Tag: The Cuba Press

Dracula’s March: Three Cities, Three Readings, Three Days!

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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

Venue: Whare Taupua, 34 Forth Street, Invercargill

Date and time: Tuesday 10 March, 5-7pm

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

Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/1415486880117301/

Photo of Tim Jones sitting on a tree root in a forest. Behind him are undergrowth, pine trees, and grass, with a distant skyline in the background. Upslope are roots, pine needles, and grass. The author is wearing a flower-patterned shirt.

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.

Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/937303555486613

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.

Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/3937533586552549

Dracula’s Out And About – Auckland and Wellington Readings

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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!

Tuesday 10 February: Poetry Live, Cafe 39, 39 Ponsonby Road, 7.30-10pm

I’m the guest reader at Poetry Live, Auckland’s long-running live poetry event.

What: Poetry Live, Auckland
Where: Cafe 39, 39 Ponsonby Road
When: Tuesday 10 February, 7.30-10pm
With: Open mike + guest musician Cold Champagne

Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/1822227305127271

Poster for Poetry Live Auckland on 10 February, showing pictures of guest poet Tim Jones and guest musician Cold Champagne against a red background, with yellow text giving details of the event also contained in the text of the post.

Thursday 12 February: Aotea Square Poetry Takeover, Aotea Square, 5–8pm

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!

Poster for Aotea Square Poetry Takeover, 12 February, 5-8pm. Poster shows a poet standing at a lectern.

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!

Poster for Poetry and Music at Newtown's Office Bar on Sunday 15 February 2026. Poster shows an author photo and details of the event described in the text.

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:

Waihōpai / Invercargill: “Southland roots, southern journeys”: Tuesday 10 March, 5-7pm, Whare Taupua, 34 Forth St. Reading + Q&A

Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/1415486880117301/

Ōtepoti / Dunedin: Wednesday 11 March, Octagon Poets’ Collective, 7pm – guest reader

Ōtautahi / Christchurch: Tuesday 12 March, Canterbury Poets Collective, Ara Imagitech Theatre, 130 Madras Street, Christchurch, from 6.30pm – guest reader

Dracula’s Been Busy

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Picture of Dracula, dressed in black against a dark background

Why so gloomy, Drac? Let the sunshine in!

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:

As a bonus, my climate fiction, and climate fiction in general, has had a lovely boost from Claire Mabey in The Spinoff. It’s been a good way to finish the year.

Cover of Tim Jones' poetry collection "Dracula in the Colonies", showing a stylised map of Aotearoa on a yellow background with the title and author name in red

Three Ways To Make Dracula Count

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.

Dracula Makes His Debut

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It was a dark and stormy night – no, really, it was! – when my new poetry collection Dracula in the Colonies, together with Mandy Hager’s new “Chasing Ghosts” mystery Revenge and Rabbit Holes, were launched at Unity Books Wellington earlier this month.

Photo of Tim Jones speaking at the launch of his new poetry collection "Dracula in the Colonies" at Unity Books Wellington on 1 October 2025. Author is speaking at a microphone with a desk to his left and bookshelves behind him.
Photo credit: James Fraser

Happily, that didn’t prevent a good crowd gathering to attend the launch, enjoy the lovely food put on by Unity Books, listen to the speeches, and buy some books.

Colin Marshall of the Whitireia Publishing Programme, who helped to put together the launch, also doubled as videographer – here are his videos of publisher Mary McCallum, my “launcher”, poet Harvey Molloy who said some lovely things about my work and my writing career, and myself speaking at the launch.

Mary McCallum from The Cuba Press gets the book launch underway:

Harvey Molloy’s launch speech for Tim Jones’ new poetry collection “Dracula in the Colonies”:

Tim Jones speaks at the launch of his new poetry collection “Dracula in the Colonies”:

Since then, I’ve had a nice My Wellington profile in The Post, although you may find it firewalled. Watch out for more interviews and events to come!

You can buy Dracula in the Colonies from Unity Books Wellington, other independent bookstores, and direct from the publisher.

Next, I’m looking forward to reading Mandy’s book! Here’s my review of the first in the series.

My new poetry collection “Dracula in the Colonies” is launching in Wellington on Wednesday 1 October!

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My new poetry collection Dracula in the Colonies is launching at Unity Books Wellington on Wednesday 1 October from 6-7.30pm. It’s a double book launch: my  Dracula in the Colonies and Mandy Hager’s new novel Revenge and Rabbit Holes.

Image version of the launch details included in this post, showing the covers of Dracula in the Colonies and Revenge and Rabbit Holes

All are welcome – no need to RSVP. And if you invite your friend, friends, partner, partners, or large and lavishly remunerated workplace* along, even better!

*Possibly fictional.

Dracula in the Colonies has received a couple of very nice endorsements from poets whose work I admire:

Janis Freegard: “Tim Jones’ powerful new collection takes us from Grimsby to Antarctica, traversing family life, migration, politics, climate change and loss. This is honest, tender, funny and intelligent writing from a story-teller poet.”

Erik Kennedy: “Eminently readable but never comfortable … Dracula in the Colonies is full of characters you’ll love to hate from a poet whose work we know to love.”

Thank you, Erik and Janis!

All the details

The launch will be at Unity Books, 57 Willis St, Wellington, from 6-7.30pm on Wednesday 1 October 2025. There will be drinks, nibbles, and books for sale and signing.

The Facebook event is here: https://www.facebook.com/events/1159319136008748/

My thanks to everyone who has already said they plan to attend, and those who’ve let me know they can’t make it.

I can’t make it, but I’d love a copy of the book:

The Cuba Press has you covered! You can pre-order Dracula in the Colonies here: https://thecubapress.nz/shop/dracula-in-the-colonies/

You’re invited to a double book launch on Wednesday 1 October: Dracula in the Colonies by Tim Jones and Revenge and Rabbit Holes by Mandy Hager

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You and your friends are warmly invited to a double book launch at Unity Books on Wednesday 1 October: my new poetry collection Dracula in the Colonies and Mandy Hager’s new novel Revenge and Rabbit Holes.

All are welcome – no need to RSVP!

The launch will be at Unity Books, 57 Willis St, Wellington, from 6-7.30pm on Wednesday 1 October 2025. There will be drinks, nibbles, and books for sale and signing.

The Facebook event is here: https://www.facebook.com/events/1159319136008748/

My thanks to everyone who has already said they plan to attend, and those who’ve let me know they can’t make it.

If you can’t make it, please pre-order Dracula in the Colonies here: https://thecubapress.nz/shop/dracula-in-the-colonies/

Book review: Halfway to Everywhere, by Vivienne Ullrich

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Cover of poetry collection "Halfway to Everywhere", by Vivienne Ullrich

Halfway to Everywhere, by Vivienne Ullrich (The Cuba Press, 2024), 70 pp. Available from https://thecubapress.nz/shop/halfway-to-everywhere/

Halfway to Everywhere is Vivienne Ullrich’s second poetry collection, and I’m impressed. The poems in Halfway to Everywhere show a lot of formal ability as a poet, and as the collection goes on, that formal elegance was increasingly matched with subject matter that engaged me emotionally.

Many of these poems take as their subject matter art, historical figures and fairy tales. Mary Queen of Scots, Little Red Riding Hood, Scheherazade, Jack of “Jack and the Beanstalk” fame and the artist Max Gimblett all put in an appearance, as the poet invites us to see the world from their points of view.

“Mary Queen of Scots” (p. 24) is a good example of these poems. It begins:

I die tomorrow. It is a simple thing
and yet it clamps my belly.
I pray for a clean stroke
and dignity.

From “Rutu” (p. 18), a poem inspired by Rita Angus’ painting of the same name:

… how is it we gift
this month with myths of rebirth, when an eye
towards our cross of stars would signal time
for harvest, time for tuning in to self.

I was very impressed by the quality of both the poetry, and the thought that had gone into the poetry, in Halfway to Everywhere. I did find that – perhaps because of the number of poems about artworks and historical figures – it took about half the collection before I started to engage with the poems emotionally – in other words, to connect with them as well as be impressed by them. But as I continued reading, I found poems that spoke to me more directly, like “Footprint” (p. 62):

I hear you. No doubt
it is different in my skin.
I am my peculiar set of molecules
after all, and I have the benefit of
context and the words I left out.

This skill in addressing multiply points of view comes to fruition on my favourite poem in the collection, “Little Red Riding Hood” (p. 48), a retelling in which the dramatis personae all get a turn as protagonist: the wolf, the huntsman, the grandmother, and the girl herself. This poem combines formal ability and sly wit in a way that works extremely well. An excerpt won’t do it justice – check out the whole poem!

Vivienne Ullrich is a talented, clever, thoughtful poet, and as I read through this collection, I found her poems and her poetry sneaking up on me. Halfway to Everywhere is a good place to be.

Emergency Weather: A Storm Warning

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Tuesday 12 December 2023 dawned a fine summer’s day in Wellington. But in mid-afternoon, the weather changed. A southerly front raced up the country, bringing very strong winds, heavy rain and hail to Wellington and the Hutt. 

I was sitting at my desk, and I felt and saw the change: the temperature dropped abruptly, and sunshine was abruptly replaced by cascading rain. It was all over within 90 minutes, and despite over 20 mm of rain falling at our place within a few minutes, we got off fairly lightly.

But friends I’ve talked to since weren’t so lucky. One was inside a mall that rapidly flooded; another had part of their roof torn off their house – one of a number of buildings in the Hutt that suffered serious damage.

Author Andy Southall captures it well in his Goodreads review of my novel Emergency Weather:

“A day after finishing this book, a sudden and savage storm struck Wellington. At 2.50pm the sun was shining on what seemed to be a pleasant summer day. Ten minutes later the sky turned black, violent winds blew out windows, hail was smashing into the deck and sheets of water poured from the gutters. And that was in a less extreme part of the storm’s path. Elsewhere it was much, much worse.”

and this Radio New Zealand report gives the bigger picture.

My novel Emergency Weather begins and ends with storms – the first causes death and damage from north to south, while the second and stronger storm zeroes in on Wellington. Wellington has always been prone to storms, but climate change is loading the dice, making it more likely that when storms come, they will be damaging and destructive.

Emergency Weather cover at Petone beach

My novel is set against the context of a government in which (some) Ministers are at least trying to do the right thing. But the recent election, which Labour lost by a combination of its own timidity and many voters’ desire for something different, has brought to power a government including climate deniers, environmental vandals, and worshippers at the altar of the car. If climate change is on their agenda at all, it’s well below culture wars.

But physical reality doesn’t care about ideology. So long as we keep loading the climate dice by burning fossil fuels and forcing cows to produce milk, piss nitrates and burp methane, the storms and the fires and the flooding will get worse. If we stop, the climate will have a chance to recover. No amount of denialism changes that.

(Excuse me, Tim! It’s just before Christmas and you’re supposed to be encouraging people to buy your book!)

Err … buy my book if you’re looking for a good summer read – it’s not all, or even mostly, doom and gloom! – and have a great holiday! Here’s to lots of good reading, and good organising for change, in 2024.

Emergency Weather: Successfully Launched, Well Reviewed, and More to Come!

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Successfully Launched

Mandy Hager launches Emergency Weather
Mandy Hager launches Emergency Weather. Photo: Stephen Olsen

I was nervous heading into the launch of Emergency Weather. Unity is a great place for a launch, but it looks very empty if no-one comes – and there were other launches, as well as election meetings, on in downtown Wellington at the same time.

I needn’t have worried! Around 100 lovely people came to the launch, we sold plenty of books and I had a great time. It was good to see old friends, new friends, and people I’d never seen before!

Kate from Unity Books introduced the launch, then we heard from Paul from The Cuba Press and Cadence from the Whitireia Publishing programme before the book was launched by author Mandy Hager, whose speech really moved me. Then it was time for me to speak, read the very beginning of the novel, and sign lots of copies! If you missed the launch, the YouTube video is available or you can read Stephen Olsen’s report: https://wellington.scoop.co.nz/?p=155655 (he also took the photo above).

If you didn’t make the launch but would like to get on trend and buy a copy of Emergency Weather, it’s available:

* At Unity Books and Good Books in Wellington, and other independent bookshops nationwide, including UBS in Dunedin – if it’s not available from your nearest independent bookshop or Paper Plus, please ask them to order it in.

* Directly from The Cuba Press: https://thecubapress.nz/shop/emergency-weather/

* From Wheelers: https://www.wheelers.co.nz/books/9781988595726-emergency-weather/

* Through the new NZ BookHub site, launched three days after my book!

Tim Jones signs a copy of Emergency Weather
Tim Jones signs a copy of Emergency Weather (photo: Kate, Unity Books)

Well Reviewed

It’s also been good – and again, a testament to the hard work of The Cuba Press and Whitireia Publishing – to see reviews of Emergency Weather appearing. Online reviews:

Radio New Zealand: https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/afternoons/audio/2018910488/book-critic-catherine-roberston

Kete: https://www.ketebooks.co.nz/all-book-reviews/emergency-weather-jones

Aotearoa Review of Books: https://www.nzreviewofbooks.com/emergency-weather-by-tim-jones/

You can help a lot by adding the book to your Goodreads library and rating or reviewing it: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/198972056-emergency-weather

More to Come

It’s not quite the Taylor Swift Eras Tour, but here are some upcoming Wellington events I’m involved in that you’re warmly invited to attend:

Unity Books Panel, Wednesday 18 October, 12.30-1.30pm: “Talking Up a Storm: The Making of Emergency Weather”: https://www.facebook.com/events/288705720676072/ (Facebook event link). Find out how a novel is written, edited, published and marketed.

Verb Wellington event, 11 November, 3-5pm – this one is for Remains to be Told, but I might weave in a mention or two of Emergency Weather as well.

Invitation to the launch of my new novel Emergency Weather

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You are officially invited to the launch of my new climate fiction novel Emergency Weather – and here’s a look at the cover!

Emergency Weather launch invitation and cover image

The launch will take place on Wednesday 4 October at Unity Books Wellington, 57 Willis St, from 6pm – please encourage your friends to come along too!

Here is the Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/667791528368999

Please sign up for this if you use Facebook, as it helps us know numbers attending.

Emergency Weather will be available from all good bookshops from 2 October – and also through https://thecubapress.nz/shop/