“Sing to Me of Home encompasses stories from all avenues of my life, not just from the last 25 years that I have been writing poetry. Those familiar with my work will find poems they know, as well as some poems not previously published. If you are new to my poems and are interested in social issues, the environment, and the politics that surround us, you may discover welcome perspectives and sometimes satirical takes on life matters.”
It’s been a month of book events, and this is a great way to finish it! If you’re in or around Wellington, I hope you’ll join me at Keith’s launch.
After Michelle Elvy’s excellent book launch at Aurelia Books on Sunday, here is your chance to hear a panel with Michelle and two other authors with new books coming out soon.
A lunchtime reading and discussion by three authors with new books: Leanne Comer, David Coyle and Michelle Elvy.
Thursday 15 October, 6-7.30pm: Launch of And How Are Things With You by Mia Farlane
Unity Books Wellington, 57 Willis St
Event begins 6pm, speeches planned for 6.30pm
I’m really looking forward to the launch of Mia Farlane’s new novel. From the cover being created in the window of Unity Books to some great panels and events, Mia and Mākaro Press have done a great job of the publicity – now the book itself is revealed to the world!
Sunday 18 October, 4-6pm, Poetry and Music at Newtown’s Office Bar – Pōtihia / Vote
Office Bar, 124 Riddford St, Newtown
Free entry.
“With this country’s General Election coming up in November, we have decided to make the whole programme Open Mike and encourage people to share work with a political theme if they would like to – with the definition of ‘political’ being as broad and accommodating as it needs to be….. This can be spoken word or song and your own work or the work of others. And for the musicians out there, some instrumental interludes would also be welcome!
About the venue:We use their upstairs space and there is no lift, so if you might need some assistance with the stairs, please let us know. Also, they don’t serve tea or coffee, but you are welcome to bring a flask from home or pick up a take-away to bring in.”
Tim adds: Remember – if you want to vote to get rid of this Government, you must enrol by 25 October!
At the end of August 2026, I stepped down after four years as President of Living Streets Aotearoa, the national advocacy organisation for pedestrians. (Do you sometimes walk from A to B? Then you should join!)
That was very worthwhile mahi – but it was a lot of work, and it wasn’t till after I stepped down that I realised just how tired it had made me. So I’ve been largely lying fallow for the last few weeks, as the world of events slid by outside.
I’m starting to recover my energy, though, which is a good thing as there is plenty going on – even without referring to the upcoming election, which presents a sharp choice between the potential for positive action, and a further descent into a fossil-fuelled, regressive, racist hellhole. (My tips: don’t vote for the hellhole parties, and do vote strategically.)
There are quite a few events worth your time in Wellington this month! Here is Part 1 of Coming Attractions – watch out for Part 2 early next week.
Friday 9 October:Motonormativity: How we struggle to see the problems of car dependency
6:30pm – 8:30pm
Lecture Theatre 1 (LT1), Te Kura Hoahoa | School of Architecture and Design Innovation Wellington,
Why do we expect pedestrians to stand and wait in the rain while people in cars are given priority? Why do our media present deaths and injuries on the road as unpredictable, and outside our control? Why do people think nothing of transporting four empty seats around with them at all times?
This talk suggests that these outcomes all arise from a shared blindspot within our culture, known as motonormativity. This makes us see driving as the default mode of transport, and makes us see the many problems arising from living with cars as inevitable.
Ian Walker looks at how motonormativity arises, how it is shaped, and most importantly what we might do about it if we want to enable healthier, more inclusive and more sustainable lifestyles.
I’ll be one of the discussants after Ian Walker’s speech. I may discuss an $3 billion example of motonormativity that the current Government is trying to push right past the Architecture School’s front door.
Sunday 11 October: Launch of Michelle Elvy’s new poetry collection Motion Sickness
With guest readers Reihana Robinson, Bram Casey, Gill Ward, Madeleine Slavick, David Coyle, Noa Noa von Bassewitz, Tim Jones, Ya-Wen Ho and Vivienne Plumb
Motion Sickness was Shortlisted for the 2025 Kathleen Grattan Award and runner-up for the 2026 John O’Connor Award. More about Motion Sickness.
Ruby and the Land of Birds, by Latika Vasil (Wellington: Korobee Press, 2026). ISBN 978-0-473-79333-3. RRP NZ$30.00. Available from https://latikavasil.com/shop/ (includes shipping anywhere in New Zealand) and in Wellington, from independent bookshops including Unity, The Children’s Bookshop, Marsden Books and Aurelia Books (soon).
There’s a great deal to like about Latika Vasil’s new middle grade novel Ruby and the Land of Birds, and it starts with the evocative cover: the kākā, the schoolgirl with her bag, and the pre-human forest. On a school trip to Ōtari-Wilton’s Bush, Ruby – struggling to find her feet at her new school – and her classmate Jasper fall through time to the same place a thousand or more years ago, when the forest primeval is populated by birds and other entities that have very varied views about the young interlopers who have just dropped in on them.
Ruby and Jasper are well-written, believable kids – ingenious but impetuous, prone to sudden rows but open to reconciliation, each outsiders in their school, easy to empathise with and like – and I had no trouble getting engaged in their story and wanting them to overcome the obstacles this world places in their path. They encounter a wise mentor who helps their journey, but who can’t shield them from all the dangers they face. In the end, it is their own actions that must save them.
This is a survival story, but the level of peril is appropriate for the book’s intended audience, while still keeping me as an adult reader eagerly turning the pages. I was cheering for the two children to make it home safe, and while I won’t spoil the ending, I thought it hit just the right note.
If you’re looking for a story that will entertain children of ages 8-12+, especially those who love nature, I can definitely recommend Ruby and the Land of Birds.
Together with Vivienne Plumb, I’m judging a short prose competition that closes on 14 August – and it is not a standard-format short story competition. Full details are on the At The Bay website – please check them out there, and if this appeals to you, consider entering!
Katherine Mansfield Sparkling Prose Award is open 3 July – 14 August.
New! Aotearoa and international submissions welcome!
This competition calls for works of fiction up to 1888 words – a reference to the year of Mansfield’s birth. We take our themes from Mansfield’s writing. This year, the theme is ‘wild places’. All submissions must follow the theme, however loosely.
You can write your work in any form – short story or hybrid or another imaginative form, but please note this is not a competition for flash fiction.
Monday 10 August: Open mike at Undercurrent with guest reader Michael O’Leary
From the days when he ran a bookshop in Dunedin, to his involvement with many poetry ventures in the Wellington region including the Earl of Seacliff Art Workshop, Michael O’Leary has been a beneficial presence in my life as a poet – and he is, of course, a wonderful poet himself. So it’s an honour to be asked to MC a poetry open mike at Undercurrent (on the Tory St/Vivian St corner) where Michael will be the guest reader. Details are below and on the Undercurrent site. Whether you like to read your poetry, like to listen to poetry, or both, please come along!
Poetry Open Mic – Mon, 10 Aug – Undercurrent
Time & Location
10 Aug 2026, 7:00 pm
Undercurrent, 118 Tory Street, Te Aro, Wellington 6011, New Zealand
The Undercurrent presents the Poetry Open Mic!
About the event
Local poets take over the mic, MCed by Tim Jones! Register at the door and please prepare 2 poems; you may be able to read both. Following this, the Earl of Seacliff will stop at the Undercurrent on his Farewell World Tour.
The Earl (Michael O’Leary to his Paekakariki mates) will read from his collected works, published last year. How he can write poetry dense with surreal and avantgarde word play, while completely rooted in the earthy, messy reality of daily life, is something for an eager phd student to discern sometime in the distant future. The Earl will be drawing from 50 years of poetic endeavour.
In 2026, I decided to enter both the National Flash Fiction Day (NFFD) competition (for stories under 300 words) and the associated international Micro Madness competition (for stories under 100 words). It turned out to be a good decision, as my story “Before The Earthquake” placed third in the NFFD competition, while my story “The Retreat” was longlisted in the Micro Madness competition.
The results were announced on National Flash Fiction Day, 22 June – the shortest day of the year. The Wellington event was held at Newtown Library, ably organised by Constance Phua, with judges Ingrid Horrocks and Tim Saunders in attendance. It was a great night!
You can now read the winning stories, and watch them being read, at the excellent Flash Frontier site:
My congratulations to all the longlisted, shortlisted, and winning entrants, and my thanks to the judges, and to the organisers, who do an enormous amount of work each year to make this competition a national – and international – success!
I recently read, and very much enjoyed, Mary McCallum’s new poetry collection Tackling The Hens. Mary has kindly given me permission to republish “Boy”, one of my favourite poems from the collection, on my blog.
Mary says: “Paul Heyes, whom I wrote about in the poem as inspiration for naming my son Paul, died not long after my poetry book was published – but before he did I was able to share the poem with him and his family and, later, to read it at his funeral. We’d lost touch but the poem helped bring us back together, something I didn’t expect but am hugely grateful for.”
Boy
A fierce courage brewed in him. He lofted balls in astonishing arcs and tried to show me how, gently, ball after ball at Ben Burn Park, an extra chromosome making him miraculous. He genuinely wanted me to throw well, felt I had it in me, just couldn’t understand why I didn’t get the hang of it. Hah! The laughter busted out of him and he tried again, gently. ‘Like this. Here, watch me.’ And the arc of the ball was magical, the way it fought gravity, rose and curved, as the earth curves, as we curve with it—fell. His throws not mine. I didn’t have it in me on the impossible grass my memory conjures up—an endless sward under a picture-book sun—the impossible ball, a bunch of us hanging out and Paul. It’s no accident we have a son who carries the same name, for surely a name is a blessing, something to grow into, as a plant does, or a rare species of bat. With time—oh the luxury of that—our boy becomes a lofty being with curious and humorous mind, a mighty mane of hair, no aptitude for throwing (shame on the mother who didn’t think to show him how) but with a wild passion for cricket. And—there he is!— gentleness and kindness in all his dealings and the same way of meeting life on his own terms. In the next room, his fingers coax song from the throat of a broken, now mended, Les Paul. Each phrase he plays, a fierce and miraculous arc of sound.
From 10-12 March, I’m doing three poetry readings in three South Island cities in three days! Below are all the details – it would be great if you could come along, and if you can’t, please encourage your friends in Te Waipounamu to do so. Thanks to the Octagon Poets’ Collective and Canterbury Poets Collective for inviting me to read, and to Arts Murihiku for kindly agreeing to host my Invercargill event.
The Schedule
Tuesday 10 March: Waihōpai / Invercargill: Southland Roots, Southern Journeys: Hear poet Tim Jones read poems of Southland and talk about the southern roots of his poetry
Poet Tim Jones grew up in Southland. He now lives in Wellington, but he started writing poetry in Southland, and the life and land of Murihiku continue to be a central thread in his poetry. Join Tim Jones for a poetry reading and Q&A session. Tim will read from his latest poetry collection, Dracula in the Colonies, and also read poems about Southland from his earlier collections. Tim’s books will be available for sale and signing at the event, and there will be time for a chat over a cuppa afterwards
Programme:
Doors open 5pm Tim’s reading, followed by a Q&A session, starts at 5.30pm At about 6.30pm, there will be time for a cuppa and a chat Event finishes 7pm
Wednesday 11 March: Ōtepoti / Dunedin: Octagon Poets’ Collective, 7pm, New Athenaeum Theatre – with Kay McKenzie Cooke as guest MC, an Open Mike (see Kay on the night to sign up for that) and guest poets Tim Jones and Richard Reeve. All welcome; entry is free, but there is a range of food and drink available to purchase at the Theatre.
Thursday 12 March: Ōtautahi / Christchurch: Canterbury Poets Collective, Ara Imagitech Theatre, 130 Madras Street, Christchurch. The event kicks off at 6.30pm with an open mike, then there’s a break for mingling and book-buying, then the guest readers start around 7.30pm. I’m reading with Megan Clayton and Dietrich Soakai.
Dracula in the Colonies is heading north, and I’m coming along as minder and general Renfield. Then he’s returning home for a reading on Sunday 15 February in Wellington.
Auckland, 10 and 12 February
I’m off to the big city to read at Poetry Live and take part in the Aotea Square Poetry Takeover!
Poetry is coming for Aotea Square! On Thursday 12 Feb, the Aotea Square Poetry Takeover is happening, with performances and stalls, and I’ll be there as part of the contingent from The Cuba Press. Come and find The Cuba Press stall – I’ll be on duty with poets Bryan Walpert and Elena de Roo. There are lots of poets and plenty going on in the Square for these three hours!
Wellington, 15 February
I’m reading poems from my new collection “Dracula in the Colonies” at the Office Bar, 124 Riddiford St, Newtown on Sunday 15 February – you’re very welcome to come along, and entry is free.
This is part of the Poetry and Music at Newtown’s Office Bar series. The event starts at 4pm with an Open Mike (make sure you arrive on time if you want to sign up to read), then there’s a break for food & drink from the bar downstairs, then I’ll be reading around 5.30. See you there!
The March mini-tour: Invercargill, Dunedin, and Christchurch
In March, I’ll be doing three poetry readings in three days! I’ll post full details in a couple of weeks’ time, including news about all the readers at the Ōtepoti and Ōtautahi events, but here is the summary:
Dracula in the Colonies, my new poetry collection, has been stepping out into the spring light with pleasingly positive results and surprisingly few scorch marks:
If you’d like to help Dracula in the Colonies meet more readers, here are three things you can do:
Ask for it in bookshops: If your local bookshop doesn’t stock Dracula in the Colonies, please ask them to! All the details they’ll need are on The Cuba Press order page for the book.
Ask your local library to order it: Many libraries have pages where you can ask for books to be added to the collection. If your local library doesn’t stock the book, please request it.
Goodreads: If you use Goodreads and have read Dracula in the Colonies, please add a rating, or even better a review, to the book’s Goodreads page.
