New and exciting voice in New Zealand reviewing

There’s a new and exciting voice in New Zealand reviewing – the Spinoff Review of Books, an online literary journal edited by author, journalist and former books editor Steve Braunias. (left).

The site debuted about four weeks ago and features reviews, interviews, essays, excerpts and new verse.

Steve explains, “I was thinking that books pages had gone a bit thin and wondered if I could do something that might improve matters. The wisest course of action was to do something online, so I approached Duncan Greive, the editor of The Spinoff, to see whether he would be interested in hosting a books section.

“It just so happened that Duncan was plotting to relaunch the site. He created it to publish writing about television, via sponsorship with Lightbox; now he had plans to add a political section, edited by Toby Manhire, and a sports section, edited by Scotty Stevenson.

“He was very keen on the idea of a books section. The next step was to set up a meeting with Jo at Unity Books, who I thought might provide sponsorship, and would be the ideal partner for the kind of literary project I had in mind. We all had a cup of tea and Jo agreed then and there.

“She has committed Unity to a six-month deal. Thanks to Unity, we are able to pay reviewers between $100-$150, essayists and interviewers up to $300, and $80 to poets for a swag of three-four new poems.

“The site is updated daily during the week with new material. There have been fantastic essays such as the 3800-word epic by Patrick Evans, wonderful new verse by Fleur Adcock, and Stacy Gregg has filed a tell-all story about bad behavior during an author tour. Our reviewers so far have included quality writers such as Guy Somerset, Linda Burgess, Fiona Kidman, and Margo White.

“We have basic principles at the Spinoff Review of Books. We won’t bother with chick-lit reviews or any kind of coverage of books that are junk. The people who read books pages are intelligent human beings and should be treated as such. We are committed to covering NZ literature but not exclusively; we are dedicated to maintaining high critical standards, but are not afraid to be silly and do fun stuff.

“The reviewing scene in New Zealand is in crisis. There are less pages. The fees are terrible. The reviews are often no more than 450 words. The Spinoff Review of Books also pays terrible fees, but we hope to be in a position to pay more as the site progresses, and we have unlimited room to encourage longform reviewing and essay writing, so long as the writing is good enough.

“It marks an exciting new attempt to bring some energy and flair into New Zealand literature and we are determined to make it grow, and make it bigger and better and livelier.”