NZ, are hiring in English and Writing Studies - pass it on! www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/43...

just sitting here in my house thinking about how much i love my job and team and what the heck

for Renee Nicole Good, a poet and a mother

poets.org/2020-on-lear... a page where the poem will display properly and also not have scum commenting at the bottom

Last call for 2026 tutoring applications! Please apply by Sunday 11 January if you want to be considered www.wgtn.ac.nz/sam/about/tu...

some thoughts and happenings

This describes my exact feelings. Jameela Jamil is a treasure.

Nice to see Anna Jackson here elisagabbert.medium.com/every-book-i...

an annual tradition to post this @heatherchristle.bsky.social poem

No child should be targeted for deportation just because they are disabled. actionnetwork.org/petitions/le...

car music. it is nice to feel everything in front of nothing.

On Thursday I wrote my Poetry Shelf 2025 highlight post but it was the worst day in the worst week in the worst year & I barely skimmed the surface of special. The width and depth and delight of poetry in Aotearoa is incredible. nzpoetryshelf.com/2025/12/18/p...

Such an important thread about the value of the Total Mobility scheme! We need to fight to get this properly funded - no cap on costs, easier to book, round trips made possible. This matters! Let's make it an election issue!

“are you writing a book or are you just in your house” ― Eileen Myles, a “Working Life”

This is more than a review of Te Whāriki, our book on poetry in Aotearoa: it is a sampler, a whāriki, a conversation, a celebration, a work of art in itself. Thank you so much Paula!

No ifs no buts no maybes, says a politician just now on the radio. But maybe that’s what poetry does all the time.

What I read in 2025 (4): Maggie Nelson's Pathemata, Or, The Story of My Mouth 'I get up first to be alone, and also because my jaw hurts too much to stay in bed.' What she writes is what I live, since 17 July 2020. πάθηματά μαθήματα, learning through suffering. A chronic pain fellow. I'm not crazy.

What I read in 2025 (6): Anna Jackson's Terrier, Worrier: A Poem in Five Parts A splendid prose poem about affirmative doubt, in five seasons, from summer to summer, because you can only be aware of summer when you get back to it. A focused, feeling exploration of thinking. Somewhat fearless.

gah. this is so lovely.

Congratulations @amymarguerite.bsky.social and Nafanua Purcell - both IIML graduates 2022 - on these wonderful books! 👏👏

✨ We're thrilled to announce Hungus by Amber Esau (Ngāpuhi / Manase) is coming 12 March 2026 – the arrival of a dazzling new voice in Aotearoa poetry. teherengawakapress.co.nz/products/hun...

Prompted by the Self and Sequence: Lyric Diary symposium, Volume Books has put a page of books together that use fragments as form volume.nz/volumebooks/...

So excited to be featuring new poems by Helen Rickerby in the forthcoming December issue! The selection comes from her next book, 'My Bourgeois Apocalypse'' (Auckland University Press, 2026).

Delighted to be included in the Listener’s list of the Top Poetry Books of 2025 - and in such great company too 💙

My brave and heroic daughter helped put together this open letter hoping to prevent others from suffering from Long Covid as she is, please sign our.actionstation.org.nz/petitions/a-...

This is so lovely and shows the value of #disabilityarts. #disability #writing #cripthelit. artsaccess.org.nz/Arts%20Blog/...

i made a substack & i think i am going to make it my new blog? i have missed blogging. helene appel's dirty sink paintings are the only thing on there right now & that seems right. substack.com/@amymarguerite

Q&A with my beautiful mother in the summer issue of Multiple News Magazine. 💗

Talking like touching. Writing like punching somebody. — Susan Sontag, Journals and Notebooks (1964-1980)

as soon as blair made a lost cat post & popped it on our local facebook community page our lost cat jumped through the window almost as though she'd seen the post & realised we were worrying & that was really quite good of her & apparently she was squatting under someone's deck & not loving it