Poetry Box picture book conversations: Runaway Rooster by Melinda Szymanik

Runaway RoosterMelinda Szymanikillus Lael ChisholmBateman, 2026Bateman page Melinda Szymanik’s Runaway Rooster is a glorious read – a picture book that showcases a deft and agile progre…

nzpoetrybox.wordpress.com

Poetry Shelf presents The Time Out Bookstore Poetry Choice: Perennial Counterpart by Yongyu Chen

Time Out Bookstore has a terrific poetry selection. I have invited Frances Libeau, the poetry buyer, to feature a poetry book every now and then. Perennial CounterpartYongyu ChenNightboat Books, Ne…

nzpoetryshelf.com

Poetry Shelf Monday Poem: wilding by Brecon Dobbie

wildingcaught on the strapof my tote bag  she crawlslike an infant  small and ruby- reda coal-spottedbeautyforagingfor warmth  obliviousto my silly littleruminationsof…

nzpoetryshelf.com

Poetry Shelf celebrates AUP New Poets 12 with readings and questions

AUP New Poets 12Zephyr Zhang, Loretta Riach, Anuja Mitraeditor Anne KennedyAuckland University Press 2026 AUP New Poets 12 page roots | 漂叶无根 my mum always lays out succulentcuttings like severed li…

nzpoetryshelf.com

Poetry Shelf noticeboard: 2026 Caselberg Trust International Poetry Prize winner – Linda Collins

Linda Collins at home in Kakanui outside her writing shed with her debut collection, Sign Language for the Death of Reason. Photo credit: Oamaru Mail Linda Collins was awarded the 2026 Caselberg Tr…

nzpoetryshelf.com

Poetry Shelf noticeboard: Helen Rickerby’s writing workshop in response to the exhibition Slow Burn: Women and Photography | Ahi Tāmau: Māreikura Whakaahua

Event by Te Papa 55 Cable Street, Te Aro, Wellington, New Zealand 6011 Join poet Helen Rickerby for a writing workshop in response to the exhibition Slow Burn: Women and Photography | Ahi Tāmau: Mā…

nzpoetryshelf.com

Poetry Shelf Poet Laureate Postcards: The Remembered Forest by Robert Sullivan

The Remembered Forest I flew over the North Island in a jetplaneand noticed the clouds for once, howthey covered the land like a forest,a huge forest billowing into the skywith its fungi, insects, …

nzpoetryshelf.com

Poetry Shelf noticeboard: poetry in performance in chch

Visit the post for more.

nzpoetryshelf.com

Poetry Shelf Noticeboard: Michelle Elvy reading with James Eric Rachel Claudia & Tania at Scorpio Books

Celebrating the new poetry collection by Michelle Elvy with readings by James Norcliffe, Erik Kennedy, Rachel Smith, Claudia Herz Jardine & Tania Roxborogh Join us for refreshments and a blast …

nzpoetryshelf.com

Poetry Shelf noticeboard: Airini Beautrais and Helen Lehndorf talk humour and poetry

Need some extra salt on your lunch? In October, Airini Beautrais and Helen Lehndorf are visiting Wellington to talk humour in poetry and read a few poems from their recent collections ‘Salt Q…

nzpoetryshelf.com

Poetry Shelf Monday Poem: ‘In the mangroves’ by Kiri Piahana Wong

In the mangroves Standing amongst the mangroves,I notice how fiercely they anchorthemselves in the mud, how theyhave chosen to make this sticky,impenetrable placetheir home. I admire that. The idea…

nzpoetryshelf.com

Poetry Box September challenge: Some favourite sky poems

Rain Hugs Golden honey sun warms me.Drooling rain hugs me.The crackling stars glisten.The cloudy grey moonis swimming to the other side. Maggie M age 11, Te Parito Kōwhai Russley School The sky oft…

nzpoetrybox.wordpress.com

Poetry Shelf’s Poet Laureate Postcards: ‘Early Class’ by Robert Sullivan

Early Class In 1978 in the old Onehunga Primary school hallwe met with a group of teachers and parentsto show off the new technology—a Casio calculatorwhich I demonstrated with a classmate,and enco…

nzpoetryshelf.com

Poetry Shelf celebrates Te Wiki o te Reo Māori -Māori Language Week: ‘View from a Mountain’ by Ben Brown

View From A Mountain Replica waka houruacruising up the Whakaraupo ki te !angaby the Naval Point seems indifferentto the semi laden bulk carrieron its wayto Somewhere Elsewith the rest of its ammon…

nzpoetryshelf.com

Tauranga Hospital Emergency Department staff declare 'state of emergency'

Emergency Department staff at Tauranga Hospital have declared "a state of emergency", warning of the risks of an ED which they say is often running at 150-200 percent of its capacity, without the staf...

rnz.co.nz

Poetry Shelf celebrates Mary McCallum’s Tackling the Hens: a conversation and a reading

Tackling the Hens, Mary McCallumThe Cuba Press, 2026 Mary McCallum’s latest poetry collection, Tackling the Hens (2025), is a poetic engagement, both intimate and intricate, with the world cl…

nzpoetryshelf.com

Poetry Box celebrates Cass and the Beast by Claire Mabey and Jill Calder

Cass and the Beast Claire Mabey and Jill CalderGecko Press, 2026 Gecko Press page Like poems, children’s picture books can be and do so many things. Claire Mabey’s debut picture book, Cass and the …

nzpoetrybox.wordpress.com

Poetry Shelf Speaking Out: ‘tomorrow we are dead’ by Jeffrey Paparoa Holman

tomorrow we are dead     – for Ukraine, 2026 today not bornalways in the momentof epiphany he came for usmad dog that he ison a chain of saliva who knew his bloodwould run this coldinventing …

nzpoetryshelf.com

Poetry Shelf Noticeboard: Launches for Chris Tse’s Dance-Floor Romance

RSVP and details here plus Chris at Verb Readers and Writers Festival

nzpoetryshelf.com

Poetry Box September challenge: Sky Poems

I love writing sky poems. And I love it when the sky pops into a poem I am writing about something altogether different. For September I challenge you to write a sky poem. The sky might be the main…

nzpoetrybox.wordpress.com

Poetry Box August poem challenge inspired by the book ‘He Aha Te Mea Nui? What Matters Most?’ – some favourite poems

For August I challenged you to write a poem that responds to the question the book asks: He Aha Te Mea Nui? What Matters Most? The Children’s Commissioner asked children across the motu this …

nzpoetrybox.wordpress.com

Poetry Shelf Monday Poem: Birthday card by Kay McKenzie Cooke

Birthday card My mokopuna made me a birthday card written in cloud-whitepen on bright blue card, the words so faint I need to read themup close in order to take in each word and letter.I have stuck…

nzpoetryshelf.com

Poetry Shelf Noticeboard: Newsroom celebrates Airini Beautrais as does Poetry Shelf

Newsroom published Airini Beautrais’s memorable poem, ‘Cancer Moon: Poet Life’ from Salt Quilt (Te Herenga Waka University Press, 2026). The epic memoir poem has got so much love …

nzpoetryshelf.com

Poetry Shelf noticeboard: Michele Elvy Motion Sickness book launch

“This collection began with the watery space where I grew up and extends to the space that holds us all: the ocean. The poems built themselves around family who are always with me, even if go…

nzpoetryshelf.com

Poetry Shelf Noticeboard: 3 poets waxing lyrical

Airini Beautrais, Mikaela Nyman and Helen Llendorf are coming to Poppies Bookshop, New Plymouth in two weeks to read from their recent poetry collections and talk all things poetry and the poet&#82…

nzpoetryshelf.com

Poetry Shelf noticeboard: Letters Out Loud – The Poetry Powerhouse – Sonic Tonic

Visit the post for more.

nzpoetryshelf.com

Poetry Shelf pays tribute: Riemke Ensing (1939 – 2026)

let us hold Riemke to our hearts, as we stand, hand in hand breathing in the sweet salty air at Muriwai Beach, wherever we might be Waitakere River Valleyfor Derek March Lost, you say, the songs of…

nzpoetryshelf.com

Poetry Shelf celebrates ‘In a space between’, a tribute book for Peter Ireland

The National Library assumed responsibility for the New Zealand Poet Laureate Award in 2007. For the ten years prior, this had had been the personal project and passion of John Buck of Te Mata Esta…

nzpoetryshelf.com

Poetry Shelf noticeboard: 3 poets Waxing Lyrical

wow!

nzpoetryshelf.com