Come and help us celebrate the launch of Johanna Aitchison's fabulous third poetry collection at Palmerston North City Library on Friday 17 July at 6.30 pm. All welcome!

And, if you want to buy the book but can't make the launch, I've just added some buttons so you can buy Miss Dust online. (I'll be adding the facility to buy all of the other books online soon, but in the meantime just email me at [email protected].)

I'm delighted to announce the imminent publication of Miss Dust, the third collection by fabulous and original poet Johanna Aitchison. 

Behold the front cover, featuring a painting, The Gardening Queen, by Wairarapa artist Janie Nott.

Don't be fooled by such a bright and happy cover though, the poems in Miss Dust are far from frothy. There is a lightness and humour to her poetry, which serves to leaven the dark truths in some of the poems. 

I've followed Johanna's poetry for years, from her first work in JAAM, and became a particular fan with her stunning second collection A Long Girl Ago (2007), which I particularly admired for its bold experiments with language, prompted by her time in Japan.

Miss Dust has been a few years in the making, and is worth the wait. It takes all the things I admired in A Long Girl Ago and twists them off into a new direction. I'm excited to be publishing it.

Read more about Miss Dust and Johanna here.

Launch invitation to follow!

Vivienne Plumb is the guest poet at Poetry at the Fringe this month (Sunday 21 June). Vivienne's most recent poetry collection was The Cheese and Onion Sandwich and other New Zealand Icons: Prose Poems. 

After its publication late last year, Nina Powles's debut chapbook Girls of the Drift quickly sold out of its first limited hand-numbered edition, but it's not too late to get hold of a copy - a second edition is now available.

It's been gaining accolades for its author, most notably one of the poems in the book, 'Volcanology', was selected by Poet Laureate Vincent O'Sullivan as one of his 25 Best NZ Poems. You can read it here on the Best NZ Poems website.

Paula Green reviewed it on her marvellous NZ Poetry Shelf blog, and shared 'Josephine' as her Friday poem. Paula said of the collection:
'I love the richness of context of the poems (Katherine Mansfield and her characters, a ghost at an old school, real things and invented things, a history of the poet’s reading), but I also love the way lines turn a corner and surprise you.' She continued: 'Nina’s collection stretches with the agility of a wordsmith who knows just where to break a line, shift a point of view or the pitch of a phrase. The poems take flight from the reading and research that a university offers, and the experience and insight you bring to that reading.' Read the complete review on NZ Poetry Shelf.

The book has also been reviewed by Sarah Wilson on her Writehanded blog. She said: 'My favourite kind of poem is the sort with last lines that land in your throat and stay there for days. Poems where the resolution and the climax happens in two beats that leave you slightly dazed. That’s what Nina Powles’s work does.' Read the complete review on Writehanded.

I'm very excited to be publishing a debut chapbook by a new young poet, Nina Powles. You can read more about the book and the author here, and do come along to the launch on Thursday 11 December, at 6 pm, and Matchbox Studios, which is the gorgeous wee shop and gallery at 166 Cuba Street. And yes, this is the brightest cover of any book I've ever published.

Invitation below, and if you're a Facebooker, join the event here: https://www.facebook.com/events/554416031368860/.

All welcome, and see you there!

We had a really wonderful 10th anniversary event for Seraph Press at LitCrawl a few weeks ago. Lots of people came along to hear the Seraph Press poets who were able to make it. Each poet who read also read a poem from a poet who wasn't able to make it, which meant every Seraph Press book was represented. I was really moved by the whole thing, and especially when the audience sang an impromptu 'Happy Birthday' to Seraph Press at the end. 

We also launched a very special little volume, Words that Matter: 10 Years of Seraph Press, which we hand-bound only days before the event. Each is hand-numbered too, and the first edition is limited to 100. If you want to get your hands on the rather attractive book (if I do say so myself), you can order one through me, visit Vic Books (who have stock), or order it through your local bookshop. Its RRP is $20.

Also, congratulations to the organisers of LitCrawl. All the events were well-attended, bringing out much more than the usual literary audience. I was delighted to hear that they're planning to follow it up with another one in the future.

I can barely believe it! This year marks 10 years of Seraph Press. This December it will be 10 years since the launch of first Seraph Press's first title: Locating the Madonna, by Jenny Powell (then Powell-Chalmers) and Anna Jackson. Since then Seraph Press has published nine more titles (yep, an average of one a year) and has developed a reputation as a publisher of beautiful books of high-quality poetry. I've published debut collections and works by experienced and celebrated writers, collaborations and chapbooks. It's been great fun, and I've met some wonderful people.

Seraph Press has been a bit quiet this year, after publishing two books last year (and also with managing editor Helen Rickerby - ie, me - putting a lot of time into her own collection of poetry, Cinema, published by Mākaro Press in March). But I'm gearing up for a busy end-of-year. In December I'll be publishing a debut hand-bound chapbook, Girls of the Drift, from young Wellington writer Nina Powles. But before then we're going to celebrate 10 years of Seraph Press in style - with an event at LitCrawl, with readings from several of the authors Seraph Press has published over the decade, and with the publication of a wee limited edition hand-made anthology of some of my favourite poems - one from each collection (two from Locating the Madonna - one from each author).

LitCrawl, which takes place on the evening of Saturday 15 November, is an evening of literary events around Wellington City. There will be hard choices to be made, because there's several things on at any one time, but it's going to be great! I hope you'll come and help us celebrate our 10-year anniversary, and enjoy some of the other exciting events that evening.

It's probably a perfect first review for a debut collection: glowing and perceptive. Paula Green has reviewed The Rope Walk on her new NZ Poetry Shelf site, and you can read it here: http://nzpoetryshelf.com/2013/08/21/the-rope-walk-hand-stitched-with-perfect-seasoning/.

As well as all the positive things she says about Maria's poetry, there's also a lovely shoutout for Seraph Press: "The reason I sent my manuscript of The Baker’s Thumbprint to Seraph Press is because I have loved the way Helen Rickerby produces gorgeous poetry books from Vivienne Plumb’s The Cheese and Onion Sandwich and Other New Zealand Icons to Vana Manasiadis’s Ithaca Island Bay Leaves: A Mythistorima to Helen Lehndorf’s The Comforter." Thanks Paula!

Maria McMillan is going to be the guest poet at the next Poetry at Meow, which is on Sunday 18 August (next Sunday!), from 4 pm until 6 pm, at Meow, 9 Edward Street, Wellington. And I'll be there with a wee table of freshly bound copies of The Rope Walk, so if you haven't got your very own copy yet, now's your chance.

Paula Green has started NZ Poetry Shelf, an exciting new blog all about New Zealand poetry, which will include, as the masthead says 'reviews, interviews and other things'.

Paula says in her first post:
"In his speech for the New Zealand Post Book Awards’ shortlist, chief judge John Campbell said: “It is a reflection of the extraordinary strength of the new and young writers we read, particularly in poetry, where New Zealand is blessed by so many fine writers (at all ages and stages) that we respectfully suggest poetry could stand beside rugby as our national sport.” I have heard some stadiums overseas get packed to the brim to hear a poet.

"Having read so many of the poetry books published in the past 17 months and with much admiration, John’s declaration prompted me to put a floating idea into concrete action." She also gives a lovely shout-out to Maria McMillan's The Rope Walk. Read the rest of the post here...

She's already started with mini reviews of some of the poetry books she's enjoyed over the past year. I can tell this blog is going to become an important part of the New Zealand poetry scene.