Security Questions (El pasado es un pueblo solitario; Bokeh, 2015) uses the security questions that Morales was asked on his arrival in the US as way into his experiences as an immigrant.

Turning his hand to fiction, Dukes’ new novel Party Boy helped him process dark memories of Otago Boys’ High.

Coming this Tuesday, a new episode of SERVED WITH RICE, featuring @chrisjtse.bsky.social 🥰🍚 (YouTube and Spotify for video, or wherever you get your podcasts for audio only!)

The January arson attack on one of Mississippi’s oldest synagogues comes against the backdrop of an online world where a crop of young influencers have been spreading antisemitism, stoking outrage and drawing millions of followers.

I left Substack over 2 yrs ago, when this FIRST CAME OUT and have been on a nonprofit (Ghost) since. So join me! For ancient prophetic wisdom, healing, & essential organizing tools for this moment— Sign up for free or MORE, & support this work— Help keep it sustainable— And fuck enabling Nazis

If only there was some centralised water management agency that could prioritise risk, allocate resources and manage decades of underinvestment before the shit hit the literal fan was in place. Oh something something 3 something is coming to me ... something about Waters... #nzpol

New Breton Dukes story!

Now we just need to repair the sea www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/3609...

"[People say] ‘We don’t want a nanny state' – well, why wouldn’t we? Actually, if nanny looks after you and nurtures you and makes it possible for you to live a good life, I think that’s what we should be aiming for. Bring on nanny!” — Kate Pickett, co-author of The Spirit Level

Damien wrote about some NZ songs he likes/likes thinking about.

"I want Poetry Shelf to offer both balm and protest banners in these calamitous times." ❤️ ❤️ ❤️

‘To ensure a robust, long-lasting and more equitable literary sector, the only solution is a big increase in government funding – so long as it is independent of political interference – and sustained grants that can facilitate planning and growth.’

Somehow particularly galling that Mister Amazon killed the books coverage in the Washington Post

Creative New Zealand's Fellowship Fund is now open for applications

"My family’s blueberry farm—it sounded like a setting in a book, a warm book in which anything could happen or a cold book in which only one thing must happen." —Chen Chen, "Tale of the Blueberries"

"You may be skeptical about machine-written work at first, but once you see the software rearranging familiar-seeming paragraphs into different orders and changing a few words, you’ll realize it’s a suitable replacement for your favorite authors, who can now rest and starve."

Amit Chaudhuri pursues what he calls a “poetics of unfinishedness.” As Apoorva Tadepalli writes, nowhere is this more apparent than in the unusual course he’s struck in his fiction.

Terrific piece on why we need to value librarians by paying them properly

“Grandfather advised me: Learn a trade.” A poem by Lorine Niedecker.

Been doing a bit of thinking over the summer about how we can tie together our response to a changing climate and the rise of the far right. Our best weapon might just be our unique colonial history.

‘These stories of friendship, flight and consolidation unfold in a masterful combination of intrigue and the observational acuity of the poet’ - Sally Blundell reviews Elizabeth Smither www.nzreviewofbooks.com/angel-train-...

We're having so many parties this month, and you're not going to want to miss any of them. The launch of Leather & Chains will be amazing! ⛓️ Tuesday 17 February, 6pm ⛓️ Meow bar, 9 Edward Street, Wellington ⛓️ All welcome! More info here: www.facebook.com/share/17vrfm...

MBIE has announced the board members of Research Funding New Zealand, the new org that will make funding decisions for NZ's "major public investments in science, innovation and technology" My initial response: 😬🤔🙄WTF Why are three of them Aus-based? Why such a strong Agri lean? ⚛️🧪👩‍🔬

"A literary culture disaggregated from the contemporary world consigns itself to utter irrelevance – and yet in Albanese's Australia, the fantasy of an apolitical cultural sector seems to have been installed as de facto cultural policy." @catrionamp.bsky.social infra-dig.ghost.io/hard-surface...

We’ve been looking forward to this for a long time…

We are starting the publishing year with a major double book launch! Join us to launch two stunning new poetry collections by Bill Manhire and Jenny Bornholdt. 📖 Wednesday 11 February, 6pm 📖 Unity Books Wellington 📖 All welcome!

Still basking in yesterday's glow! Here are our lovely longlisted books hanging out together. We're delighted to have seven books on the longlist for the 2026 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards. Huge congratulations to these writers! teherengawakapress.co.nz/blogs/news/s...

‘A system stretched so thin that crisis has become routine’

Winner of last year's Wildlife Photographer of the Year is a gothic masterpiece. www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/arti...

Podcaster and writer Jackie Lee Morrison (MA22) is in the SpinOff’s Books Confessional this week thespinoff.co.nz/books/28-01-...

A writer with these qualifications willing to work for $40 bucks an hour has a serious drug problem and should just take up OnlyFans if things are that bad

Strong review for writer and 2026 Katherine Mansfield Menton Fellow Fiona Samuel and director Robert Sarkies

NZ generates huge volumes of waste and recovers only a tiny amount. A circular economy would be a way to redesign systems, cut emissions and build resilience.

Rolling through HB in a metaphorical poetry bus, Thursday, Feb 12 - a bunch of authors talking and reading and (hopefully!) signing — 6pm at the Havelock North Library, y’all: simonsweetman.substack.com/p/get-on-the...

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?...

*looks around at the lot of you* go write your book

The Dead Are Always Laughing at Us is Dominic Hoey at full voltage: funny, tender, furious, and absolutely committed to being understood. www.brokensleepbooks.com/product-page...

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!

NBCC member Sarah Dowling was interviewed by Alix Beeston on her podcast for the New Books Network about their book "Here Is a Figure: Grounding Literary Form," a work of literary criticism that gathers together the lying-down figures in contemporary literature:

Today’s welcome arrival, from Book Express in Te Maire/Shannon

"I watched ... academics and sector experts be removed from writing teams in favour of corporate resource creators, and saw curriculum documents change radically over a matter of hours in response to the latest red-pen notes from ministers."

More great coverage for Constellations / Not Writers Week, feat. special guest star Willow (who will not be appearing) www.theguardian.com/books/2026/j...

😩Apologies to Dr Tina Makereti, to whom congratulations are also very much in order!💐

Help Me Hera: Should I move home to New Zealand?

Congrats to Ingrid Horrocks (Writer in Residence 2024/staff 2026, Fiction), to IIML grads Catherine Chidgey (Fiction), Greg Kan, Tusiata Avia (Writer in Residence 2026), and Nafanua Purcell Kersel (Poetry), and to the English Dept’s Anna Jackson (Poetry)!

Anthropic hired the former head of Google Books to oversee its secret "Project Panama," new court docs show — quietly buying millions of used books in bulk, breaking their spines and scanning them to feed into its Claude chatbot. wapo.st/4rjXAMQ

Booksellers part of the resistance in Minnesota

Windham-Campbell Prizes Podcast 2026 Windham-Campbell Prizes have announced a new winter season of the Windham-Campbell Prizes Podcast will begin on February 4 2026, as part of an ongoing partnership with literary website LitHub. The new season will comprise of four episodes, each featuring a…

Tragic, unsettling news. Papalii Sia Figiel was a complicated genius, a groundbreaking storyteller of Oceania. samoaglobalnews.com/papalii-sia-...