Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Martin Edmond at Massey Albany (27/8)




Atrium Building
level 3 common room
Massey Albany


Wednesday 27th August
3 to 4 pm



We’ve invited Martin Edmond to come and give a reading / q & a session on campus as part of our regular seminar series.

Entrance free. Please do come along if you're curious to hear him. It's mid-semester break, so there should be plenty of parking.

Martin Edmond’s latest books Waimarino County and Other Excursions (AUP, 2007) and Luca Antara: Passages in Search of Australia (Adelaide: East Street, 2006) were both nominated for Montana awards, a prize he won in 2004 with Chronicle of the Unsung.

His work in the genre of (so-called) “Creative Non-fiction” is taught in our Massey Life Writing and Travel Writing courses, but he’s also an award-winning poet and fiction-writer. He’ll be reading from his latest book, The Evolution of Mirrors (Otoliths Press, 2008). For further details on that book, please go here.



The other dates in his NZ tour are:

Thursday 21 August, 6pm, Wellington
Writers Read: Martin Edmond

Level D, Room 16, Block 5
Entrance A, (access through "The Pyramid")
Massey University Wellington Campus
Wallace Street
Chair: Ingrid Horrocks.
RSVP: to Jo Fink (j.w.fink@massey.ac.nz or 04 801 5799 x 6696) by Wednesday 20 August.

Friday 22 August, 7pm, Palmerston North
Massey University's Writer Read series
Guest Writer: Martin Edmond

Free entry
Palmerston North City Library
4 The Square

Thursday 28 August, 2.30pm, Auckland
Mollie: On the Track of the Ohakune Elephant 1957-2008

Michele Leggott, Martine Edmond, Mandy Harper, Mary Sewall conduct an afternoon of talks and readings about Mollie, the circus elephant whose death in 1957 drew the attention of zoologist and curator Barney McGregor at Auckland University College. For more information contact Mary Sewall, m.sewall@auckland.ac.nz or 373 7599 x 83758.
Old Biology Building (McGregor 1 Seminar Rm)
University of Auckland

Thursday 28 August, 5.30pm, Auckland
Book Launch

Jack Ross launches Martin Edmond's The Big O Revisited (Soapbox Press). Register attendance with Laurel Walker, i.walker@auckland.ac.nz
Main Foyer
Old Biology Building
University of Auckland



Obviously the last of those dates is of most interest to me. I'll be launching Martin's first book of poems in almost twenty years (Streets of Music won the Jessie Mackay Award for Best First Book of Poetry in 1980, and was followed by Houses, Days, Skies (1988). Michael Steven has done a wonderful job as publisher and designer of this deluxe book of travel poems.

It's a limited edition, though, so be sure to get in quick to buy a copy. I've been scouring the second-hand bookshops for years for those two early poetry collections of Martin's.

Saturday, August 09, 2008

Pania goes 3D



This is just to signal the latest entry on the Pania Press blog, outlining our new book series-in-progress Pania Peculiars, Pania Playscripts and Pania Singles.

Bronwyn has described the genesis of some of her new 3D techniques in the write-up accompanying all the pretty pictures of pop-ups and puppet theatres (taken with the wonderful new digital camera she got for her birthday -- thanks again, June and John!).

Check it out here.

Wednesday, August 06, 2008

Tongdo Fantasia




OUi boutique is pleased to present:

Gabriel White

Tongdo Fantasia

DVD/BOOKLET LAUNCH, WINDOW PROJECTION AND PHOTOGRAPHY

PREVIEW
THURSDAY 7 AUGUST 2008 - 5.30PM
OUi boutique, St Kevin’s Arcade, K rd, Auckland

EXHIBITION 8 AUG – 4 SEPT 2008

www.gabrielwhite.co.nz
www.ouiboutique.co.nz


Those of you who've been keeping up with this blog know my views on Gabriel White's video and photographic work. I wrote a review of his previous film Aucklantis (2006) here and a brief account of our own collaborations A Town Like Parataxis (2000) and The Perfect Storm (2000) here.

On Thursday he's launching his latest work Tongdo Fantasia. This film has been a long time in the making. It's been refined and recut until it represents the essence of a Westerner's alienation - and, at the same time, paradoxically, curious at-homeness - in a strange new cultural setting: in this case, South Korea.

A suite of photographs from the work were included in Landfall 214. These, and hopefully more besides, will be on exhibition at OUi boutique for the next month. So come on up to K Rd this Thursday to check it out. You really won't regret it.

Saturday, August 02, 2008

Reading at Poetry Live this Tuesday



Trapped within the Topographical Diagram of the Kingdom, Yuan Hong was deluded by fantasies. Anything he thought of appeared before his eyes. he thought of a river, and a river appeared before him; he thought of a mountain, and suddenly he saw one. he could see and have anything he pleased. He forgot himself, and unconsciously turned back into an ape ... But before long, he saw Yang Jian coming toward him with a sword.
_ Gu Zhizhong, trans. Creation of the Gods [c.1600]. 2 vols. 1992 (Beijing: New World Press, 1996), 2: 399.


POETRY LIVE

tuesday 5th August 2008
8 pm onwards
at the Classic Studio
upstairs at 321 Queen Street


Guest Poet: Jack Ross

Jack Ross's latest novel, EMO, came out in June this year from Titus Books. To date he has published three full-length poetry collections: City of Strange Brunettes (Pohutukawa Press, 1998), Chantal's Book (HeadworX, 2002) and To Terezín (Massey, 2007), as well as two novels, two books of short fiction, and several poetry chapbooks. He edited, with Jan Kemp, the bestselling trilogy of CD / text anthologies Classic, Contemporary& New NZ Poets in Performance (AUP, 2006-8).

He (with the indispensable assistance of Bronwyn Lloyd) will be reading from his latest work-in-progress, The Puppet Oresteia.


Guest Musician: Simen Taylor

Simen Taylor's musical roots lie in old style piano blues and American folk; which he reinterprets with electricity, sweat, and swamp drawl. His live performances swing from being insanely fast to intensely slow - often all in the same song!

You can catch Simen solo, or with his three piece band: The Blue Devils. Whatever your taste in music you will agree: this twenty seven year old delivers authentic Rythym n' Blues, and Soul, with kick-ass punch. This is piano work on steroids!

Simen also plays with Tim Finn, The Darcy Perry Band, Darren Watson, and other renowned artists.

MC: Christian

Open Mic

Koha