The 2026 ABR Elizabeth Jolley Short Story Prize is open to all writers writing in English. The winner will receive $6,000, second place $4,000, and third place $2,500. Stories of 2000-5000 words are eligible, deadline 18 May (link card out of date!).

Kudos to Mad Chapman for updating her chip ranking with the full range of 170 current flavours and a handy thematic datavis which I have put the csv data for in the alt-text because I am that committed to chips. thespinoff.co.nz/kai/27-03-20...

How to write with optimism when the waves are coming

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Just launched! The new edition, full of ‘variety, depth and beauty’ - Cilla McQueen has made her selection of some of 2025’s most durable poems. www.bestnewzealandpoems.org.nz

I don't want to stop writing this review - inhabiting the sublime book - but have so many books waiting on my desk nzpoetryshelf.com/2026/03/23/p...

How to Paint a Nude: the dark horse of the 2026 Ockhams shortlist, reviewed

Thrilled to be part of this Toi Art x Verb event on Saturday 28 March at Te Papa, sharing new fiction in response to photography by Leslie Adkin, with: @jordanhamel.bsky.social @jackremiel.bsky.social @clairemabey.bsky.social 📸✍️💚 tepapa.govt.nz/visit/events...

The inaugural talk at Wellington’s library was a plea to normalise climate conversations

Catching up with the Oscars and really proud that the first muted swear is from the New Zealander.

Little Prayers

Thousands queue as doors open at revamped Wellington Library after seven years

Fuck i love our city. 😄

‘Radical, funny, compassionate’: Speed is Emotional, reviewed

It was a beautiful day AND my book arrived! 💚

Garner, Pilkey, Radden Keefe: Auckland Writers Festival brings out the big names

‘I was hungry for stories’: Isaac du Toit on growing up as a dyslexic reader

Want some Auckland Writers Festival picks? Here's @clairemabey.bsky.social on @thespinoff.bsky.social thespinoff.co.nz/books/11-03-... ^DR

The student I can never forget

Emily Writes @emilywrites.co.nz and I are starting a new series called The Brighter Future, where writers and artists and poets and so on imagine what a better future might look like, if we actually did some of the needful that's right in front of us: www.emilywrites.co.nz/the-brighter...

This needs to be done because Sylvia Townsend Warner deserves all the remembering we can manage

'The powers will mean police can move on rough sleepers or people displaying disorderly behaviour as young as 14-years-old.' Is a chilling thing to read. Especially when you're not eligible for a benefit until 16 & they're fucking with eligibility for 17 & 18 year olds www.rnz.co.nz/news/politic...

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New book is coming! April 2026 - 🐦‍⬛📖🍎❤️ it’s a defiant story written in a defiant mood 👀 bit.ly/RavensEyeReb...

Honestly if NZ parties don’t front up about their plans for climate & basic infrastructure we should be deeply ashamed -NZ has a sewerage crisis in all our major cities, we have flooding & landslides causing loss of life & critical failure s- thinking we can cap rates & manage this, is crazy

70 minutes and counting!

Kung Hei Fat Choi! Happy year of the fire horse 🐴 May your year bring you luck and fortune 🧧❤️🙏

Review: In Mārama, the greatest horror is always colonisation

‘Really just wants to be Bridgerton’: Emerald Fennell’s ‘Wuthering Heights’, reviewed

Uncomplicated pleasures in a complicated world: Bill Manhire and Jenny Bornholdt’s new poetry, reviewed

Laneway review: Chappell Roan, Wolf Alice and many other glorious acts

‘We are all part of a grand design’: Wrestling with George Saunders’ Vigil

Devastated to hear this, she was such a wonderful talent

E1 of SERVED WITH RICE, my PoC-focused literary podcast, is out now, with guest #TigestGirma! Watch on YouTube or Spotify or check out our website (servedwithricepoddy.com) for all other places available 🥰 youtu.be/8khhWtJxpTQ?...

Join us to launch Party Boy, the highly anticipated debut novel by Breton Dukes! 🎉 Sunday 15 February, 3pm 🎉 Woof! bar, 368 Moray Place, Dunedin 🎉 All welcome!

Thanks for your kind words @clairemabey.bsky.social! Such beautiful books in the Longlist, so chuffed to be in such excellent company 📚

Jacinda Ardern longlisted for this year’s Ockham New Zealand book awards

Big thanks to @clairemabey.bsky.social for asking me to do The Spinoff Books Confessional, out today 🥰 thespinoff.co.nz/books/28-01-...

FREE EBOOK! Cities Under Siege, Stephen Graham's powerful exposé of how political violence operates through the spaces of urban life is available as a free download.

‘The destruction of Palestinian lives is now a base line in a holding pattern. The ferocious white heat of the past two years of unrelenting attacks has receded from view, but the genocide continues.’ @selmadabbagh.bsky.social on the situation on the ground in Gaza. www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/ja...

All the book news you might have missed while actually reading books

Absolutely delightful to edit this beast by the one and only Mad Chapman. Blessings upon you @mariankeyes.bsky.social ❤️

Dear Wimpy Kids of Wellington … with gratitude, Jeff Kinney

‘Refugees in a new world’: The story of my grandparents’ escape from Yugoslavia

Chilling and completely convincing final line

The brilliant Louise Adler www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Calling all e-reader fans! The newest issue of takahē has dropped and is available as a downloadable PDF for Kindle, Kobo, or Boox. It’s only $5, and every dollar goes straight to supporting takahē artists and writers 🖤 www.takahe.org.nz/product/taka...

Genius! Climate fiction among many other things - historical fiction, poetry, brilliance

More devastating the second time around, and now I know what’s coming. The damage and exploitation of people and places - the cruel and callous pillaging of resource - the relentless corporate pursuit of our minds and souls … chilling and awfully true