Standing Room Only


This week's stories


Clay artist Wi Taepa’s retrospective


[gallery:4231] For more than 30 years senior Maori clay artist Wi Taepa has loved getting his hands dirty. His approach is determinedly low-tech. He builds his vessels by hand, fires them in sawdust, and uses oxides and other clay slips that have served him well during his long career.
Apr 29, 2018 02:48 pm

The Vanishing Act


By setting her new crime novel in 1960s New Zealand, writer Jen Shieff reminds us of the distant past where lesbians were forced to keep their sexuality secret.
Apr 29, 2018 02:35 pm

US v THEM - Tony de Lautour


[gallery:4232] Three decades of art ranging from pop and underground street culture to his more recent interest in typography are canvassed in Christchurch artist Tony de Lautour's first major retrospective.
Apr 29, 2018 02:25 pm

Robbie Ellis’ comedic Pumpkins


Robbie Ellis made his name in New Zealand as a serious composer, including time as the University of Otago's Mozart Fellow - but his latest work shows he's just as adept at writing comedic tongue twisters matched with pretty much every musical genre you can think of.
Apr 29, 2018 01:45 pm

Burning Up Years: Aotearoa Music History


Curator Ben James is working on the exhibition called Burning Up Years: Aotearoa Music History at the Wellington Museum.
Apr 29, 2018 01:35 pm

Maori taonga around the world


The producers of the new Dame Anne Salmond hosted Maori TV series Artefact were offered unprecedented access to collections and taonga here and overseas.
Apr 29, 2018 12:40 pm

Josie McNaught at the Sydney Biennale


[gallery:4235] The Sydney Biennale is a significant international contemporary art event, important for New Zealand artists selected to represent us - they can open doors to other arts events as well as dealers.
Apr 29, 2018 12:35 pm

NZ Film takes out award at Moscow Film Festival

[gallery:4227] A New Zealand feature film looks set for release throughout the Eastern Block, and beyond, after premiering at the Moscow International Film Festival and taking out a top prize. Dustin Feneley's independent movie STRAY has already made history, the first New Zealand feature film selected for the world's second oldest film festival.
Apr 29, 2018 12:15 pm

Sunday, April 29, 2018

From The Bookseller


LATEST NEWS
James Daunt
Waterstones chief executive James Daunt has shared his hopes that the chain will continue to open fresh stores under its new ownership, as he conducted widespread interviews with the national media following the chain's sale to Elliott Advisors.
Waterstones
Philip Jones reacts to the sale of Waterstones and the trade's concern that a private equity purchase of a book business rarely runs smoothly.
Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine (HarperCollins) by Gail Honeyman is one of three books in the running for the 2018 Desmond Elliott Prize for first-time novelists, alongside Paula Cocozza's How to be Human (Hutchinson) and Preti Taneja's We That Are Young (Galley Beggar Press).
Paul Currie
An overhaul in the way Foyles buys books from publishers is already bearing fruit for the company, its chief executive Paul Currie has told The Bookseller.
Courtney Zoffness
American writer Courtney Zoffness has won the 2018 Sunday Times EFG Short Story Award for her short story "Peanuts aren't nuts". 
Amazon
Amazon has reported a 43% rise in sales to $51bn (£36.9bn) for the first three months of 2018.
[Alt-Text]


Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine
Gail Honeyman’s Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine and Helen Morris’ The Tattooist of Auschwitz have held first and second place in the Weekly E-Book Ranking for five weeks straight.
Nosy Crow
Children’s publisher Nosy Crow is closing its in-house app department and making three members of staff redundant. 
Judith Kerr
Independent Bookshop Week (IBW) will feature the 50th anniversary of The Tiger Who Came to Tea as well as Philip Pullman exclusives and a nationwide poet tour from Carol Ann Duffy.
Springer Nature
Academic houses Taylor & Francis and Cambridge University Press have joined a pilot project on using blockchain technology for peer review, announced by publisher Springer Nature and start-up Katalysis last month. 
CrimeFest
CrimeFest is celebrating its 10th anniversary by teaming up with publishers to give away 4,000 crime novels for free all over the country. 
Reni Eddo-Lodge
Reni Eddo-Lodge's Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People about Race (Bloomsbury) has topped a people's poll of the books by women that have changed the world, conducted for Academic Book Week.




Friday, April 27, 2018

How We Met - Michele A'Court




A message from bestselling author and comedian Michele A'Court
 
 
A message for you from Michele A'Couirt


 
How We Met by Michele A'Court
"It's a very successful balance between that astute social observation which Michele A’Court is so good at, intellectual inquiry and analysis, but also it’s just full of warm fuzzy stories – 42 stories from 42 couples - and they all have happy endings. And who doesn’t want that in a world as we have today?' 
- Louise O'Brien, Radio New Zealand

Start Reading How We Met ►

 
Win tickets to see Michele at Auckland  Writers Festival