Two New Zealand poets are kicking off their North Island tour in Napier this month.
Maria McMillan, from Kapiti Coast, and Whanganui's Airini Beautrais will be reading poems at Beattie and Forbes bookshop with appearances from local writers Marty Smith and Emily Dobson on July 15.
McMillan will be reading from her second full-length book, The Ski Flier, which contains a number of poems on the theme of mountains but also traverses the equally challenging landscapes of daughters, dragons, lycra, super-herodom and disempowerment.
Wellington writer Pip Adam described the book as "mindblowingly good".
Manawatu writer Helen Lehndorf said she was moved by McMillan's poems while reading the book.
"I read it and I feel seen, I feel understood, I feel part of a larger whole, I feel heartened, I feel motivated...justice seems possible, and the heartbreaks of the world feel deeply acknowledged."
Beautrais takes her inspiration from the Whanganui River throughout her collection of poems in Flow, which she will be reading from.
The book is a collection of stories about the river - large, small, geological, ecological, and human - that draw on many forms and voices and move through various stages of human settlement up to the present day.
Poet James Brown said the book is a remarkable sequence that winds and eddies like the Whanganui River, filtering the region's many histories into something exhilarating and readable.
Flow: Whanganui River Poems is Beautrais' fourth book. She has received numerous accolades including Best First Book of Poetry (2007), has been shortlisted for the Sarah Broom Poetry prize (2016) and was winner of the 2016 Landfall Essay Competition.
She also has a PhD in Creative Writing.
Both authors' new books have been published by Victoria University Press, which had published five out of the eight books that won awards in the recent Ockham New Zealand Book Awards.