The audacious new poetry series HOOPLA, which launches three poets every
April, is three years old this year. And with two Christchurch poets in the
2016 line-up it is launching in the freshly opened Scorpio bookstore in
Hereford Street.
The series with its bright
Faber-like covers has been a hit on the local poetry scene where most poets
make their way individually. HOOPLA launches a late-career, mid-career
and debut poet at the same time, and is an imprint of Wellington’s Mākaro
Press.
‘The idea,’ says publisher Mary
McCallum of Mākaro Press, ‘ is that the poets and their books support each
other out in the world: generating a combined energy at events, standing with
each other at readings, providing a focus at bookstores. It’s a tough world out
there for poetry, and so far we’ve loved the way the HOOPLA poets have worked
together in their groups of three, and together as a wider whānau.’
The HOOPLA poets of 2014 and 2015
appeared together at Litcrawl in Wellington last year, in an event which saw
them reading as a tag team on the theme of ‘love’. And the 2015 trio undertook
a Melbourne road trip. There have been award nods too with Jennifer
Compton’s Mr Clean and The Junkie long-listed for the Ockham
prize this year, and Hoopla work selected for Best NZ Poems.
Much-loved Canterbury poet Elaine
Jakobsson ( 87) is the late career poet for Hoopla 2016 with her book Withstanding.
The theme of the collection is ‘age’. Wellingtonian teacher and activist Harvey
Molloy is the mid-career poet with Udon by The Remarkables, theme:
‘worlds’, and the debut poet is Christchurch poet Ish Doney with Where
the Fish Grow, theme: ‘leaving’. Ish returns from Scotland for the launch.
Previous HOOPLA poets are:
(2014) Michael Harlow, Helen Rickerby and Stefanie Lash; (2015) Jennifer
Compton, Bryan Walpert and Carolyn McCurdie. The 2016 launch is on Saturday, 16
April, 3.30 pm at Scorpio’s Hereford Street store in the BNZ centre, launcher
James Norcliffe, with a Wellington launch the next day 17 April at the Fringe
bar, Allen St, 4-6pm. The Hoopla series is designed by William
Carden-Horton and available through all good bookstores for $25 each.
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