• Home
  • About
  • Landfall
  • Subscribe
  • Essay competition
  • Kathleen Grattan Award

Landfall

Landfall Review Online: Aotearoa New Zealand books in review

Across the Great Divide

December 1, 2022 Leave a Comment

Vaughan Rapatahana

On Elephant’s Shoulders by Sudha Rao (The Cuba Press, 2022), 82pp, $25; Expectation by Tom Weston (Steele Roberts, 2022), 64pp, $25; Echidna by essa may ranapiri (Te Herenga Waka University Press, 2022), 96pp, $25

When I first read the poetry across these three new collections, published by three separate presses, I failed to see a unifying theme. After all, one was penned by a new Kiwi who came to Aotearoa from India and now resides in Te Whanganui-a-Tara. One was created by a prolific takatāpui Māori poet based in Kirikiriroa. One was crafted by a poet I had not encountered previously, who is a lawyer from Tāmaki Makaurau. [Read more…]

Filed Under: poetry, queer writing

The Frankness of Strangers

August 1, 2022 Leave a Comment

This review was first published in the print edition of Landfall 243

Kerry Lane

Out Here: An anthology of takatāpui and LGBTQIA+ writers from Aotearoa, edited by Chris Tse and Emma Barnes (Auckland University Press, 2021), 368pp, $49.99

It was when the beach boy told him quickly, confessionally, with the complete frankness of strangers who meet accidentally and know they are unlikely to see each other again, his life story.
—Peter Wells, from ‘Sweet Nothing’

Out Here is an imposing book, a large, heavy hardback with a bright cover, white and rainbow. You couldn’t slip it into a pocket or read it discreetly on the bus. It’s bold. It’s out and proud.  [Read more…]

Filed Under: anthology, gender identity, queer writing

Recent reviews

  • Challenging Racism, Imperialism, Exploitation
    Philip Temple on Comrade: Bill Andersen: A communist, working-class life by Cybèle Locke
  • Southern Gentry
    David Herkt on The Last Letter of Godfrey Cheathem by Luke Elworthy
  • Where Is She From? Who Are Her People? Where Are They From?
    Elizabeth Heritage on A Runner’s Guide to Rakiura: A novelby Jessica Howland Kany
  • In Yellow Shoes Walking through a Field of Daffodils
    Kay McKenzie Cooke on The Wandering Nature of Us Girls by Frankie McMillan
  • The Person is Fashioned and the Poem is Shaped until Poem and Person are One
    Piet Nieuwland on Albatross Neck: Landings by the Ancient Mariner and Romanticism in Aotearoa New Zealand 1770–2022 by Nigel Brown and Denys Trussell; The Wanderer: Book Two by Ron Riddell; Songs to the Unsung by Kayleen M. Hazlehurst 

Subscribe to Landfall Review Online via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to Landfall Review Online and receive notifications of new reviews by email.

Review archive

Reviews by genre

© 2018 Otago University Press. All Rights Reserved. Website by Arts Net

 

Loading Comments...