TWO INTRIGUING BOOKS ABOUT NZ AUTHORS
FROM SMALL INDEPENDENT PUBLISHERS

WAY BACK THEN, BEFORE WE WERE TEN
New Zealand Writers & Childhood
Compiled and edited by Graeme Lay
David Ling - $34.99

In this anthology twenty-six distinguished New Zealand writers evoke memories of their early years, in fiction and memoir. Their stories and memoirs resonate with love and betrayal, friendship and disloyalty, elation and anxiety. The writing features parents and teachers, peers, siblings and other relatives, the loveable and the unloveable. There are wondrous discoveries of the natural and cultural world and glimpses into the enigmatic realm that is adulthood. From the Victorian era of Katherine Mansfield's upbringing to that of today's multicultural society, the contributions reflect many of the personal and social changes that our society has undergone over the last one hundred years. The collection is packed with emotion as the writers conjure up that never-to-be-forgotten time, 'Way Back Then, Before We Were Ten'.
Every contribution has biographical information on the author and a photo of them before they were ten. Love the cover pic of Witi Ihimaera and his sister Kararaina.

Prominent New Zealand short story writer, novelist and travel writer Graeme Lay is also one of this country's most experienced anthologists with a string of appealing titles to his credit. In this his latest compilation he has selected and assembled a stellar literary cast from our past and present, whose writing provides unique insights into the timeless world of childhood.

PLUME OF BEES
A literary biography of C.K.Stead
Cape Catley - $39.99

C.K.Stead is one of NZ’s most honoured writers and Dr.Judith Dell Panny has become something of a literary detective in her extensive research into the origins of the Stead opus. In this book she gives us a balanced view of the sometimes controversial Stead who is undoubtedly one of our great men of letters. He is also one of only two New Zealanders to become a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
His most recent book, C.K.Stead Collected Poems 1951-2006 (AUP) won the Reference & Anthology section of the 2009 Montana NZ Book Awards.

Panny is a respected academic who has taught New Zealand literature in both New Zealand and German universities. Her book is likely to lead to new appreciation of Stead’s poetry, fiction and criticism.

A review of Plume of Bees by Terry Locke appears on the Hyperpoetics website.