Recent and upcoming | Book News

There are a couple of NZ awards shortlists that have come out in the last week: the Spectrum Book Awards and of course, the Montanas. I’m not going to list the whole lot, just give you the links I’m afraid. The Spectrums have been ably covered by the Book Council here, and as for the Montanas, have a look at the Booksellers website.

The Spectrums – surely Sarah Maxey’s due for some kind of major recognition for consistently supplying jaw-droppingly beautiful books for our shelves. And Neil Pardington, same-same. Nick Turzynski is also making a bit of a name for himself, with the sublime Landscape Paintings of NZ and Farm up for awards (both Random House). He's one to watch, as is Sharon Grace.

The Montanas – there’s much ado about Janet Frame being a deceased finalist for Goose Bath, which I'm not sure is entirely seemly. I feel for all the new, alive poets, what chance will they have if this kind of phoenix rises from the ashes… But after all, what’s good for the goose is good for the gander – Nigel Cox’s book sure as hell needs to be in there and although it’s still hard to believe he’s no longer with us, just hearing Cowboy Dog announced at the awards this year will be a victory of sorts. He’ll up against it with Lloyd and Damien, but who knows.

Congrats to lil’ ol’ VUP for having no less than seven books on the list, and to Chris Price and Martin Edmond for ‘stretching the boundaries of conventional categories’. Dr Paul Millar said this about their respective books Brief Lives and Luca Antara: Passages in Search of Australia, which were finalists in the biography and history categories respectively. Where would we be without boundary stretchers? (By the way, Mr Edmond has been seen blogging most interestingly on NZ Book Month recently, and a little birdy told me that Chris Price is about to do the same! Spooky.) First book awards – where has that Matt Johnson been? Not on the book launch / chat circuit, for sure, or if so, only in Welly. Get yourself up to Auckland m’boy; show yourself. And get a proper beard – check out Liam Finn’s for some inspiration. (Actually, that was just an excuse to listen to this song for the seventh time today).

Onward. There are some good events coming up out there that deserve a mention. The Virtual Tour of Antarctica, organised by AWA Press (right hand column) will be great, as will the Book Council event that’s going with the 100 Years of the School Journal exhibition that’s on right now in Wellington. Gregory O’Brien will chair a ‘lively panel’ on June 28, discussing how the School Journal has modified itself morally over the years.

And last but by no means least, the Storylines Festival is happening this very week, culminating in the big weekend for the kids with free family days in Wellington, New Plymouth, Northland and Auckland. There are also some great looking kids writing workshops in four venues around Auckland this weekend – you might just get in if you book asap. Same goes for the adult Heritage Hotel seminar series with international guest writers Shaun Tan and John Boyne. Get out there with those kids and start moulding a new generation of readers – and writers…

Come back very soon – e-interview with Paula Morris coming right up.

05 Jun 07 | Filed by Kathy | Add your comment (1 so far)

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Comment by Kathy ~ June 6, 2007 3:00 PM

I posted the above rather hurriedly late last night and, having looked sideways once or twice in an unhappy kind of way at the bit about Janet Frame, have since found out that in Pamela Gordon’s intro it states quite clearly that Janet left these poems for her publish after she was gone and in that way this was really her own book. Pamela says:

‘I exclaimed that we should publish a new volume as soon as possible, so she could receive timely accolades. 'I don't need anybody to tell me my work is good', she said. 'Do it after I'm dead'.

She told me she had once talked to Bill Manhire about her poems and she felt he understood her poetic vision... and that he might be able to help to select the ones that 'worked'.

Pamela also quotes from a letter Janet once wrote to CK Stead:

‘My writing is deeply involved with my life and my dreams. When I write I'm not writing to be published. Publication is always a shock and an embarrassment. I still think posthumous publication is the last form of literary decency left.’

So this is not a dead author's retrospective ‘best of’ collection, it's the posthumous outcome of a living author's deliberate choices. Of course then it must compete with everything else out there. And one final thing that was not clear in my post: we are extraordinarily lucky to have it.