Te Herenga Waka University Press

Five THWUP books on the 2026 Ockham Shortlist We are thrilled that five Te Herenga Waka University Press titles have been shortlisted for the 2026 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards — congratulations to all our authors! Shortlisted for the Jann Medli...

Huge congratulations to Nafanua, Erik, Ingrid, Catherine, and Tina 🎉🎉

teherengawakapress.co.nz/blogs/news/f...

Mary and Peter Biggs Award for Poetry Black Sugarcane by Nafanua Purcell Kersel (Satupa‘itea, Faleālupo, Aleipata, Tuaefu) (Te Herenga Waka University Press)* No Good by Sophie van Waardenberg (Auckland University Press)* Sick Power Trip by Erik Kennedy (Te Herenga Waka University Press) Terrier, Worrier: A Poem in Five Parts by Anna Jackson (Auckland University Press) * = first book

An honour for me and a lovely thing for my book. So pleased that 'Sick Power Trip' is shortlisted in the Ockhams. Full of gratitude. 🩵 🩷

@thwupbooks.bsky.social

www.nzbookawards.nz/new-zealand-...

Nice bit of quite surprising news. Dark times, but I love that we are celebrating books and all that they mean to us 💚🤓

Poetry Shelf celebrates the Ockham NZ 2026 Book Awards Poetry Long List: Erik Kennedy Sick Power Trip, Erik KennedyTe Herenga Waka University Press, 2025 Animals on Leads We entered the town and the first thing we sawwas a woman taking her ferret for a walk.‘Nice day for it,’ I…

nzpoetryshelf.com/2026/02/25/p...

Poetry Shelf celebrates the Ockham NZ Book Awards Poetry Long list: Nafanua Purcell Kersel Black Sugarcane, Nafanua Purcell KerselTe Herenga Waka University Press, 2025 Moana Pōetics We build a safe around our birth stones.Craft it with a dream, a gourd, a drum-madechant. Pile it high wi…

nzpoetryshelf.com/2026/03/01/p...

Poetry Shelf celebrates the Ockham NZ Book Awards poetry longlist: Tusiata Avia Giving Birth to My Father, Tusiata AviaTe Herenga Waka University Press, 2025 Ah. Tusiata Avia’s sublime fifth poetry collection is like moving into a meditative room where grief and love are…

Tusiata Avia! book number nine and it is a beauty nzpoetryshelf.com/2026/03/02/p...

Traps and Prisons | Evangeline Riddiford Graham Rather than create opportunities for similarly milquetoast morality and wobbly reasoning, Adam forces her readers to commit to the giants outright and upfront, and base our solidarity purely on the pr...

“This is science fiction besieged by the banality of its astronauts.” New: Evangeline Riddiford Graham on Pip Adam. www.nplusonemag.com/online-only/...

Great to see a substantial essay on @pipadam.bsky.social's work, "Audition" (her latest) in particular.

"Her work is now beginning to reach the US audience it deserves..."

Traps and Prisons | Evangeline Riddiford Graham Rather than create opportunities for similarly milquetoast morality and wobbly reasoning, Adam forces her readers to commit to the giants outright and upfront, and base our solidarity purely on the pr...

Love this thoughtful engagement with Pip Adam's whole body of work, by Evangeline Riddiford Graham for n+1.

@nplusonemag.com
@pipadam.bsky.social

www.nplusonemag.com/online-only/...

Sir Geoffrey Palmer holding his new book Parliamentary Privilege in the air at his book launch.

If this photo could have sound you would hear the former prime minister bellowing CHARTRUESE at the top of his lungs.

Such is the power of design.

I just finished this book, with tears in my eyes.

Remarkable.

I'm not sure I've ever been as 'seen' by an author, nor identified as strongly to a character, as with this book.

If you ever want to understand why us kiwi men are so fucked up, this book will show you.

Tomorrow!

'At the time, we didn’t have a framework for thinking of sexual desire as a thing that we had ourselves, as teenage girls. Sexual contact was something boys wanted and girls resisted and then gave in to. But then I say to myself 'Self- control, Kate, Self-control,' so I guess I am acknowledging it.'

Leather & Chains: excerpts from Kate Camp’s 1986 diary 'In the pantheon of bad teenage writing, this surely rates among the greats.'...

Leather & Chains: excerpts from Kate Camp’s 1986 diary

The Unity Books bestseller chart for the week ending February 20 The OG Wuthering Heights has arrived....

The Unity Books bestseller chart for the week ending February 20

Our absurd, yearning lives: launching Lyrical Ballads and What to Wear On 11 February 2026, we gathered with a huge crowd at Unity Books Wellington to celebrate new books from two beloved poets. We were very lucky to have Robyn Marsack visiting from Scotland to launch Ly...

'Our absurd, yearning lives' – here's Robyn Marsack's speech from the launch of Lyrical Ballads and What to Wear, if you missed the event, or want to revisit her words.

teherengawakapress.co.nz/blogs/news/o...

Poetry Shelf noticeboard: Jenny Bornoldt Auckland Poetry launch Kia ora,Join us next week for an Auckland celebration of Jenny Bornholdt’s new poetry collection, What to Wear. A wise and beautiful collection from one of New Zealand’s most …

nzpoetryshelf.com/2026/02/20/p...

Good news — the Verb Festival will be back in Wgtn this year, with new co-directors Gabrielle Vincent and Kate McDonald. Dates are 11–13 September 2026, with LitCrawl running separately on November 14. Verb will also be delivering special one-off events with international writers, and residencies.

Poetry Shelf reviews: Lyrical Ballads by Bill Manhire Lyrical Ballads, Bill ManhireTe Herenga Waka University Press, 2026 Lyrical Ballad I bought a bend in the river. It was a good,quiet bend.You couldn’t see around the corner and after a fewste…

Absolutely love this new collection nzpoetryshelf.com/2026/02/20/p...

Why I’ve watched Schitt’s Creek 43 times (and counting) 'Am I an obsessive time-waster? Or have I found something beneficial to my life? I vote for the second option.'...

Why I’ve watched Schitt’s Creek 43 times (and counting)

The Hamilton Arts Festival starts tomorrow: the oneliner below misses out literature, but HamLit looks worth a visit, with appearances by Tusiata Avia, Kate Camp and others - and Jo Randerson is performing her show Speed is Emotional hamiltonartsfestival.co.nz

Book Critic: New poetry from one of NZ's Greatess Claire Mabey joins Jesse to review the following books: Stepping Up by David Hill Lyrical Ballads by Bill Manhire What to Wear by Jenny Bornholdt

The wonderful Claire Mabey reviewed Lyrical Ballads, What to Wear, and Leather & Chains on RNZ Afternoons yesterday...

www.rnz.co.nz/national/pro...

'Tusiata Avia’s poems in Giving Birth to My Father haunt me because the grief is as much for the living as for the dead.'

We too are very excited to see this book in the world: it won the 2023 Adam Foundation Prize, so it’s been a while coming, but will be worth the wait!

Kate Camp and her 1986 diary The year was 1986 - a time defined by Ghostbusters on VHS, the height of Jazzercise tights, and the only year that acclaimed Wellington poet and author Kate Camp kept a diary.

Kate Camp's book launch is at Meow bar, Wellington in 90 minutes! And the rain has stopped for us :)

See you soon, and you can warm up for the event with this great Nine to Noon interview with Kate from this morning...

www.rnz.co.nz/national/pro...

Have this Heart From acclaimed author Lawrence Patchett, Have This Heart is a compulsively readable story collection about men who are trying to do better. Whether training a rescue dog, starting a bucket chain to pu...

Cover painting by Euan Macleod.
Cover design by Todd Atticus.

More info and pre-orders here: teherengawakapress.co.nz/products/hav...

The cover of this novel is a painting in blues, whites and browns, showing the back of two male figures. In the foreground, yellow text reads 'Have This Heart' and under that, white text reads, 'Lawrence Patchett.'

Praise for the author, from Catherine Woulfe and Dougal McNeill

We're looking forward to sharing this with you on 14 May! Have This Heart by Lawrence Patchett is a compulsively readable story collection about men at work, men trying to do better, and what happens when your life doesn't let you hide. Tightly coiled, tender, and unforgettable.

Lucky Creatures In his debut essay collection, award-winning Filipino-Kiwi essayist Joseph Trinidad explores the lessons of his grandmother’s chicken farm and his grandfather’s lucky golden fish; the vibrancy of his ...

More on the book, plus preorders, here: teherengawakapress.co.nz/products/luc...

Cover design by Todd Atticus.
Cover photo by Julie Zhu and Saraid de Silva.

The cover of Lucky Creatures has the title and the author's name, Joseph Trinidad, and a photo of the author with his family. They're a Filipino-Kiwi family, dynamic and smiling and talking on and around a couch, many have their arms around each other.

Praise for Lucky Creatures. ‘an entirely original voice’—Alexander Chee ‘visceral and funny and profound’—Rose Lu ‘Magnificent. Tell everyone about this book.’ —Saraid de Silva ‘a vibrant intervention into the literary landscape’—Lana Lopesi

We're so excited to have this book coming! Lucky Creatures by Joseph Trinidad — a bold, warm, and funny debut essay collection and winner of the inaugural Sarabande Prize in the Essay, judged by Alexander Chee. Out 14 May 2026.

More info here: www.facebook.com/share/182Zgn...