The team at Te Herenga Waka University Press are sad to farewell Sir Kenneth Keith ONZ KBE PC KC, who passed away on 13 May. It was an honour to publish his memoir, Without Fear or Favour: A Life in Law in 2025. It's an account of a distinguished career, lived generously and intelligently.

‘Each poem pulses with clarity, restraint, and quiet power, revealing the extraordinary within the ordinary. ‘Black Sugarcane not only enriches contemporary poetry but also expands its possibilities.’

'All Her Lives, by Ingrid Horrocks, freshly crowned winner of the Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction, was the biggest-selling New Zealand title, closely followed by Jacinda Ardern and Witi Ihimaera Smiler.' authors.org.nz/a-new-chapte...

Fantastic #AWF16 session with @elizabethknoxnz.bsky.social & Emily Perkins talking about her memoir. I can’t wait to read it!

It was incredible to hear @elizabethknoxnz.bsky.social speak at the Writers Fest today. My most treasured author since first reading her books 30+ years ago. I didn't get a chance to say how special her current memoir is, it is evoking so many memories and emotions of my own. A gift, thank you.

My Ockham New Zealand Book Awards report for the Guardian. So pleased my amazing creative nonfiction tutor Ingrid Horrocks has won the Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction for her short story collection 'All Her Lives’.

Congratulations to the team at @thwupbooks.bsky.social and of course their authors #theockhams

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

'There were lots of people, lots of positive energy, so much aroha which’ll keep me sustained for a long time.' Nafanua Purcell Kersel reflects on winning big this week... www.nzherald.co.nz/hawkes-bay-t...

We are absolutely delighted for Tina Makereti, Nafanua Purcell Kersel and Ingrid Horrocks after their success at the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards 2026 🎉 www.nzbookawards.nz/new-zealand-...

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

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

Talking to @theguardian.com Ingrid Horrocks says: 'After years of writing about women’s lives as nonfiction, fiction had allowed her to get inside and closer to her characters.' #theockhams @ingridhorrocks.bsky.social @thwupbooks.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/world/2026/m...

This will be a really lovely launch tomorrow eve

Tonight at Unity Books Wellington!

Mary and Peter Biggs Award for Poetry finalist @erikkennedy.com on the inspiration behind his work. @thwupbooks.bsky.social #theockhams

Lucky Creatures won the Adam Foundation Prize in 2023 and the inaugural 2024 Sarabande Prize in the Essay, selected by Alexander Chee: it will be published in the USA in June. Joseph is at Featherston Booktown this Sunday with this bold and playful collection, and the AK Writers Festival on 16 May.

‘Over time, deep trust has developed between poet, composer, and singer. Meehan describes his long partnership with Griffin as one rooted in clarity, restraint, and close attention to text…’ The concert includes Bill’s moving and widely shared poem in response to the Christchurch mosque attack.

Not long now! Join us for the Wellington launch of Lucky Creatures, a brilliant debut essay collection by Joseph Trinidad. The book will be launched by Mikee Sto Domingo. 🌟 Monday 11 May, 6pm 🌟 Unity Books Wellington 🌟 Free entry — all welcome!

Have adored Jenny's poem for a long time, perfect to stall on in the Poetry Shelf Breathing Room. nzpoetryshelf.com/2026/04/28/p...

We're so looking forward to celebrating New Days for Old tonight at Unity Books Wellington! Scroll through to see some of the things that critics have been saying about the book... Congratulations James, on another fantastic collection 🎉

. Hardyesque What’s that at the window, hitting against the windowpane? The weather, Maureen, I hate it. Weather and war. Those twain. Then what? Then more and more of the same. And later on, more rain, Maureen. More rain. .

'The prodigious skill of the accomplished and singular prose stylist is married with a scarily good memory and a shimmering humanity [...] It is nothing less than the best of literature about the worst of times.'

Great work VUW library! 👏👏👏 @pacificraft.bsky.social

Here’s our MA workshop convenor Tina Makereti talking about her Ockham-shortlisted essay collection with Kathryn Ryan www.rnz.co.nz/national/pro...

‘Her memoir is a dance through all manner of styles: reportage, soliloquy, sister Sara's journal, dialogues medical / internal / electronic. The mood swoops from elegiac to confrontational to grittily immediate to almost visionary, without any lapse of control.’ www.ketebooks.co.nz/reviews/revi...

@thwupbooks.bsky.social @ingridhorrocks.bsky.social

@thwupbooks.bsky.social @catherinechidgey.bsky.social

@thwupbooks.bsky.social @ingridhorrocks.bsky.social #theockhams

It's been a joy to watch Night, Ma go out into the world! 💙 Elizabeth Knox has written something truly extraordinary and given us the gift of seeing as she sees. We couldn't be prouder to have published this book. The reception has been wonderful—here are some of the things people have been saying.

Hv bn writing like a feral ferret. Looking fw to sharing prose & poetry w readers and writers at Waiheke library, Thurs 16 April at 6:30pm. Heartfelt thanks to the library staff and Angel Glass NZ for sponsoring this fab writer’s residency 💙 www.facebook.com/share/18iQJR...

And our April doesn't end there, it's not long until we launch two excellent new poetry collections... 🎼 Thursday 23 April, 6pm 🎼 Unity Books Wellington 🎼 Free entry — all welcome!

We're back at Te Matapihi this weekend making the most of 'Explore Te Matapihi! ki te Ao Nui'. So much to see and hear... www.wcl.govt.nz/news/explore...

We were so grateful to launch Night, Ma at the newly opened Te Matapihi ki te Ao Nui! Here is Elizabeth Knox reading from the new memoir in front of Earth Mothers, a dazzling rawa by Darcy Nicholas that celebrates the sacred life‑giving power of women. Thank you, Wellington City Libraries!

Gobsmackingly good review of Night, Ma by @elizabethknoxnz.bsky.social by @secondzeit.bsky.social newsroom.co.nz/2026/04/09/b... ^DR #pukapuka #booksky

Very apt that Elizabeth Knox launched her memoir Night, Ma under the gaze of the atua wāhine Hineahuone the birther, Hinetītama the maturer, and Hinenuitepō the spiritual guardian last night at Te Matapihi ki te Ao Nui 🧵

See you tonight! ✨ The event space Ngā Pou Ruahine is at the Te Ngākau Square end of the top floor at Te Matapihi ki te Ao Nui. Library staff can help you find your way if it is your first time visiting.

Internationally celebrated NZ author and Ockhams 2026 Fiction finalist Catherine Chidgey reveals what inspired her to write. @thwupbooks.bsky.social @catherinechidgey.bsky.social #theockhams

Mary and Peter Biggs Award for Poetry finalist Erik Kennedy talks about his shortlisted collection @erikkennedy.com @thwupbooks.bsky.social #theockhams

General Non-Fiction finalist Tina Makereti (Te Ātiawa, Ngāti Tūwharetoa, Ngāti Rangatahi-Matakore, Pākehā) talks about her shortlisted book. #theockhams @tinamakereti.bsky.social @thwupbooks.bsky.social

'Works such as This Compulsion in Us are helping to open conversations about whakapapa, identity and the many pathways people take in reconnecting with their heritage,' Dale Husband @WaateaNews talks to Ockham finalist @tinamakereti.bsky.social t.co/XmxKdXUZuf @thwupbooks.bsky.social #theockhams

Introducing NOVA by Tim Corballis, publishing 11 June 2026! 🪐 Formally inventive, unabashedly brainy, and — as Alice Miller says — 'strangely joyful.' This is Tim Corballis's first novel since Our Future Is in the Air, and we think it's something special. Cover: Todd Atticus

Super pleased to see this wild and wonderful collection arriving in the world! Hungus is the third book of poems to emerge from the MA22 workshop, following collections from Amy Crerar and Nafanua Purcell Kersel. Have a great launch, Amber - wish we could be there!

It's launch day for Hungus! 🎉 Congratulations, Amber! Hungus draws on myth, pop culture, pūrakau and science fiction to tell stories of addiction, identity, and the things that keep us spinning. At its heart is the Mantis: amorphous, many-faced, holding a machete in one hand and a mic in the other.

Today we published new editions of Remote Sympathy, The Wish Child and The Book of Guilt by Catherine Chidgey! These three haunting novels make up Chidgey’s masterful trilogy on twentieth-century totalitarianism — confronting, eerie and profoundly moving. Striking new cover designs by Todd Atticus.

‘Wanting to be truthful but with a soft heart’ - interview with Talia Marshall on writing her memoir Whaea Blue and what she’s working on now

In lieu of an in-person appearance by Bill Manhire at the Festival yesterday, Newsroom published these three 'funny, beautiful and wise' poems from his new collection Lyrical Ballads newsroom.co.nz/2026/03/08/s...