Histories of the Future (2015)

Jack Ross, ed.: Poetry NZ Yearbook 2 [Issue #50] (November 2015)

Books and Magazines in brief:

Martin Edmond & Maggie Hall. Histories of the Future. ISBN 978-1-877010-67-5. North Hobart, Tasmania: Walleah Press, 2015. RRP $AUS 20. iv + 100 pp.

Histories of the Future (2015)

I guess the fact that there’s a blurb quote from me on the back cover gives a clue that I’ve already had a certain amount to say about this book. There are some wonderful essays / prose poems in here. The opening piece, “Second Hand Life” with its evocation that older Auckland Martin Edmond calls “Rain City” will stay in my mind forever, I think: especially the parenthetical account of Charles Frances, long-forgotten 1960s New Zealand novelist, author of Johnny Rapana, Ask the River and other books – who but Martin would know about him, or his apparent foreseeing of the Crewe murders? “What Instruments We Have Agree,” about the death of his mother Lauris Edmond (never named, but clearly evoked), is almost unbearably moving. And Maggie Hall’s photographs are far more than illustrations: they have their own narratives and intertwinings, the purity of image surviving even grainy newsprint reproduction: benefitting from it, in fact, perhaps.

(26-30/10/15)

Poetry New Zealand Yearbook 2 [Issue #50]. ISSN 0114-5770 (2014): 271.

[179 wds]


Poetry NZ Yearbook 2 (2015)


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JAAM 32: Shorelines (2015)

Jack Ross, ed.: Poetry NZ Yearbook 2 [Issue #50] (November 2015)

Books and Magazines in brief:

JAAM 32: Shorelines. Ed. Sue Wootton. ISSN 1173-633X. Wellington: JAAM Collective, 2014. RRP $25. 222 pp.

Sue Wootton, ed.: JAAM 32: Shorelines (2014)

So JAAM has now reached number 32, after only twenty or so years of rambunctious life! Dunedin poet Sue Wootton’s issue is large and imposing, She’s chosen to focus it on the theme of “shorelines” :

I chose the theme of “Shorelines” partly because I see our islands’ physical shorelines as the great connector for us as a people … I decided to arrange this issue around the idea of kōrerorero, as expressed in Teoti Jardine’s opening poem, a kind of “never-ending ebb and flow” conversation, taking place from one of the country to the other.

She goes on to comment that “Opening JAAM is always like lifting the lid on a jack-in-the-box: something energetic jumps out.” I have to second that, having opened at random to find Tracey Slaughter’s excoriating, kaleidoscopic story “local sluts in your area,” and then again and again to other gems.

(26-30/10/15)

Poetry New Zealand Yearbook 2 [Issue #50]. ISSN 0114-5770 (2014): 271.

[162 wds]


Poetry NZ Yearbook 2 (2015)


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A Little Book of Sonnets (2015)

Jack Ross, ed.: Poetry NZ Yearbook 2 [Issue #50] (November 2015)

Books and Magazines in brief:

Julie Leibrich. A Little Book of Sonnets. ISBN 978-1-927242-29-2. Wellington: Steele Roberts Aotearoa, 2013. RRP $19.99. 64 pp.

Julie Leibrich: A Little Book of Sonnets (2013)

This is a beautifully bound and presented little hardback volume of verse. There are twelve poems here, flanked by as many colour photographs. I have to admit to certain reservations about the idea of committing oneself to quite so many strictly rhymed Shakespearean sonnets at a time, though. There’s a certain element of technical tour-de-force when they do come off, and a certain disappointment when they don’t. I like the little prose vignettes, and – very much – the images. I don’t think the rhymes always set off Julie Leibrich’s talents to their best advantage, though: perhaps her guest feature in Poetry NZ 17 (1997) is more representative, not to mention her two powerful collections from Steele Roberts: The Paper Road (1998) and Land Below the Waves (2004).

(26-30/10/15)

Poetry New Zealand Yearbook 2 [Issue #50]. ISSN 0114-5770 (2014): 272.

[144 wds]


Poetry NZ Yearbook 2 (2015)


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