Seraph Press news archive
This page contains old news from Seraph Press's old website. For new news, visit Seraph Press home.
November 2010 Seraph Press is very excited to be publishing Crumple, Vivienne Plumb's latest book of poetry and her first full-length collection since 2004. We'll be launching it in both Wellington and Auckland later in November. Plumb is a well-respected playwright, novelist and short story writer, as well as a poet. More about Crumple... May 2010 There's a very positive review of Ithaca Island Bay Leaves: A Mythistorima by Vana Manasiadis by Julia Cooper in The Lumiere Reader. You can read it here: http://lumiere.net.nz/index.php/ithaca-island-bay-leaves/. April 2010 Vana Manasiadis, author of Ithaca Island Bay Leaves: A Mythistorima is interviewed on Tim Jones's popular blog: http://timjonesbooks.blogspot.com/2010/04/interview-with-vana-manasiadis.html. She talks about the genesis of this collection, and what she's working on next. February 2010 Ithaca Island Bay Leaves: A Mythistorima has had two positive reviews in the weekend papers: Hamesh Wyatt in the Otago Daily Times, and Paula Green in the New Zealand Herald. January 2010 Vana Manasiadis, author of Ithaca Island Bay Leaves: A Mythistorima, was interviewed by Lynn Freeman on the Arts of Sunday programme on Radio New Zealand National on 31 January 2010. You can listen to the interview on the Radio New Zealand site here: http://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/national/art/2010/01/31/poetry_-_vana_manasiadis December 2009 The author arrived from Crete on Monday, the book arrived from the printers on Tuesday, and we launched Ithaca Island Bay Leaves: A Mythistorima by Vana Manasiadis with an enthusiastic crowd on Wednesday 3rd December in the Adam Art Gallery at Victoria University. The Adam Art Gallery was the perfect venue, as the launch took place among Greek vases and Greek-vase-inspired lithographs by Marian Maguire, whose lithograph Athena Observes a Fracas graces the cover of Ithaca. Damien Wilkins, who was the course convener of Vana's masters in creative writing class, launched the book. He had been around during its genesis, and so it was appropriate he should send it out into the world. He'd read it in its earlier incarnation as Vana's masters portfolio, and said that, reading it again, it seemed to have gotten younger. I think I know what he means. While it was almost all there in that earlier form, the work Vana has done on it over the last few years have made each poem sharper, more of what it is. October 2009 Watching for Smoke, by Helen Heath, was launched with much fun, music and celebration (and pikelets) at St Peter's Hall in Paekakariki on the 18th of October. Local poet Dinah Hawken, who is also Helen's supervisor for her MA in creative writing, did the honours. Copies of this limited-edition, hand-bound chapbook will be available from Unity Books in Wellington, or can be ordered through your local bookshop or direct from Seraph Press. July 2009 Montana Poetry Day 2009 To celebrate Montana Poetry Day 2009, we're featuring a poem from Cold Comfort, Cold Concrete: Poems & Satires by Scott Kendrick. For other ways to celebrate Montana Poetry Day on the 24th of July 2009, visit the official site or NZLive.com. Biograph By Scott Kendrick Chapter 1 – Early Days First Name Second Name Last Name was born. In that era, it was common practice. A sickly, stunted child, Last Name quickly. Even at school, the young First Name often. Friends from that time say he was never the sort. A teacher recalled a typical example. In the holidays, a job in his uncle’s shop. Chapter 2 – The Watershed It was at university, however. Here, Last Name discovered for the first time. Inspired by his new-found freedoms, he completed. But even then, the political climate. Recalled Last Name, “It was a time.” From that point on, Last Name’s mind was. But for the ambitious young man, there remained the problem. So Last Name returned. It was a decision that was. Would the future bring? Or would it? Chapter 3 – The Arrow Flies. The tensions were evident from the moment Last Name. Despite these setbacks, however, he never once thought. It was simply not his way to. Disappointed, but more determined than ever, Last Name approached. And so, at A Specified Age, First Name Second Name Last Name became. Said Last Name at the time, “It’s simply not.” But if he could have known then, would he still? This is a question. Chapter 4 – What Price Success? The critical and commercial reaction was. Although Last Name feigned indifference, it came as no surprise. Family and friends found him. It was during this time that the drinking. In an interview, Last Name said “I”. In A Specified Year, buoyed by his success, Last Name made the fateful. It was to be the last time. Chapter 5 – The Backlash The public response was. Hitting out angrily at his critics, Last Name accused. Furiously, he began. But the new work wouldn’t. Again, Last Name turned to the bottle, but this time. By now Last Name’s physical appearance shocked even. Worried for his health, his friends tried. “He just didn’t care,” said Footnote Friend, “no matter how.” There seemed to be no way. Chapter 6 – Final Days On A Specified Date, Last Name visited. The diagnosis was. Last Name, however, was determined to. Throwing himself into his work. And there was to be another. After A Specified Number of Years, Last Name and Footnote Friend at last. Despite his rapidly declining health, Last Name. A Specified Amount Of Time before he died, Last Name. It was to become known as his finest. On A Specified Date, First Name Second Name Last Name finally succumbed. But even in death, Last Name. As he said, just hours before. “I was.” July 2009 New books forthcoming from Seraph Press Seraph Press is getting back on the publishing horse this year, and will publish two new collections before Christmas. The first is Watching for Smoke, a debut chapbook by Helen Heath. Helen is a writer and craft-maker from Paekakariki, who blogs at Show your Workings. This short collection gathers poems that explore the different roles we have, especially in our families, such as mother, wife, lover, daughter, sister, and the tensions within and between them. It circles around in time, and makes the domestic mythic. Watching for Smoke will be a limited-edition, hand-bound chapbook. It will be published in September 2009. Also playing with the mythic in the every day is Vana Manasiadis's debut collection Ithaca Island Bay Leaves: A Mysthistorima. Vana is a Wellington writer currently based in Crete. This collection also explores family, in particular the lives of the author's mother and grandmother, their lives in Greece, and her mother's move to New Zealand as a young woman. It weaves their lives with Greek mythology, and people from Greek myth walk out and about in present-day Wellington. Ithaca Island Bay Leaves: A Mysthistorima will be published in November 2009. January 2008 The latest issue of the Poetry Society’s magazine, A Fine Line, contains a positive review of Cold Comfort, Cold Concrete: Poems & Satires, by Scott Kendrick. Bernard Gadd says: '[…] Kendrick displays a deft competence with rhyme and rhythm. He’s a useful writer for the times, his satires and barbs often being aimed at the nonsense that’s in our minds courtesy of corporate-dominated media. Readers may find themselves even reeling back in horror or shock at some of the things to be found here. And that’s as it should be … there’s plenty in our world to be horrified about.' November 2007 Check out Winged Ink, a new blog from Seraph Press Managing Editor Helen Rickerby, in which she writes about poetry, publishing, writing and reading. September 2007 Cold Comfort, Cold Concrete: Poems & Satires reviewed in Salient by Matthew Butt. 'Like all good satire it’s topical and instantly striking, and some of the articles were funny enough to earn me guarded looks as I sniggered my way through them on the bus.' More... July 2007 Cold Comfort, Cold Concrete: Poems & Satires, by Scott Kendrick, has just been launched. You get two-for-one in this hilarious and hard-hitting new collection by much-admired performance poet Scott Kendrick. As well as new poetry, this volume reprints satires originally published in the underground satirical newspaper The Babylon Express. |