👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾 Totally inspiring in a chaotic world!! Big respect to young artists like Patrick Lemeki who has used his visual language to articulate a strong political message about solidarity and commonality between Tangata Whenua and Tangata Moana!! Well done and well said!! The future is bright!!

'Democracies around the world currently face great challenges.' Geoffrey Palmer’s warning, on Newsroom today. newsroom.co.nz/2025/09/22/g...

At the moment the Library is running a series of events form Aug-November called Mana Māori Motuhake: Māori rights and representation. There's a bunch of film screenings and some rolling exhibitions - well worth checking out: natlib.govt.nz/events/mana-...

You want it darker We kill the flame — Leonard Cohen, 2016

We're half way there. Remember, we encourage general submissions alongside any work that might fit in with our four themed folios. When submitting you can specify where your work lines up. We're excited to see what you've got for us! kenyonreview.org/submit

How a National Party MP Weaponized Violence to Target Academic Criticism culture-centered.blogspot.com/2025/09/how-...

"and, finally, the rumours about certain pro-Palestine articles having played a role, suggests to me that the closure of Meanjin is a morbid symptom of the conservative elite controlling the dissemination of culture.” 2/2 honisoit.com/2025/09/seco...

'Gee's O Trilogy was so important to me when I was 10. I met the guy in my late 30s and didn't tell him this of course. We are supposed to look back and regret such cowardly moments but I don't. There's an honour in not bothering people.' —Nick Ascroft. www.thepress.co.nz/culture/3608...

Sarah J. Sloat from Hotel Almighty #smallpoemsunday @tomsnarsky.bsky.social

On the day I found out I have two poems shortlisted for the Frances Browne Poetry Competition (Ulster Scots), just taking a moment to reflect on all minority languages. This poem by Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill says it better than I can #poetry #poemoftheday #language #ulsterscots #gaeilge

We're in the last two weeks of Writers on Mondays for 2025. Come along to Circa Theatre today at 1215 to catch a lively hour of performance - five scripts from the MA Script workshop will be in the spotlight. Free admission, all welcome!

There were two peeks inside Sick Power Trip on Reading Room this weekend! First, 'Bino' by Erik Kennedy. newsroom.co.nz/2025/09/20/s...

Lines on the theory that cold water swimming boosts the immune system.

Nobody teaches journalists about dangling modifiers anymore.

We're saddened by the passing of Dame Joan Metge this week, at the age of 95. In 2015, we had the privilege of sitting down with Joan to discuss her remarkable journey helping shape how New Zealand talks about race relations. Our condolences to Joan's whānau and the many lives she touched.

I have once again made a shortlist for my usual nonsense mastersreview.com/best-emergin...

Attention, Aotearoa New Zealand Long list of recalled Tasti brand products - suspected presence of metal fillings. www.mpi.govt.nz/food-safety-...

Umberto Eco’s List of the 14 Common Features of Fascism #4 Disagreement is treason

You know about NZ's cuts to research funding? How bleak is it for climate change research? Bleak. Explainer and perspectives now outside Carbon News NZ's paywall. www.carbonnews.co.nz/news/35492/s...

And some additional hints and resources for the final stages of (re-)writing, including my fav from Gary Provost.

‘My theory about why dark academia is having a moment – or rather one long moment – is that the internet and online education has given rise to a romanticism around “hard copy”, in-person gatherings around niche interests, as well as an all round bookishness’ - Claire Mabey

We should all hope to live like Joy Cowley

The launch of 5 new Australian book publishers is good news, for once. Meet Perentie Press, Pink Shorts Press, Evercreech Editions, Aniko Press and Bakers Lane Books.

3,900 Pages of Paul Klee’s Personal Notebooks Are Now Online, Highlighting His Bauhaus Teachings (1921–1931)

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Next week Writers on Mondays goes to Circa Theatre! Actors perform dynamic new work by MA Scriptwriting students from the IIML in this entertaining hour of theatre. This week, scripts by Alex Cherian, Chantal Euringer, Crosby Allen-Jennings, Eva Brunel, and Leroy Nurkka are introduced by Ken Duncum.

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!

Ahem - we'd just like to point out that if you would like to write your book alongside a cohort of supportive others, and with the guidance of a supervisor (aka mentor), applications for our 2026 MA in Creative Writing are open until 1 November.... www.wgtn.ac.nz/modernletter...

'The literature prize went posthumously to the late Dr William Bean of the University of Iowa. In a succession of papers, he documented the growth rate of his fingernails and toenails over 35 years.'

Lyrics by Richard von Sturmer

Can anyone in Australian publishing tell us in plain English what a 'book bounty' is? Started reading the 1969 Book Bounty Act, but lost will to live before figuring it out.

TOMORROW, 9 AM EDT The translators you’ll hear from in this series are some of the best working in the English language today — with grant-winning projects from 17 languages spanning 21 countries. The 2025 NEA Translation Fellows Conversation Series @catranslation.org

"There’s a chance the arc won’t bend toward justice here." buff.ly/3Piiw7r

Freya Daly Sadgrove’s test kitchen is cooking at Book Hound next Tuesday

Very sad to hear that Dame Joan Metge has died. www.royalsociety.org.nz/150th-annive...

Also this Sunday in Wellington at Newtown's Office Bar from 4-6pm, Harry Ricketts will be reading poems and Tony Burt will be playing guitar. Harry's new book of poems, Bonfires on the Ice, will be published in November.

This Sunday Damien Wilkins continues his tour of (almost) all the literary festivals in Aotearoa when he appears at Lit: Whanganui Booklovers Festival in conversation with Kiran Dass www.literaryfestival.co.nz/damien-wilkins

'A New Zealander, Chidgey is far less widely read in the United States than she ought to be, and “The Book of Guilt” seems poised to be her breakout: Epically imagined, intricately constructed, conceptually engaging and packed with perfectly timed revelations' - NY Times archive.ph/9KMuD#select...

”It is imperative that we don’t let ourselves be cowed. Write, keep writing, and put it out into the world in whatever way you can.” Deputy editor Eli Mclean on the aftermath of Meanjin, in @overlandjournal.bsky.social t.co/904VhuDYXU

See you at Unity tonight!

Te Herenga Waka's Dr Vini Olsen-Reeder imagines the future of te reo Māori.

Little interview with me up on Booklovers! www.nzbooklovers.co.nz/post/intervi...

Just heard Jesse Mulligan say on RNZ he was surprised he’s 14 y/o daughter loved The Book of Guilt by Catherine Chidgey. BUT it has a 13 y/o narrator and is a belting page turner. PERFECT YA material. Give it to your young teens I say! They love dark stuff, just ask @patricknessbooks.bsky.social

We couldn't agree more @juliaharvey.bsky.social! Some very brave (and very silent) sources and some high quality and vulnerable analysis by @antoinettelattouf.bsky.social and @janfran.bsky.social. It's a yes from us.

The Aotearoa Gender Attitudes Survey results are out and they are... revealing. Nothing surprising though, if you've been paying attention to trends overseas. genderequal.nz/ga-survey/

Years after an official reprimand over attempted interference at NZ universities, Chinese diplomats have again tried to pressure event organisers.

Ant it’s a wrap for The Next Page 2025 - a good time was had by all. Thanks to all the writers for bringing their A-game and to Meow for hosting us! Now on with the work…

The line 'Nothing fruitful or sincere could ever emerge from association between us' comes into my head sometimes. It is so exact and withering and final.