DELIGHTED to be included as a summer fiction writer for NZ Listener 🥳🙏 A wonderful way to start 2026, and in such fine company, esp @antzlapwood.bsky.social 🥂🥰

Chuffed to have a new short story, "Crossed With the Cat", out via NZ Listener 😺 The title comes from a Mark Twain quote: "If man could be crossed with the cat, it would improve man, but it would deteriorate the cat."

Huge congratulations to our Pushcart Prize 2026 nominees! 🎉 We’re cheering loudly and wishing you all the luck. www.takahe.org.nz/nominations/

My year in books (apologies for the awkward cutoffs). Loved many, disliked very few. Hope you found plenty of great reading too 📚💚 1/2

Three #pukapuka recs from me, in the annual @modernletters.bsky.social newsletter: 👁️‍🗨️ The Penguin Book of the Modern American Short Story, edited by John Freeman. 🌊 Our Wives Under the Sea, by Julia Armfield. 🐷 Animalia, by Jean-Baptiste Del Amo (translated from the French by Frank Wynne).

‘It says almost nothing about how the arts, humanities and social sciences (AHSS) will contribute, despite the fact that the strategy’s objectives cannot be met without them.’

This is actually quite brilliant, up to and including the final sentence 🔥

Given the decision on puberty blockers, I do want to note an objective fact that I think has been lost: Eight MPs voted to keep conversion practices legal. All were National MPs. *Every single one* of the five who remained in Parliament after the 2023 election was given a Ministerial warrant.

I won a book that I have been meaning to read, so yay for me manifesting that shit.

Xmas is just around the corner... So I'm doing a book giveaway! Win a copy of my prize-winning story collection Home Theatre 🏠🎭 Simply reply below with a good book you read this year. Draw closes 5pm NZST Sunday 30 November. #pukapuka @thwupbooks.bsky.social

Only a couple days left to apply! Kick off 2026 with a short fiction fix 😎

"When complex medical decisions are shaped by public polling, rather than the needs of patients and their families, healthcare is being politicised, rather than protected." Excellent piece, cutting through the bullshit #nzpol www.rnz.co.nz/news/on-the-...

"Which is essentially what all novelists do," he said. "We go to a party and then tell why it was awful." From "The Penthouse" by Andrew Holleran.

You can also apply for courses in Creative Nonfiction, Television and Web Series Scriptwriting, and Long-form Fiction!

A strong list to which I would add: Unsheltered by Clare Moleta and Juice by Tim Winton #pukapuka

One of the wonders of reading, writing and teaching fiction is seeing the truth that the supply of stories is inexhaustible. It's like discovering infinity in what might seem a finite space. There is always another fold in even familiar corners of the universe.

Want to explore the art of short story writing in a series of supportive workshops with me? Apply for CREW 254 Tri 1 intake by 1 Dec @modernletters.bsky.social ✍️ Students consistently rate the course excellent. Or to quote from a recent thank you card: "BEST EVER." www.wgtn.ac.nz/modernletter...

Been thinking it’s time to write your first book of poetry, fiction, or creative nonfiction? Apply for the MA in Creative Writing at the IIML and have the support of a writing community, Deadline 1 November www.wgtn.ac.nz/modernletter...

What is the last contemporary novel you read that felt truly bold, surprising, daring, new? I am growing a little tired of the smooth, over-determined upmarket fiction you could set your watch to (though sure, I still admire and enjoy the strict craft of it). #aonzbooks #booksky

Māori writers, it's time to apply for the 2026 Emerging Māori Writer in Residence — a $15,000 stipend, mentorship, and writing space at the IIML could be yours if you apply by 31 October! www.wgtn.ac.nz/modernletter...

Writers of Aotearoa, his is your reminder that Turbine | Kapohau 2025 is open for submissions of poetry, fiction and creative nonfiction until 1 November - check out the submission guidelines and send us your work!

This book is a treat, inside and out.

I was honoured to be the guest judge for the Mansfield Short Story Competition this year. What a treat to read these students' work! The next generation of writers are an awesome and talented bunch ✍️😄 #pukapuka #KatherineMansfield www.katherinemansfield.com/creative-cor...

Good discussion on structural issues plaguing the local #pukapuka sector and some proposed ways forward. www.rnz.co.nz/national/pro...

Huge news! Today we're launching our biggest sale ever, to celebrate the move to a shiny new website. ✨ Smooth website experience 📚 50% off ALL books from 2022 & earlier 🗓️ For all of August, while stocks last The sale is live now at www.teherengawakapress.co.nz.

Get 50% off my #pukapuka Home Theatre and heaps of other titles in this @thwupbooks.bsky.social sale 📚💚 teherengawakapress.co.nz/products/hom...

"How can we create evidence-based policy with no evidence?" #NZpol www.rnz.co.nz/news/on-the-...

The finalists for the 2025 Pikihuia Awards celebrating first-time and emerging Māori writers in te reo Māori and English have been announced! Nice to see our 2024 Emerging Māori Writer in Residence Shelley Burne-Field popping up in two categories. mailchi.mp/mlt/newslett...

"Ultimately, New Zealand’s AI Strategy document seems set up to suggest the best thing the Government can do regarding AI is nothing at all." #NZpol newsroom.co.nz/2025/07/29/g...

Politics is a blood sport: the politicians' sport, the people's blood.

PANZ is trying to continue the Wihitreia Publishing programme in 2026 and is looking for a space in Wgtn in which to deliver it. They need a space large enough for 20pax seated at tables, Mon - Fri 8.30am - 5pm. If you know of such a space, email [email protected] and we'll pass it on.

this Ngaati Porou takataa wa is the lifeblood of so many of our takataapui works from @antzlapwood.bsky.social "Home Theatre" to Ruby Solly's "The Artist" to @tainuitillidienui.bsky.social "Poorhara" and so many more in our community and beyond. I'm so so so glad she is being recognised in this way

Essential viewing. Complex queer history in Aotearoa gets a well rounded look across these concise episodes 🏳️‍🌈📺 #QueerAotearoa #WeveAlwaysBeenHere www.tvnz.co.nz/shows/queer-...

If I take this comma out again and put it back again and take it out again one more time I might just stop using commas altogether #amediting

For real, we have David Brent as our prime minister #nzpol

"That’s the great thing about writing: the problems that solve the last novel will not help this novel in the slightest." A knockout interview with the great @pipadam.bsky.social #pukapuka

Sports are – I've often heard – indeed good for young people. So are – I know from direct experience – the arts. So too, the sciences. So too, lifting children and families out of poverty. But let's try kicking that rugby ball around for another century or two and see what happens #nzpol

Our UG workshop convenors are some of the best in their genre, and they're looking forward to reading lots of new writing from new writers! Read the info on our website, and email [email protected] with any questions, or if you're having trouble getting your application in.

Matariki is the perfect time to embark on something new as you farewell the year that was. So apply by this Friday for: Māori and Pasifika Creative Writing | Te Hiringa a Tuhi Poetry | He Rotarota Short Fiction | He Kōrero Paki Writing for Theatre | He Tuhinga Whakaari Special Topic: World-Building

Farewell to the great Maurice Gee. His novels go on looking clearly at the world and introducing us to ourselves. www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/3607...

Sharpen your pencils! Applications close Friday next week 📝⏳

"Great! The voice of the writer won through." This must go down as one of the best authorial prefaces. Anyway, finally giving myself a proper education and giving this #pukapuka a read.

Entries close 30 June: short story writers, this is your chance. www.waikato.ac.nz/about/facult...

Keen to explore the art of the short story through a series of supportive workshops? 👍 Apply for CREW 254 @modernletters.bsky.social by 20 June ✍️ What have current students said? Course: excellent. Teaching: excellent. Top marks 😎 www.wgtn.ac.nz/modernletter...

Can't help but feel we're living through an increasingly existential war between spectacle and substance with spectacle winning battle after battle after battle.

Māori & Pasifika students, come and work on your creative writing with Ruby Solly and Victor Rodger next trimester!

MASTERCLASS 😎

vaccines are miracles! we should talk about them like sci fi cyberpunk implants. you know what's more impressive than titanium bones? Immunity to the diseases that wiped out entire chunks of generations in every period of history previous to this one.

Finally, sunshine 🌞