"We" Society Poetry Anthology (2015)

cover & text design: Geum Hye Kim & Leslie Brennan

"We" Society Poetry Anthology. Edited by Jack Ross. Preface by Jack Ross. ISBN 978-0-473-32197-0. “Stage2Page” Publishing Series #4. Auckland: Printable Reality, 2015. vi + 66 pp.

Contents:

1. Editor's Note - Jack Ross -------------- 1









2. 10 in a packet* - Heather McQuillan -------------- 4
3. A Picture Paints Words - Tracey Peterson --------- 4
4. A Tool - E Wen Wong ------------------------------ 5
5. Accent - Sigred Yamit ---------------------------- 6
6. Amnesia - Janet Newman --------------------------- 7
7. Amsterdam - Jeni Curtis -------------------------- 8
8. Anthropology of Simia - Geum Hye Kim ------------ 9
9. At the Bay - Gill Ward -------------------------- 10
10. Caring* - Maris O'Rourke ------------------------- 12
11. Confessions - Steve McNeil ----------------------- 12
12. Date Night - Keith Nunes ------------------------- 14
13. Digital Natives - Anna Forsyth ------------------- 14
14. Engaging with Goya - Dorothy Howie --------------- 15
15. Enlightenment - Beverly Martens ------------------ 17
16. Enough - Vanessa Rare ---------------------------- 18
17. Everything about us* - Jane Williams ------------- 19
18. Farm* - Wes Lee ---------------------------------- 20
19. Fish of the sun - Peter Le Baige ----------------- 21
20. From me in Vanilla* - Kerrin P. Sharpe ----------- 22
21. Glittering Towers - Anastasia Cook --------------- 22
22. Haiku x 3 - Steven Clarkson ---------------------- 24
23. Heirlooms less abundant - Janean Cherkun --------- 24
24. Home at the café - Gill Ward --------------------- 26
25. I love you very badly* - Harrison Christian ------ 27
26. Icarus, plural - Elizabeth Morton ---------------- 28
27. kia kotahi mai - Piet Nieuwland ------------------ 29
28. Ko Aotearoa tenei* - Piet Nieuwland -------------- 31
29. Little God* - Madison O'Dwyer -------------------- 32
30. Madeline in the mirror - Keith Nunes ------------- 33
31. may no disaster escape* - Raewyn Alexander ------- 34
32. Musings of Moonwrecked Angels - Lea Ruth Fernandez 35
33. Net* - Jillian Sullivan -------------------------- 36
34. Night Walk - Bradley Nielsen --------------------- 37
35. Of Dogs and men - John Irvine -------------------- 38
36. On meeting someone I once understood - Luke Sole - 39
37. On the way from the ATM* - Jon Little ------------ 40
38. Paintin a dreamin trail - Maris O'Rourke --------- 41
39. Play and giggle -Cecelia Fitzgerald -------------- 42
40. Pretence - Sarah Penwarden ----------------------- 43
41. Reaching the destination first - Karen Taylor ---- 44
42. Rejection - Zackhie Bara-Comolli ----------------- 45
43. Saboor gets an Education - Heather McQuillan ----- 46
44. Society - Tulia Gonzalez-Flores ------------------ 47
45. Substratum - Jillian Sullivan ------------------- 47
46. The mad ones* - Tulia Gonzalez-Flores ------------ 48
47. The Merry Andrew - Madison O'Dwyer --------------- 49
48. The Nothing Man - Daniel .E. Hemme --------------- 50
49. The Question - Luz Saviñón ----------------------- 51
50. The Sisyphus Thing – John Irvine ----------------- 52
51. The Totara Calls Absence - Janet Newman ---------- 53
52. To Old School Friends - Wes Lee ------------------ 53
53. Two Cities Sophie Procter ------------------------ 54
54. We Sophie Procter -------------------------------- 55
55. Wednesday Morning - Sarra Harvey ----------------- 56
56. White Flowers - Jillian Sullivan ----------------- 58
57. Words - Fiona Mogridge --------------------------- 58


58. WE Society Bios ----------------------------------- 59

[* = 12 shortlisted poems]
[bold = 3 competition winners]

Samples:

Printable Reality

Available:

Poetry/Spoken Word Art NZ Charitable Trust
http://printablereality.com/publishing/we-society-publication/
wesociety@printablereality.com

RRP: $NZ 25 (+ $4 postage & packing)

•


Launch at Te Henga Studios, Bethells, 29th August 2015


artwork


MC Gus Simonovic


Gus and poet


the poets


the audience


the book


the vibe


outside
photographs: Brigitte Lauper (No copyrights in my we-society > Feel free to forward, with love and pleasure)

•

11 Views of Auckland (2010)

Cover image: Graham Fletcher /
Cover design: Brett Cross & Ellen Portch

11 Views of Auckland. Edited by Jack Ross & Grant Duncan. Preface by Jack Ross. Social and Cultural Studies, 10. ISSN 1175-7132. Albany: Massey University, 2010. ii + 210 pp.

Contents:

1. Cluny Macpherson, "Auckland’s Pacific Narratives"


2. Graeme MacRae, "The Bay that Was, a Park that Isn’t and the City that Might Have Been"


3. Ann Dupuis, "Shutting the Gates: Auckland’s Urban Development in Transition?"


4. Warwick Tie, "Between Itself: The Political Economy of the Metropolis"


5. Eleanor Rimoldi, "Auckland City: Public Life and Civil Society"


6. Isabel Michell, "Auckland City: Becoming Places"


7. Jennifer Lawn, "Soft-boiled in Ponsonby: The Topographies of Murder in the Crime Fiction of Charlotte Grimshaw and Alix Bosco"


8. Peter Lineham, "The Religious Traditions of the North Shore: Pluralism and Unity"


9. Jack Ross, "The Stokes Point Pillars"


10. David Ishii, "Immigration settlement: Never Just about Language"


11. Grant Duncan, "The Making of the Super City"

Samples:

Social and Cultural Studies

Available:

Dot Cavanagh
School Receptionist
College of Humanities and Social Sciences
Massey University
Private Bay 102 904
North Shore Mail Centre
Auckland

RRP: $NZ 20 (+ $2 postage & packing)

Reviews & Comments:

1. Graeme Beattie, "11 Views of Auckland." Beattie's Book Blog (7 February 2011):
   

   
   The College of Humanities and Social Sciences, Albany Campus, Massey University, are happy to invite you to celebrate the publication of 11 Views of Auckland: An anthology of essays by members of the College, Volume 10 in our ongoing Monograph Series "Social and Cultural Studies."
   
   The book will be launched by Massey University’s Vice-Chancellor, The Hon Steve Maharey, at a special launch price of $15 [RRP: $20], in the Study Centre Staff Lounge, East Precinct, Albany Campus, Auckland, on Thursday 17th February from 5.00-6.30 p.m.



2. Jennifer Little, "Urban myths and marvels evoked in Auckland essays." Massey University Website. (18 February 2011):
   

   
   Murders, motorways and migrants are some of the subjects of a new book, 11 Views of Auckland, by Albany-based academics from the University’s College of Humanities and Social Sciences.
   ...
   Each is a unique exploration on an aspect of Auckland’s past or present, its complexities and contrasts, penned by academics from sociology, history, English, linguistics, public policy, anthropology and political studies at the University’s Albany campus.



3. Steve Matthewman, "Review: Jack Ross and Grant Duncan (eds.) (2010) 11 Views of Auckland. Albany: Massey University." New Zealand Sociology vol. 26, issue 2 (2011): 117-19:
   

   
   This co-edited book is the tenth in Massey University’s Social and Cultural Studies series. The series aims to collect high quality multidisciplinary work organised around a particular theme or research methodology. Here we have eleven scholars with backgrounds in anthropology, education, fine arts, literary and religious studies, social policy and sociology, offering their views of New Zealand’s most multicultural city. Each chapter has its specific point of entry and object of study: a people (tangata o te moana nui a Kiwa), a suburb (Freemans Bay), an architectural style (gated communities, skyscrapers), an island (Waiheke), literature (crime fiction, commemoration), an activity (city governance, immigration, religious practice and walking).
   ...
   As with any multi-authored collection there are a range of writing styles displayed. In this publication some are straightforwardly academic (Peter Lineham), others more personal reflection (Graeme MacRae), while yet others merge these two positions (David Ishii). Still, all fall within the scope of Massey’s series which is to offer arts scholars interesting material which avoids unnecessary jargon. Inevitably your judgement of a book will be marked by what you bring to it and what you want out of it. Approaching it as a teacher I was immediately gratified to see chapters like Cluny Macpherson’s one on ‘Auckland’s Pacific Narratives’ that I can use when stood in front of cohorts of visiting American students. Although I hope this comprehensive overview reaches a wider audience because some popular myths deserve to be punctured. As Cluny demonstrates, the Pacific migration of common sense knowledge is actually the sixth migratory wave. As a researcher I was interested to see Ann Dupuis’ work on gated communities (although my own “Gated Life” project remains stubbornly in the bottom drawer). I should also add that I found this volume as easy to read for pleasure as it was for work. Jack Ross promises the reader a ‘quick fix’ rather than ‘a complete immersion’, but I found it much more satisfying than that.



4. Sarah Coddington, "Lecturer wants poems written on bridge pillars." North Shore Times (Tuesday, 15 March, 2011): 30:
   

   
   It seems poems gracing pillars of the mighty Auckland Harbour Bridge and telling tales of North Shore's past were never meant to be.
   
   Massey University English lecturer Jack Ross spent many hours collating poems for a Shore art-based project that never went ahead.
   ...
   "The first criterion to qualify for a spot was you had to be dead. It was very hard to choose poets and you needed a diversity of people with a connection to the Shore," he says.

[Sarah Coddington, "Lecturer wants poems written on bridge pillars"
(North Shore Times (Tuesday, 15 March, 2011): 30]

•
Authors Graeme MacRae, Grant Duncan, Jack Ross, Eleanor Rimoldi, David Ishii, Cluny Macpherson and Warwick Tie at the book launch yesterday. (Absent were Ann Dupuis, Jennifer Lawn and Isabel Michell)
[17 February, 2011]

Complete Review:
Jennifer Little. "Urban myths and marvels evoked in Auckland essays." Massey University Website. (18 February 2011):

Murders, motorways and migrants are some of the subjects of a new book, 11 Views of Auckland, by Albany-based academics from the University’s College of Humanities and Social Sciences.

Edited by English lecturer Dr Jack Ross and public policy lecturer Associate Professor Grant Duncan, the book is printed and published by the University.

The essays are by no means gushing endorsements for the metropolis – home to an estimated 1.25 million people, or about a third of the nation’s population.

Each is a unique exploration on an aspect of Auckland’s past or present, its complexities and contrasts, penned by academics from sociology, history, English, linguistics, public policy, anthropology and political studies at the University’s Albany campus.

That the writers all live and work in Auckland is pertinent to the spirit of these essays, which evoke personal experiences and insights within the framework of their particular discipline.

Thoughtful commentaries on urban experiences include Dr Isabel Michell’s Auckland City: Becoming Places. She describes the pleasures and perils of being an inner city pedestrian who suffers “near hits, noise and air pollution, and the annoying experience of what might be called pedestrianas interruptus: the sudden cessation of footpath in favour of road.”

She reflects on the need for “life in or between buildings”, lamenting the lack of appealing public spaces through which a diverse muster of humanity can flow or congregate.

English and Media Studies lecturer Dr Jennifer Lawn delves into crime fiction set in Auckland as pathway into the links between real crime, place and urban experience in Soft-boiled in Ponsonby: The Topographies of Murder in the Crime Fiction of Charlotte Grimshaw and Alix Bosco.

Real crimes, reported and sensationalised in the media, can provide a backdrop or echo for imagined ones. "Grimshaw's Auckland is scarcely fit for human habitation; it is waterlogged, slimy, rotting, hostile to the scale and pace of the human frame – yet curiously sublime, even daemonic...” she writes.

Anthropologist Dr Graeme MacRae traces a fascinating history of his neighbourhood in Freeman’s Bay in The Bay that Was, a Park that Isn’t and the City that Might Have Been. He traces its evolution from community-oriented council housing to hub of commercial development and victim of “social cleansing.”

Sociologist Associate Professor Ann Dupuis reflects on the emergence of gated communities, and Dr Warwick Tie explores the link between aesthetics and economics in relation to downtown Auckland’s glass-walled Metropolis building as a symbol of precarious corporate ethos in Between Itself: The Political Economy of the Metropolis

Associate Professor Grant Duncan adds a poetic touch from the vantage point of a bus passenger in his essay The Making of the Super City. "The bus climbs steeply to the apex of the Bridge, a place where every traveller gets a fleeting million-dollar view, and this ride impresses itself as one of the great ways to experience the brutal velocities, the pounding sensations and the beautiful vistas from unexpected windows that create the way the hapless denizen takes part in the life of the city – just another body going along with the city's great lava-flows of traffic that congeal and contest within the channels designed for them by anonymous planners."

He asks the reader to look beyond the potentially "sleep-inducing boredom" that the subject of local government may invoke to the basic relevance of urban policy making; ""How do people, politics and social trends shape the places we inhabit and the ways we experience life, move about and get things done in the city?"

The book is the 10th monograph in a series started by the former School of Cultural and Social Studies.

Dr Ross’ quirky essay describes his involvement in a thwarted art project to engrave poetry on Auckland’s harbour bridge supports. He says he hopes the book will provoke readers with its “truthful depiction of how the city seems to each of us right now,” that will “grow in value as Auckland’s various futures unfold and interlock.”

Vice-Chancellor Steve Maharey, who launched the book, praised its rich, diverse content and described it as “a time capsule of Auckland today that will become a valuable reference point for how the city changes and evolves.”

[Graham Fletcher: "Untitled,"
from Lounge Room Tribalism (2009-2010)]

•

New NZ Poets in Performance (2008)

Cover image: Sara Hughes / Cover design: Christine Hansen /
Text design: Katrina Duncan

New New Zealand Poets in Performance. Edited by Jack Ross. Poems selected by Jack Ross and Jan Kemp. ISBN 978 1 86940 4093. Auckland: Auckland University Press, 2008. xiv + 146 pp.

Contents

Preface

Acknowledgements

Anne Kennedy (b. 1959)
I was a feminist in the eighties
Cat Tales
Whenua (2)
Biography / Selected Bibliography

David Howard (b. 1959)
Talking Sideways
Social Studies
On the Eighth Day
Biography / Selected Bibliography

John Newton (b. 1959)
Lunch
Ferret trap
Inland
Opening the Book
Biography / Selected Bibliography

Serie (Cherie) Barford (b. 1960)
Plea to the Spanish Lady
God is near the Equator
Biography / Selected Bibliography

Jenny Bornholdt (b. 1960)
Rodnie and her bicycles
Bus stop
Weather
Then Murray came
Please, pay attention
Biography / Selected Bibliography

Jenny Powell-Chalmers (b. 1960)
Carnival of Chocolate
Linda
Lunch Box
Biography / Selected Bibliography

Gregory O’Brien (b. 1961)
Epithalamium, Wellington
It will be better then
Solomon singing
from Great Lake
There is only one
Biography / Selected Bibliography

Chris Price (b. 1962)
Ghastlily
The Origins of Science
Keeping ravens
Biography / Selected Bibliography

John Pule (b. 1962)
from Restless People
Ka hola
He
Liogi
Biography / Selected Bibliography

Jack Ross (b. 1962)
Except Once
A Woman Named Intrepid
Idyll
Disorder and Early Sorrow
Biography / Selected Bibliography

Andrew Johnston (b. 1963)
How to Talk
How to Walk
Les Baillessats
The Present
Biography / Selected Bibliography

Glenn Colquhoun (b. 1964)
from Whakapapa
She asked me if she took one pill for her heart …
Lost property
On the death of my grandmother
Biography / Selected Bibliography

Lynda Chanwai-Earle (b. 1965)
Details from a personal journal
Gasp
Biography / Selected Bibliography

Sonja Yelich (b. 1965)
narrow neck from the boat ramp
1YA
writing desk
whangaparaoa – on the sundeck
Biography / Selected Bibliography

Tusiata Avia (b. 1966)
My Dog
My First Time in Samoa
Wild Dogs Under My Skirt
Biography / Selected Bibliography

James Brown (b. 1966)
Loneliness
Soup From a Stone
The Crewe Cres Kids
The Day I Stopped Writing Poetry
Biography / Selected Bibliography

Anna Jackson (b. 1967)
The hen of tiredness
Takahe
On the road with Rose
In a minute
Biography / Selected Bibliography

Sarah Quigley (b. 1967)
New York Four
Restless
Biography / Selected Bibliography

Robert Sullivan (b. 1967)
Waka 46
V Honda Waka
Waka 70 i Matakitaki
Waka 62 A narrator’s note
Biography / Selected Bibliography

Emma Neale (b. 1969)
Spoken For
Jane Coleridge
You’re Telling Me
Confessional Poem
Caroline Helstone
Biography / Selected Bibliography

Kate Camp (b. 1972)
Postcard
Documentaries
Backroads
Water of the Sweet Life
Guests
Biography / Selected Bibliography

Tracey Slaughter (b. 1972)
anatomy of dancing with your future wife
biography day
Biography / Selected Bibliography

Nick Ascroft (b. 1973)
The Badder & the Better
All of the Other Ascrofts Are Dead
Cheap Present
Biography / Selected Bibliography

Kapka Kassabova (b. 1973)
Preparation for the big emptiness
One morning like a sleeper
My life in two parts
A city of pierced amphorae
Biography / Selected Bibliography

Thérèse Lloyd (b. 1974)
Forecast
One Hundred Hours
Scorpion Daughter
Biography / Selected Bibliography

Mark Pirie (b. 1974)
Good Looks
Making a Point
Progress
The Third Form
Biography / Selected Bibliography

Olivia Macassey (b. 1975)
Outhwaite Park
Outer Suburb
Biography / Selected Bibliography

Richard Reeve (b. 1976)
Dark Unloading: A Villanelle
Ranfurly
Victory Beach
Biography / Selected Bibliography

Track List

Variant Readings

Bibliography

Back cover

Samples:

Aotearoa NZ Poetry Sound Archive

Auckland University Press

The Imaginary Museum

Front flap: Blurb

From Anne Kennedy to Andrew Johnston, Jenny Bornholdt to Glenn Colquhoun, NEW NEW ZEALAND POETS IN PERFORMANCE celebrates the rich jangle of clashing ideas, voices and genders that combine to make contemporary culture. It collects the work of 28 young and mid-career poets - who came to prominence in the 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s - notable for their variety, their fresh approaches to poetic form and subject, and their distinctive but complementary voices. This book is a follow-up and companion to the bestselling Classic New Zealand Poets in Performance and Contemporary New Zealand Poets in Performance. Editors Jack Ross and Jan Kemp have selected and presented on two CDs material largely from the Aotearoa New Zealand Poetry Sound Archive, completed in 2004. There are more than two hours of poets reading their own work and the accompanying book prints the texts of the poems as they have been read. Selected bibliographies and short biographies for each poet are also included, as well as an appendix of variant readings.

New New Zealand Poets in Performance presents the work of 'poets determined to go their own way, wherever that may lead them', as Jack Ross writes in the preface. We're sure you'll enjoy the opportunity to savour their words and voices here.

Available:

Auckland University Press
The University Of Auckland
1-11 Short St.
Private Bag 92019
Auckland
New Zealand
aup@auckland.ac.nz

RRP: $NZ 45.00

Back flap: Author information

JACK R0SS is a writer and editor, based in Auckland. He has published three books of poems: City of Strange Brunettes (1998), Chantal's Book (2002) and To Terezín (2007); two novels: Nights with Giordano Bruno (2000) and The Imaginary Museum of Atlantis (2006); and two books of short fiction. His other books include (with Graeme Lay) the anthology Golden Weather: North Shore Writers Past and Present (2004), and (with Tina Shaw) Myth of the 21st Century: An Anthology of New Fiction (2006). In 2007 he guest-edited Landfall 214.

JAN KEMP conceived and organised the collection of recordings in the New Zealand Poets in Performance series. She is director of both the Waiata (1974) and Aotearoa New Zealand (2004) Poetry Sound Archives. She was awarded an MNZM for services to literature in 2005. Dante's Heaven (Puriri Press, Auckland) was published In 2006. She now lives outside Frankfurt am Main. She is a member of PEN-Germany and the New Zealand Society of Authors and is presently preparing Voicetracks: Selected Poems, her ninth book.

ANNE KENNEDY
DAVID HOWARD
JOHN NEWTON
SERIE BARFORD
JENNY B0RNHOLDT
JENNY POWELL-CHALMERS
GREGORY O'BRIEN
CHRIS PRICE
JOHN PULE
JACK ROSS
ANDREW JOHNSTON
GLENN COLQUHOUN
LYNDA CHANWAI-EARLE
SONJA YELICH
TUSIATA AVIA
JAMES BROWN
ANNA JACKSON
SARAH QUIGLEY
ROBERT SULLIVAN
EMMA NEALE
KATE CAMP
TRACEY SLAUGHTER
NICK ASCROFT
KAPKA KASSABOVA
THERESE LLOYD
MARK PIRIE
OLIVIA MACASSEY
RICHARD REEVE

Reviews & Comments:

1. AUP, "New New Zealand Poets in Performance." forthcoming (24/6/08):
   

   
   The third in the Poets in Performance series, this book collects the work of a new generation of poets - from Anne Kennedy to Glenn Colquhoun, Jenny Bornholdt to Robert Sullivan - who came to prominence in the 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s. These poets are notable for their variety, their distinctive voices and their fresh approaches to poetic form and subject. As in Classic and Contemporary New Zealand Poets in Performance, Ross and Kemp have selected and presented on two CDs material from the Aotearoa New Zealand Poetry Sound Archive, completed in 2004. There are more than two hours of poets reading their own work and the accompanying book prints the texts of the poems as they have been read. Selected bibliographies and short biographies for each poet and an appendix of variant readings are also included.



2. Jessica Le Bas, "The joy of rhythm and rhyme." Nelson Mail (16/7/08):
   

   
   Jack Ross and Jan Kemp have edited a series, New Zealand Poets in Performance, each year now since 2006 - first classic poets, then contemporary poets. This month sees the launch of another, New New Zealand Poets in Performance (Auckland University Press, $44.99), heralding new voices in the poetry scene.
   
   What makes this series attractive is that each book comes with two CDs of the poets reading a selection of their work. Now you can stay home, with your cognac and your fire roaring (heat pump doesn't seem to have the same poetic cadence, does it?), and listen to Allen Curnow reading The Skeleton of the Great Moa, or Denis Glover reading his quintessential Magpies.
   
   There's Baxter and Hunt in this series, C K Stead and O'Sullivan, to name a few good poets. In this latest collection, you can hear Glenn Colquhoun and Jenny Bornholdt. What better place to start sampling New Zealand Poetry?



3. Jennifer Little, "Poetry CDs an alternative to Talkback Radio." Massey News (16/7/08):
   

   
   Compact disc recordings in a new anthology of New Zealand's hottest new poets promise to engage a wide audience, including those who are not “poetry fiends”, says one of its co-editors Massey English lecturer Dr Jack Ross ...
   
   “A lot of people might want to try listening to the poems while they're in the car driving to work," Dr Ross says. "Instead of talkback radio, why not open up to some new ideas with a poem?”
   
   The book follows Classic New Zealand Poets in Performance and Contemporary New Zealand Poets in Performance and brings together 28 young to mid-career poets, including Anne Kennedy, Jenny Bornholdt, Glenn Colquhoun and Andrew Johnston, to celebrate “the rich jangle of clashing ideas, voices, genders that combine to make a living culture”, Dr Ross says in his introduction.



4. Peter Dornauf, "Tuning into Mid-career Poets." Waikato Times (2/8/08):
   

   
   This volume and CDs, along with the other two companions, will make a very useful, worthwhile addition to secondary and tertiary libraries as well as to the libraries of individual dedicated followers of lyrical fashion.



5. "New New Zealand Poets in Performance." Unity Books Spring Newsletter (20/8/08):
   

   
   A companion to classy, bestselling anthologies Classic New Zealand Poets in Performance and Contemporary New Zealand Poets in Performance, this new collection features 28 young and mid-career poets notable for variety, freshness, IQ and distinctiveness and presents material from the Aotearoa New Zealand Poetry Sound Archive (includes 2 CDs).



6. Pat White, "A Delight for Poetry Lovers." Wairarapa Times (20/8/08):
   

   
   This volume brings to a close the most thorough survey of New Zealand poetry ever undertaken. Three volumes have been published with material gleaned from a comprehensive ctalogue of poets reading their work which has been stored as the Aotearoa New Zealand Poetry Sound Archive ...
   
   The volume is attractively printed, with an easily used layout, all work is referenced and accompanied by biographical notes. Any reader of poetry will find this sequence of publications an essential reference, quite apart form a very satisfying access point to much that is best in New Zealand poets writing at their best.
   
   Without a doubt the monumental task Kemp and Ross set themselves must have grown to something more than they imagined possible. Now however, the results speak for themselves. We have a very valuable progress report on the state of poetry, for the delight of this country's poetry lovers, and the use of its students. as editors Kemp and Ross deserve the nation's thanks for a task completed well.



7. Margaret Christensen, "New New Zealand Poets in Performance." Wairarapa Times-Age (23/8/08):
   

   
   Editors Ross and Kemp here continue the excellent selections they have made, along with archival CDs, in the past few years. ... All together the collections mine work which gives an overview in both sight and
   sound of the topography of poetry in this country.
   ...
   All of the poets included have quite impressive track records of publication in this country and overseas. They have won many awards, which are handily documented at the end of each poet's selection - which is very useful for students of our literature, both now and later.
   ...
   Crises have obviously occurred in these lives but the reader can only guess at the triggering circumstances. That does not necessarily mean that the reader is left bewildered, just aware.



8. "New New Zealand Poets in Performance." Art News reviews (Spring 08) (27/8/08):
   

   
   There's no doubt that hearing poetry read aloud is a much more physical, dynamic and dramatic experience that brings the rhythm, tone and rhyme of the medium to the fore. In this multi-media publication, which includes two CDs of poets in performance mostly taken from the Aotearoa New Zealand Poetry Sound Archive, established in 2004 by poet Jan Kemp, the reader has the best of both worlds. the third in a series of 'New Zealand Poets in performance', this features the voices of 28 of New Zealand's young to mid-career poets, including Kate Camp, Anne Kennedy, Gregory O'Brien and James Brown, whose quirky, irreverent poem about seeing Elvis "just walking across the quad in no particular hurry" is a gem. Two hours of poets reading their work, accompanied by the text of each poem, makes this a treat for poetry lovers.



9. Trevor Reeves, "New New Zealand Poets in Performance." Southern Ocean Review (2008):
   

   
   164 pages of anthology again (third time) of the poets in performance, with two nice cd's to play with the actual poets reading their work. This time there are some South Island poets in there, including Richard Reeve who is making a big name for himself as an establishment poet. Also Jenny Powell-Chalmers writing about Dunedin (good on her) with 'Carnival of Chocolate'. Ideal for reading aloud, and she does read well. Even trivia like “Lunch Box' sounds good read. Nick Ascroft is in there too. New Zealand is bountifully supplied with bright new poets making their mark now. When you have nothing much to write about, you can make even the most mundane sound brilliantly exciting, as in 'The Badder & the Better'. I liked Anne Kennedy's poem: 'I was a feminist in the eighties', ending: “Then a lion came prowling out of the jungle / and ate the feminist all up”. David Howard writes competently and his work sounds good read out, quite entertaining in fact. James Brown is good…. entertaining stuff, especially 'Loneliness', about Elvis Presley. Unpretentious, funny, great. A full book of very competent practitioners of the poetic arts, and nice to listen to, too.



10. Sam Finnemore, "Books: New New Zealand Poets in Performance." Craccum 16 (2008):
    

    
    As with the last two instalments, Jack Ross and Jan Kemp have chosen smartly from the 2004 Aotearoa New Zealand Poetry Archive, and there's so much to enjoy here: highlights include Robert Sullivan's remarkable 'Star Waka' poems; Anna Jackson's breathy delivery of razor sharp verse; John Pule, Tusiata Avia and James Brown. It's a useful chance to reassess certain poets too; Glenn Colquhoun, who I'd never particularly rated on the page since Playing God, comes across notably well both in the book and on CD.
    
    Both the book and the recordings come across as distinctly fresh and modern, and the editors have clearly achieved their goal; of creating a clear identity for each volume of the Poets in Performance trilogy. The combination of book and CD is effective as ever; iPod users can sift the audio around usefully while keeping the original discs safely nested inside the book itself, for this is going to be a book worth taking care of. New New Zealand Poets in Performance makes a solid end to Ross and Kemp's series, a smart package well-chosen from a huge range of material and likely to have enduring value as a poetic snapshot of the now. Highly recommended.



11. Richard Reeve, "Review of Jack Ross and Jan Kemp (eds), Classic, Contemporary and New New Zealand Poets in Performance (Auckland: Auckland University Press, 2006-8)." Poetry NZ 38 (2009): 101-6.
    

    
    Ross and Kemp’s editorial selection is eclectic, pragmatic and personal, with gems in all three books. ...
    
    As a unit, New Zealand Poets in Peformance does give a sense of the voice enshrined of different epochs and cultures and, importantly, the volumes illustrate continuity (as distinct from ‘progress’, which in poetry is no longer a permissible concept) in the passage from Brasch and Curnow to Olivia Macassey and Mark Pirie, with the artform surviving all critical prescriptions from all times, cheating attempts to pin it down. Hearing poets reading their work often changes one’s impression of the text. In several cases, what at first glance seem to be bad poems on the page are transformed by a poet’s voice into powerful, acutely realised poetic moments, while other poems that impress at first reading come across as flat and uninspired when delivered by the author. This exemplifies the enigma of what constitutes ‘voice’ in poetry: some well-loved, celebrated poets are dry performers of their work, yet few would say they don’t have a voice. To the editors’ lasting credit, their compilation presents many such faces of poetry, with surprises that warrant returning to again and again to savour. That, in the end, is the most anyone can ask for.



12. Helen Dennis, "Review of Chris Orsman, The Lakes of Mars (AUP, 2008); Sam Sampson, everything talks (AUP, 2008); Bob Orr, Calypso (AUP, 2008); Sonja Yelich Get Some (AUP, 2008); New New Zealand Poets in Performance, ed. Jack Ross & Jan Kemp (AUP, 2008); Richard Reeve, In Continents (AUP, 2008); Leonard Lambert, Skywire (Steele Roberts, 2008)." The Warwick Review (March 2009): 61-72 [66-67]:
    

    
    [Jack Ross & Jan Kemp (eds), New New Zealand Poets in Performance (Auckland University Press, 2008), ISBN 978-1-86940-409-3, 146 pp, NZ$44.95 (pb)]
    
    ... Both [Sonja] Yelich and Richard Reeve are featured in the compendious collection of New New Zealand Poets in Performance. The debate continues in poetry circles as to the necessity and point of poets performing their own work, with some declaring that if the poem works properly on the page, i.e. if the poet's craft is up to the job, then performance is totally unnecessary. On the other hand, others believe that the poetic text is somewhat like a musical score waiting to be interpreted and performed by the poet, who is thus both "composer" and "instrumentalist". I tend towards the latter view, depending on the type of poetry. Certainly New New Zealand Poets in Performance is a delightful introduction to a wide diversity of new New Zealand poetic voices, and given the differences between received English pronunciation in the UK and kiwi English, it is extremely useful to have the poets' own voices interpreting their works on two CDs here. Twenty-eight young and mid-career poets are represented, so it is impossible to give many name checks; but listen to the cumulative humour of the first poem, "I was a Feminist in the eighties" by Anne Kennedy, and I swear you'll be hooked!



13. Allan Phillipson, "Review of Jack Ross and Jan Kemp (eds), New New Zealand Poets in Performance, (Auckland: Auckland University Press, 2008), pp. 162 (plus two CDs), ISBN-13: 978-1-86940-409-3.” CNZS Bulletin of New Zealand Studies 2 (2009):
    

    
    I can remember seeing John Newton’s “Ferret Trap” (p. 13) for the first time in 1988, in Mark Williams’ Caxton Press Anthology: New Zealand Poetry 1972-1986. The poem gave me a sense of recognition and unease, the rural environment captured (“the chooks in the macrocarpas”) and twisted (“sheep’s heart jammed on a nail”). Twenty years later, hearing Newton’s South Island Gothic as I drive through the Devon countryside, I almost missed my turnoff as the sound took me back to my grandfather’s woolshed: the rusty rabbit traps, the nooses of bailing twine, the greasy creak of the gates. In his preface, Ross advises us to take these poems and “listen to them in the car” (p. xii), but I say no – the process is too distracting, too dangerous.
    
    This series has done an immense amount of good in preserving and disseminating the voices of our writers. The value of hearing poets read cannot be underestimated. From the clipped, almost British tones of Allen Curnow in volume one, to the ‘Mad Kiwi Ranter’ persona of David Eggleton in volume two, each of the recordings reflect and illuminate an aspect of our history. Ross stated that poets to come would have their own “virtual reality webcasts” (p. ix), and implied that this series would come to an end with volume three. I fervently hope that this is not the case, and that both the Poetry Sound Archive and its publications will continue.



14. Green, Paula, & Harry Ricketts. 99 Ways into NZ Poetry. A Vintage Book (Auckland: Random House New Zealand, 2010):
    

    
    As a follow-up to the impressive efforts of Jan Kemp, Jonathan Lamb and Alan Smythe to record as many major New Zealand poets as possible (1974), Kemp and Smythe decided to establish a more expansive archive of spoken poetry (2002). The final result, the Aotearoa New Zealand Poetry Sound Archive, is in the Special Collections at the University of Auckland and includes 171 poets. This comprehensive project allowed poets twenty minutes each and CD space for complementary material such as bibliographies and images. With a copy of the archive now deposited at the Alexander Turnbull Library, the significance of listening to poetry is made more tangible with access to the reading or performance of a considerable number of New Zealand poets now available. One offshoot of the archival project is a series of anthologies published by Auckland University Press that allow a poetry audience to both read and hear poems by key New Zealand poets. Edited by Kemp and Jack Ross, the anthologies are grouped in chronological clusters: Classic New Zealand Poets in Performance, Contemporary New Zealand Poets in Performance and New New Zealand Poets in Performance. One can hear the shift in the reading styles over generations, from the earlier tones of poets such as A R D Fairburn, R A K Mason, Charles Brasch and Allen Curnow (lofty, polite and rhapsodic) to the more conversational qualities (mellifluous, lyrical or downbeat) of contemporary poets as diverse as David Howard, Andrew Johnston, Mark Pirie, Sonja Yelich and Kate Camp. [Paula Green, 'Performing the Poem', pp.267-68].



15. Harvey Molloy, "Review of New New Zealand Poets in Performance Eds Jack Ross & Jan Kemp (Auckland University Press, 2008). RRP $45.00 ISBN 978 1 86940 409 3.” New Zealand Poetry Society Te Hunga Tito Ruri o Aotearoa (n.d.):
    

    
    I've greatly enjoyed the previous two books in this series, Classic New Zealand Poets in Performance and Contemporary New Zealand Poets in Performance. Each book in the series features two CDs of the poets reading their works. This means that you can, as I did, listen to the poems whilst you're driving around and then check out the printed poems in the book. Each book is attractively designed with an excellent cover - the cover of wild, fractal paisley designs from Sarah Hughes' Never Let Me Go shows the very good visual taste of the editors which has run through the series.
    
    I don't particular suffer from selection anxiety, so I'm looking for a good anthology with some enjoyable poems, rather than a clever introduction, and this selection from poets such as Jack Ross, James Brown, Kapka Kassabova, Mark Pirie, Olivia Macassey and Richard Reeve, delivers. The "New New Zealand poets" are the new already greying kids on the block and includes anyone who is 'young or mid-career' and born after 1959.
    
    I had a lot of fun listening blind to the CDs. I played them three times on the car stereo before I read the book. The poems seem to flow into one another, as if they were one great long poem spoken by different voices ...

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Home & Away (2008)

Cover photograph & design: Kathryn Lee

Home & Away: Life Writing 3. Edited by Kathryn Lee & Jack Ross. ISBN 978-0-473-13539-3. Massey University: School of Social and Cultural Studies, 2008. ii + 156 pp.

Contents:

Kathryn Lee
Preface: Writer's Block

Jack Ross
Xmas

Hayley Baines
Changes
Rules and Taboos
Seven

Bianca Burger
Home

Rebekah Chambers
Nobody Knows
Nothing but Silence
Never Again
Like You
You Were There
Melting
Tiny Black Curls
Your Face
Remember?

Bruce Craig
“Beautiful Little Dolls,” the Policeman said …

Jane Gardiner
Gardening with Granny
24 June 1977

Rhiannon Horrell
Travelling in the Footsteps of Janet White …

Emma Jeffrey
A Bus Full of Pirates

Rachel Koch
Getting Lost in Costa Rica

Kathryn Lee
Culture Shock 101: Day One in Hsin Chu

Dana Maton
Goodbye
The McGintys
Relations

Tania Menzies
Trouble in Tirau

Lisa Simpson
My German Grandfather
Goodbye

Sophie Smith
Rules and Taboos

Gregory Wood
Into the Mist: Searching for the Lost Huia

Available:

Leanne Menzies
School Adminstrator
School of Social and Cultural Studies
Massey University
Private Bay 102 904
North Shore Mail Centre
Auckland

RRP: $NZ 10 (+ $2 postage & packing)

Reviews & Comments:

1. Jennifer Little. "New books reveal bold approach to writing life.” Massey News. [6/6/08]
   

   
   Contributor and co-editor Kathryn Lee says the publication is a testament to the courage of students who overcame fear and the inclination to procrastinate when faced with the blank page.
   
   “The lesson that I learned from this class [life writing] was a very simple one but one that needed to be learned. Stop worrying and start writing,” Ms Lee says in her preface.
   
   Home and Away co-editor, writer and English lecturer Dr Jack Ross says the diverse backgrounds of the contributors produced a huge variety of “amazing” stories.
   
   “Showcasing and polishing these pieces for others to read and learn from has been a great pleasure for me.”

•

Orange Roughy (2008)

Cover image: Graham Fletcher

Orange Roughy: Poems & Stories for Tazey. ISBN 978-0-473-13179-1. Edited by Bronwyn Lloyd & Jack Ross. Auckland: Pania Press, 2008. [ii] + 74 pp.

Contents:

Thérèse Lloyd / Orange Roughy

Martin Edmond / The View from Number Four

Bernadette Hall / Four Poems:

Jacaranda
A Very Short Story About Flying
In Vitro
St Declan’s Stone

Michele Leggott / Three Poems:

haukapua
te rau aroha
tapu te ranga

Bronwyn Lloyd / Two Stories:

Some Traditions
It goes like this Gordon

Thérèse Lloyd / Four Poems:

Takaka
Makara
The Eternals
We’re All Here Alive

Bill Manhire / The Secret Wife

Emma Neale / Confessional Poem

Susannah Poole / The Movie House

Tessa Rain / Three Songs:

Dargaville Museum
Dirt Poems
Town for You

Richard Reeve / Four Poems:

Sally’s Dream
The Baptism of Guthrum
Doubtful
Ode to Joy

Jack Ross / Out Being Alienated

Tracey Slaughter / How To Leave Your Family

Michael Steven / Three Poems:

Sainthood
Clerk
Event(s)

Damien Wilkins / Vancouver

Michele Leggott / from hello and goodbye

Graham Fletcher / 9 Pageworks

Samples:

Pania Press

The Imaginary Museum

Blurb:

“Better than a sausage sizzle in front of the Warehouse”
– Damien Wilkins

It’s not always that easy for a young writer to make ends meet, especially when she’s far away from home. When we heard that our beloved Thérèse (Tazey to her friends), in Iowa on the 2007-8 Glenn Schaeffer Fellowship, was having difficulty paying the bills, we weren’t (unfortunately) able just to write her out a cheque.

Instead we came up with this idea. Why not mobilise all of Tazey’s friends and writing mentors throughout both islands, and ask them to contribute to this little festschrift / anthology?

The response has been fantastic! The book we’ve put together includes unpublished or uncollected work from many of New Zealand’s foremost writers, as well as a stunning set of pageworks by artist Graham Fletcher.

Thanks, then, to all of the contributors, and to everyone who buys the book.. Since all of us have donated our time and work for free, you can feel confident that every penny of the money will be going to a very worthy cause.

– Jack Ross & Bronwyn Lloyd.

Reviews & Comments:

1. Raewyn Alexander. Magazine (2008):
   

   
   The book, Orange Roughy, named after one of Lloyd's poems, is beautifully produced as a limited edition with a hand-painted cover. The stories and poems would intrigue many people. My editor bought three copies, with two for presents later on in the year. They're already in their own decorated envelope and well worth the $25-.

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Contemporary NZ Poets in Performance (2007)

Cover image: Richard Killeen / Cover design: Christine Hansen /
Text design: Katrina Duncan

Contemporary New Zealand Poets in Performance. Edited by Jack Ross and Jan Kemp. ISBN 978 1 86940 395 9. Auckland: Auckland University Press, 2007. xiv + 162 pp.

Contents:

Preface: Voiceprints

Acknowledgements

Peter Olds (b. 1944)
Waking up in Phillip Street
Doctors Rock
Elephant
Biography / Selected Bibliography

Bernadette Hall (b. 1945)
Party Tricks
The Lay Sister
Famine
Amica
Biography / Selected Bibliography

Stephanie de Montalk (b. 1945)
Tree Marriage
Northern Spring
Biography / Selected Bibliography

Alan Brunton (1946-2002)
The Man on Crazies Hill
from Waves
Biography / Selected Bibliography

Sam Hunt (b. 1946)
My Father Scything
Rainbows and a Promise of Snow
Hey, Minstrel
Plateau Songs
Bottle to Battle to Death
Biography / Selected Bibliography

Bill Manhire (b. 1946)
The Old Man’s Example
Domestic
On Originality
Visiting Mr Shackleton
Miscarriage
Valedictory
A Song about the Moon
Biography / Selected Bibliography

James Norcliffe (b. 1946)
at Franz Josef
planchette
the visit of the dalai lama
Biography / Selected Bibliography

Ian Wedde (b. 1946)
Earthly: Sonnets for Carlos 31
Earthly: Sonnets for Carlos 32
Earthly: Sonnets for Carlos 35
Barbary Coast
Biography / Selected Bibliography

Fiona Farrell (b. 1947)
Anne Brown’s Song
Instructions for the Consumption of Your Humanitarian Food Package
Biography / Selected Bibliography

Keri Hulme (b. 1947)
from Fisher in an Autumn Tide
Biography / Selected Bibliography

Murray Edmond (b. 1949)
Voyager
Biography / Selected Bibliography

Jan Kemp (b. 1949)
Against the Softness of Woman
Jousting
The Sky’s Enormous Jug
Sailing Boats
‘Love is a babe …’
Biography / Selected Bibliography

Cilla McQueen (b. 1949)
Living Here
Fuse
Biography / Selected Bibliography

Bob Orr (b. 1949)
The X
A Country Shaped like a Butterfly’s Wing
Ballad of the Great South Rd
Eternity
Biography / Selected Bibliography

Geoff Cochrane (b. 1951)
Spindrift Sunday
1988
Zigzags
Atlantis
Biography / Selected Bibliography

Bill Sewell (1951-2003)
Jahrhundertwende
Riversdale
Breaking the Quiet
Censorship
Biography / Selected Bibliography

David Eggleton (b. 1952)
Poem for the Unknown Tourist
Teen Angel
Biography / Selected Bibliography

Graham Lindsay (b. 1952)
Playground
Cloud silence
Life in the Queen’s English
Chink
Biography / Selected Bibliography

Iain Sharp (b. 1953)
Amnesty Day
Two Minute Poem
Biography / Selected Bibliography

Janet Charman (b. 1954)
'they say that in paradise'
ready steady
from wake up to yourself
but she wanted one
cuckoo in the nest
injection
Biography / Selected Bibliography

Paula Green (b. 1955)
greek salad
oven-baked salmon
afternoon tea with Virginia Woolf
two minutes westward
Biography / Selected Bibliography

Vivienne Plumb (b. 1955)
A Letter from My Daughter
The Vegan Bar and Gaming Lounge
The Tank
Biography / Selected Bibliography

Apirana Taylor (b. 1955)
Sad Joke on a Marae
Parihaka
Hinemoa’s daughter
six million
Biography / Selected Bibliography

Anne French (b. 1956)
The New Museology
Trout
Acute
Uncle Ron’s Last Surprise
Biography / Selected Bibliography

Michele Leggott (b. 1956)
cairo vessel
Biography / Selected Bibliography

Richard von Sturmer (b. 1957)
Dreams
Biography / Selected Bibliography

Roma Potiki (b. 1958)
Exploding Light
For Paiki
Riven
Biography / Selected Bibliography

Track List

Variant Readings

Bibliography

Back cover

Samples:

Aotearoa NZ Poetry Sound Archive

Auckland University Press

The Imaginary Museum

Front flap: Blurb

CONTEMPORARY NEW ZEALAND POETS IN PERFORMANCE collects the work of 27 poets who came of age during the 1960s and 1970s, stamping their mark irrevocably on the New Zealand poetic scene and introducing new forms, new language and new freedoms. We hear the instantly recognisable, laconic but swaggering voice of Sam Hunt as he performs one of his 'road songs'; the understated reading of Bill Manhire; the plain-spoken storytelling of Keri Hulme; and the quiet humour of Cilla McQueen - lively, entertaining and moving work from some of New Zealand's best-loved poets.

Contemporary New Zealand Poets in Performance is a follow-up and companion to the bestselling Classic New Zealand Poets in Performance. Once again, editors Jack Ross and Jan Kemp have selected and presented on two CDs material from the Waiata Recordings Archive, collected in 1974, and the Aotearoa New Zealand Poetry Sound Archive, completed in 2004. There are more than two hours of poets reading their own work and the accompanying book prints the texts of the poems as they have been read. Selected bibliographies and short biographies for each poet are also included, as well as an appendix of variant readings. As Kemp and Ross write in their introduction, 'these recordings serve to remind us that we are not always a silent people'. The poets' voices are a treasure.

Available:

Auckland University Press
The University Of Auckland
1-11 Short St.
Private Bag 92019
Auckland
New Zealand
aup@auckland.ac.nz

RRP: $NZ 45.00

Back flap: Author information

JACK ROSS is a writer and editor, based on Auckland's North Shore. He has published three books of poems: City of Strange Brunettes (1998), Chantal's Book (2002) and To Terezín (2007); two novels: Nights with Giordano Bruno (2000) and The Imaginary Museum of Atlantis (2006): and two books of short stories. His other books include the anthology Golden Weather: North Shore Writers Past and Present (2004), edited with Graeme Lay, and Myth of the 21st Century: An Anthology of New Fiction (2006), edited with Tina Shaw.

JAN KEMP is co-collector/editor of the Waiata Archive and three-record set NZ Poets Read Their Work (1974) and founding director of the Aotearoa New Zealand Poetry Sound Archive (2004). She returned home in 1999 after 25 years overseas and lives with her husband in Torbay. Auckland. She was awarded an MNZM in 2005 and her sixth book of poems, Dante's Heaven, was published in 2006. She spent September 2006 as a Writer in Residence at Le Chateau de Lavigny, Switzerland, where she began work on a new collection of poems, Voiceprints.

PETER OLDS
BERNADETTE HALL
STEPHANIE DE MONTALK
ALAN BRUNTON
SAM HUNT
BILL MANHIRE
JAMES NORCLlFFE
IAN WEDDE
FIONA FARRELL
KERI HULME
MURRAY EDMOND
JAN KEMP
CILLA MCQUEEN
BOB ORR
GEOFF COCHRANE
BILL SEWELL
DAVID EGGLETON
GRAHAM LINDSAY
IAIN SHARP
JANET CHARMAN
PAULA GREEN
VIVIENNE PLUMB
APIRANA TAYLOR
ANNE FRENCH
MICHELE LEGGOTT
RICHARD VON STURMER
ROMA POTIKI

Reviews & Comments:

1. Auckland University Press.
   

   
   After the stunning success of Classic New Zealand Poets in Performance AUP and editors Jack Ross and Jan Kemp now present readings on two CDs from a later generation of 27 poets born from 1944 to 1958. These are the great poets of the 1960s and 1970s, such as Ian Wedde, Bill Manhire, Sam Hunt, Jan Kemp, Alan Brunton, as well as some whose names were made more recently such as Bernadette Hall, Stephanie de Montalk, Anne French and Keri Hulme.



2. Independent Publishers Group.
   

   
   Chosen for their commitment to voice and performance, the poets include Ian Wedde, Bill Manhire, Sam Hunt, Jan Kemp, Alan Brunton, and Bernadette Hall, among others.
   
   Jack Ross is a poet, editor, and comparative literature scholar whose articles, reviews and interviews have been widely published. He is the author of eight books. He lives in New Zealand.



3. Unireps.
   

   
   This paperback and 2 CDs collects the work of 27 poets who came of age during the 1960s and 1970s, stamping their mark irrevocably on the New Zealand poetic scene and introducing new forms, new language and new freedoms. We hear the instantly recognisable, laconic but swaggering voice of Sam Hunt as he performs one of his ‘road songs’; the understated reading of Bill Manhire; the plainspoken storytelling of Keri Hulme; and the quiet humour of Cilla McQueen – lively, entertaining and moving work from some of New Zealand’s best-loved poets.



4. Arts Centre Bookshop
   

   
   As Kemp and Ross write in their introduction, 'these recordings serve to remind us that we are not always a silent people'. Their diverse voices are a treasure.



5. Phillip Matthews. "Poets corner the Market." NZ Listener vol. 210, no. 357 (July 28-August 3, 2007).
   

   
   Not many of these local bards deliver like grand orators – Sam Hunt’s an obvious exception – but there’s a real poignancy in hearing the voices of Bob Orr and Ian Wedde as recorded in 1974 and then again 30 years later, especially as youthful lines like “the world’s greedy anarchy, I love it” (Wedde) and “I’m leaving soon with my barefooted heart” (Orr) seem to contain all of the innocent hedonism of the 70s.



6. Jennifer Little. "Editor gets sound and fury of baby boomer poets." Massey News 10 (10 August 2007).
   

   
   Raunchy, provocative poetry forged amid the sex, drugs and rock n’ roll era will be read and heard in a new collection co-edited by English lecturer and author Dr Jack Ross and poet Jan Kemp.
   
   They anticipate readers will be jolted as well as entertained by verbal antics and stirring images from page one. Take the opening lines of the book’s first poem by Peter Olds called Waking Up in Phillip Street as he sets the scene: “This two-layered cake full of puking TV sets/ knife cuts & blood on the furniture” ...



7. Graham Brazier. "Ferries at the bottom of my garden." Weekend Herald: Canvas (11 August 2007) 29.
   

   
   Contemporary New Zealand Poets in Performance is a masterpiece.



8. Unity Books Newsletter 30 (Winter, 2007).
   

   
   To hear the poet read his or her poem aloud is to hear the poem with new ears, with a conviction, knowledge of precision and purpose in the words chosen and the subject matter explored ... A wonderful complement to the previous collection of classical material.



9. Sam Finnemore. Craccum 15 (August, 2007) 35.
   

   
   This volume mightn’t be as safely ‘classic’ as last year’s collection, but of course that’s the point; this particular revolution isn’t over yet by a long shot ... If anything, it’s even better than its companion volume from 2006: just as comprehensive and much more cohesive, it’s a joy to read and hear.



10. Peter Dornauf. "Poetic Set misses some of the best." Waikato Times (11 August, 2007).
    

    
    The voices range from the buttoned-down flat to the completely over-the-top melodramatic. Some strain for significance while others plump for an understated timbre. The best strike an easy, natural, rhythmical voice, full of modulation, intonation and variation in speed.



11. Margaret Christensen. Wairarapa Times-Age (22 August, 2007).
    

    
    ... the recordings (done under two separate archival schemes) are clean of surface, the poets well paced, expressive, yet individualistic. This collection is distinguished in its own right as an artefact because of its cover by Richard Killeen, its fine layout and design.
    
    Contemporary New Zealand Poets in Performance reaches a milestone.



12. Sarah Johnson. NZ Writers E-zine (September, 2007).
    

    
    Everyone’s guest list will be different, but if you love poetry you can be sure you are going to love this luxurious collection. Because this is what Contemporary New Zealand Poets in Performance felt like, a feast, with its only downfall being that at the end of it, you are still hungry for more. It made me feel afresh the shame that, outside of the country’s main centres, readings by any poet, let alone poets of the calibre featured here, are rare.
    
    For if poetry is meant to be spoken, then It is equally meant to be heard, and the true value of this book may lie in its ability to bring the voices of our poets to so many more people. There is also the consolation that it is preceded by an earlier collection – Classic New Zealand Poets in Performance – and that a sequel (I assume of modern poets) is planned.



13. Matt Bowler. "Poetry collection a Kiwi must-have." The Nelson Mail (19 September, 2007) 41.
    

    
    The two CDs that accompany the book have the poets reading their poems. Their inclusion lifts the book from an excellent collection to a national treasure. The added richness and insight of hearing the poets’ own interpretation of their works is incalculable.



14. Harry Ricketts. "Sounds like us." New Zealand Books(Summer 2007) 12.
    

    
    Contemporary New Zealand Poets in a similar format [to Classic Poets] also contains 27 contributors. Again, the selection of poets is reasonably uncontentious though the choice of some of the individual poems seems a bit perverse. This is, after all, a record for posterity as much as anything else. ...
    
    With the huge increase in poetry readings over the last 30 years, some voices are extremely familiar. Everyone can do a Sam Hunt impersonation, that high, blokey, love-scarred, half-chant. And Bill Manhire’s signature twist of the voice, once heard, is unmistakably audible throughout his work. But that will not always be the case. Future listeners will be grateful to hear how these poets sounded. For them it will fractionally help to close the gap between themselves and the foreign country of our own time, just as the comparable gap between us and the late 19th century is momentarily bridged by the faint, crackly 1890 recording of Tennyson reading “The Charge of the Light Brigade” in his just discernible Lincolnshire accent.



15. Terry Locke. JNZL 25 (2007): 174-77.
    

    
    This book and its two CDs, and with Richard Killeen’s striking cover, bespeaks a number of narratives including Kemp’s. Implicated in it are poetic lives, with their victories and defeats; the ebbs and flows of cultural history, with its gaps and continuities; and above all, the survival and burgeoning of poetry as an art and craft in Aotearoa/New Zealand.



16. Allan Phillipson. CNZS Bulletin of New Zealand Studies 1 (2008): 298-302.
    

    
    How I wish these CDs had existed four years ago, when I was teaching Apirana Taylor's "Sad Joke on a Marae" to a group of adult students in Devon. The class had been full of questions, many of which would have been answered simply by hearing the poet's voice. Taylor's tone, his pronunciation, the sad, slow, angry delivery of his words convey so much more than any explanation. To hear him cry "Tihei Mauriora" four times to the ghosts on a marae, each time with increasing anguish, would have been enough. As a teaching aid, this anthology is invaluable; an aspect underscored by Ross's own website, which supplies a list of approaches to using the book in classroom situations.

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