Look, plantar fascitis sucks but I think this guy has bigger issues going on

Hugely pleased to receive such a thorough and thoughtful review.

Elizabeth Bishop

Māori leader and academic Sir Hirini Moko Mead has died

Here’s the full rundown on cuts to our arts and culture funding agencies over the next four years: it’s looking grim

“… wondering about the wiring of the brain where does it get its information?…” (from Falling Asleep on New Year’s Day) There’s a special grin I wear when I’m reading Bill Manhire’s poems. I do also wonder about the wiring of his brain! #poetry @pacificraft.bsky.social @carcanet.bsky.social

So delighted to announce: kluge, the new @pipadam.bsky.social! (And the most breathtaking novel I’ve read in yonks…)

30 years of Going West Writers Festival events are now archived in the Auckland Libraries site, including audio recordings of discussions, performances and presentations by close to a thousand literary artists: search Going West Festival in Kura kura.aucklandlibraries.govt.nz

If I was a journalist I would have also mentioned how funding for wilding pine control was cut by two thirds by the same government in 2023/24. www.rnz.co.nz/news/politic...

I was booked in 1986 not for a set but an off-licence purchase to restock our end of hight school party — unsuccessfully! Ethan Montañer & Leah Romero for Radio One 91FM's Dunedin Venue Tour #3 visit the "classic and legendary" The Crown. www.facebook.com/share/v/1B9s... @audioculturenz.bsky.social

There is a lot of poetry in Janet Frame’s memoirs, and here she is in An Angel at My Table (1984) quoting the still pre-rediscovery Lynette Roberts.

conference.anzsa.org ANZ Shakespeare Association conference, Wellington 10-12 February 2027! Save the dates, book your travel, be in touch — and watch our website for more info very soon

I overwintered a single swallowtail chrysalis after finding a chonky caterpillar making a run for it in the alleyway. Here is the result 8 months later

Loved doing this celebration - seven images and a dozen travel poems nzpoetryshelf.com/2026/05/22/p...

Named trees in Walden; or, Life in the Woods by Henry David Thoreau (1854), in order of occurrence.

tough to overstate how quickly science funding in New Zealand has been blown to pieces - on Friday the NZ govt straight up disbanded the Marsden fund (our version of the NSF) it'll be replaced by a 'transition fund' with less money and zero information, as of yet, about what it will support #nzpol

Aotearoa NZ writers with a record of achievement can apply right now for the Katherine Mansfield Menton Fellowship Spend three months (or more) writing on the Côte d'Azur in 2027. www.thearts.co.nz/awards/kathe...

Unmanned submarine mapping West Antarctica’s Dotson Ice Shelf reported strange under-ice structures, then went silent after traveling underwater roughly ten miles towards the ice shelf’s center. www.earth.com/news/ran-rob...

Robert Creeley

@billymills.bsky.social - Robert Creeley week this week - Robert Creeley Centenary - 1 - allenginsberg.org/2026/05/m-m-...

Browser history.

Mental note when designing book covers in the future: this could become a hammock.

Window Hope makes itself every day springs up from the tiniest places No one gives it to us we just notice it quiet in the small moment The two-year-old “kissing the window” he said because someone he loved was out there Naomi Shihab Nye

Two visual puns I hadn’t been aware of until yesterday. The vertical elements of the City of London School for Girls resemble pencils, and those for the Guildhall School of Music & Drama represent tuning forks.

Swinging in the lyrical hammock at the AK Writers Festival 2026 (Lyrical Ballads, Bill Manhire, THWUP 2026)

. How Memory Works Come over here we say to the days that disappear. No, over here. .

Everich rose hath its þ

we’re in a Philip K. Dick novel

That $70m Major Events and Tourism package, btw, is more than the annual budget for Creative NZ. You know, the outfit that actually funds local artists.

Hear from Ingrid Horrocks and Fergus Barrowman here... www.wgtn.ac.nz/news/2026/05...

Let's hear it for the Ockhams 2026 Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction winner Ingrid Horrocks! #theockhams @thwupbooks.bsky.social @ingridhorrocks.bsky.social

Whakamihi @tinamakereti.bsky.social winner of the Ockhams General Non-Fiction Award 2026! @thwupbooks.bsky.social #theockhams

Let's hear it for Nafanua Purcell Kersel (Satupa‘itea, Faleālupo, Aleipata, Tuaefu), poet, performer and winner of the Ockhams 2026 Mary and Peter Biggs Award for Poetry - her first collection! @thwupbooks.bsky.social @nuapk.bsky.social #theockhams

Ten more poets, plus bonus Janet Frame www.audioculture.co.nz/articles/poe...

'Is this the most important NZ book of 2026?' Toby Manhire discusses 'The Valley' with author Asher Emanuel on the 'Gone By Lunchtime' podcast. thespinoff.co.nz/books/13-05-...

Mighty congratulations Charlotte + @bwbnz.bsky.social 👏 arts.unimelb.edu.au/news/charlot... and a reminder that this was a @royalsocietynz.bsky.social Marsden funded project in Humanities! #HumanitiesMatter #history @vicuniwgtn.bsky.social

As a writer, receiving feedback graciously is a vital skill Cartoon by Reza Farazmand

Last week I left my bag in a black cab. Assumed it was lost forever. Moments before I passed through security at Heathrow, the cabby—who’d identified me by my books—contacted me on Twitter. An hour later, bag in hand, I was ready to fly. He asked for a poem. Here you are, Gary Vidgeon!

If you're in Wellington and kicking around tomorrow night, please join us for this special LP "listening party"!

A Lullaby

Sir David Attenborough has a soft spot for #kakapo. We named a kākāpō after him (Attenborough the bird is now ten years old, living on Te Kākahu) and he kindly narrated a short video for us about them, which you can see here: youtu.be/5eZVjQowNvw?.... #attenborough #conservation

Been trying to make an author website, but I just get silly and write stuff like "Author site of Sandra Newman, writer of the parts of the Bible no one else claimed. Yes, I wrote it in English. God is American. Fight me." Then I spend ten minutes thinking, "Maybe it's okay? It's just a website."

Nine days still left to apply for the Lilburn Research Fellowship 2027. Details below.

I thought our local “curriculum simplification” was bad but “minimum viable product” takes the cake

First review out of the gate for Asher Emanuel’s The Valley and it’s a rave www.nzgeo.com/stories/the-...