In the plethora of literary magazines on offer, where do you start? Elizabeth Heritage offers some excellent options. Elsewhere, Kate de Goldi returns with a novel centred on a pet-minding orphan, and discover a new work of sci-fi: Pasifikafuturism. Happy reading.
COOL LITERARY MAGAZINES YOU'VE NEVER HEARD OF
There's one for every taste and interest. Elizabeth Heritage highlights just a few.
Kei te pai press Journal
Theme: Live, Laugh, Land back
The Kei te pai press Journal comes out once a year around Matariki and features new writing and visual art by kaituhi Māori as well as republications of older works. It began in 2020 and is organised by Hana Pera Aoake (Ngāti Mahuta, Ngāti Hinerangi, Tainui/Waikato, Ngāti Waewae, Hurai) and Morgan Godfery (Te Pahipoto, Lalomanu).
Aoake says they were inspired by a series of pukapuka from the 90s called Te Ao Mārama, edited by Witi Ihimaera. "Those books are really important to us. We need to appreciate the whakapapa of writing, especially Māori women writers, and make sure those authors are being republished and cared for. For example, Keri Hulme wrote so much more than The Bone People – she was an exceptional poet and wrote great short stories and non-fiction."
The current issue, Te Kotahitanga, includes the work of Hulme and of Arapeta Hineira Kaa Blank (1932–2002), one of the first kaituhi Māori to write and be published in English. Te Kotahitanga is published in print as a newspaper as a tribute to the many Māori newspapers of the past. It will be available online once Matarau, the art exhibition with which it is associated, closes next month.
How to read: Current issue available in print at the City Gallery Wellington Te Whare Toi for free; previous issues at keitepaipress.com. See also: Tupuranga Journal tupurangajournal.com
eel mag
Theme: eels are queer and trans; so is this mag
eel mag is a new online poetry journal featuring the work of local queer writers. The first edition came out in May this year. Co-editor Lily Holloway says: "eel mag came to fruition after the success of Out Here: An Anthology of Takatāpui and LGBTQIA+ Writers from Aotearoa New Zealand. We wanted to create a space that was explicitly for queer poetry, where writers can submit work, be paid for it, and have every aspect of publication handled by another queer person. As one of my co-editors Nathan Joe puts it, we should always be historians for our own community.
"eel mag is open to work that deals with trauma, that is messy, sexy, or bends form. Performance can often be integral to queer poetry and so we invited poets to send us audio and video versions of their poems as well as text." All formats are free to access on the eel mag website.
"During funding applications we'd been told that there wasn't an audience for what we wanted to do, but we've had a huge response to our first edition. Over 100 poets made submissions, and we've had more than 1300 unique visitors to our website from people in 33 countries. We have already secured funding for a second edition." Read at: https://eelmag.com/ See also: Overcommunicate te maha o ngā kōrero https://www.overcommag.com/
Moon Musings
Theme: Ramadan in Aotearoa
This is the second year in which Wellington-based Muslim poets Khadro Mohamed and Ronia Ibrahim have written poems every night of Ramadan that are then published as the Moon Musings zine. Mohamed says: "Since the March 2019 attacks, for many Muslims, showing up as unapologetically ourselves has become increasingly important. Our zine says 'I'm here and I don't care if you like it'. I'm happy that this is something our community can turn to and have full ownership of."
The current issue of Moon Musings was launched at a local mosque. Ibrahim says: "I was anxious that those unfamiliar with such an environment would feel uncomfortable. But I had so many heartwarming responses from people who said they felt welcome, at peace, and even at home. We've had a lot of readers who aren't poetry people or religious connect with our work, which just goes to show how faith is something to be shared." Buy from: https://shop.goodbookshop.nz/ See also: Minarets https://minarets.info/
Stasis
Theme: Supporting one another through Covid
Stasis Journal has two online issues featuring fiction, poetry, non-fiction, and visual art by Kiwi creatives.
Co-editor Jordan Hamel says: "We started Stasis in the first lockdown because we were worried about our friends who were losing all their gigs and income. We wanted to give writers a platform to share their work and make a little bit of cash, so we paid people out of our own pocket until we got a Creative NZ grant.
"We've had heaps of positive feedback from readers – my favourite is when it's from someone who wouldn't traditionally pick up a literary journal but who reads Stasis and really enjoys it." Read at: https://www.stasisjournal.com/ See also: Sweet Mammalian https://www.sweetmammalian.com/
Te Whē
Theme: Creating knowledge through story
The inaugural issue of this bilingual literary journal, Te Whē ki Tukorehe, Te Hau o te Whenua, grew out of a wānanga at Tukorehe Marae in 2020 at which 16 kaituhi Māori came together to weave their own experience into the stories of the land. Co-organiser Anahera Gildea (Ngāti Tukorehe) says: "We wanted to ask, what is the relationship between story and whenua, and how do we nourish the landscape of Māori literature?
"After two days of discussion, including a story gifted to us by a local kaumātua, the writers returned home to create works that spoke to their particular experience. Following a peer review process, Te Whē ki Tukorehe emerged as the expression of the people, the time, and the place combined. It was launched at Tukorehe marae and presented back to the haukāinga as a taonga. We want to flood the world with literature that is broader, stronger, different and more challenging."
Gildea has received invitations from other marae to create future issues of Te Whē and hopes to do so next year. Download from tewhe.nz. See also: Awa Wahine Magazine awawahine.com
JUST OUT
The beloved Kate de Goldi is back with Eddy, Eddy (Allen & Unwin, $30). The titular Eddy is an orphaned teen living in post-earthquakes Christchurch, running his own pet-minding business and learning to deal with loss and grief.
Gina Cole's second book, science-fiction novel Na Viro (Huia, $35), is described as a work of Pasifikafuturism. Her short story collection Black Ice Matter was named the best first book of fiction at the Ockham NZ Book Awards in 2017.
Debut crime novel One Heart One Spade, by Alistair Luke (Alistair Luke, $35), is set in 1970s Wellington. A woman is missing, a drug dealer is dead and a police detective with the compulsory messy personal life doesn't know who to trust.
Lily the Goat is bored. She's already "chewed a jandal and chased the dog, disturbed a wētā under a log" and got up to other gentle mischief when she spies a trampoline. Goat on a Trampoline, by Amy Harrop, illustrated by Ross Hamilton (Bateman Books, $22), is out on July 11.
5 QUICK QUESTIONS WITH CRISTINA SANDERS
1. You write about colonial New Zealand - what is the appeal?
People in colonial times were the same as today: entitled, adventurous, greedy, searching for enlightenment and getting stuff wrong. History is a continuum where the context changes but human nature doesn't so much, and imagining ourselves back there challenges how we think about our lives today. Victorian stories are basically the same as modern ones, just with square-rigged sailing ships, top hats and outrageous attitudes to almost everything.
2. You have published three books in three years. What did you do before writing, or is this something you have always done?
I read. Compulsively.
3. You're a trail runner. There is often a connection between physical movement and mental breakthroughs. Do you find that it contributes to your writing?
Yes! I'm no pro athlete but do like winding paths up hills so I need to concentrate on my feet or I will fall over. It's impossible to think about anything more than the next step so all the jumbled thinking disappears. Walking works, too, but it's a different zone. Walking's all about rhythm. Run for plot, walk for poetry.
4. What else do you find helpful for your writing?
Listening to interesting people telling stories – snippets of legends, local or family history. I seem to have become a bit of a story magnet. My head is full of Grandma's crinoline dress on the woodpile, a warrior buried upright in the sand, the baby carried through the mountains. It was a fellow sailor who asked me if I knew the story of Mrs Jewell and the Wreck of the General Grant and had me hooked: the escape from the cliff cave, the woman castaway – a novel born from one conversation.
5. There must be a book #4 on the go – what can you share about it?
I've got three starters on the go at the moment, with research and characters fermenting away at different stages. Unrequited love and sewage in 1880s Wellington; a sequel to Displaced; and a shameful piece of early Auckland history. I'm excited by all of them, but particularly the story around Wellington sewage. I might call it Stink. Another example of how things haven't changed much in 140 years.
Mrs Jewell and the Wreck of the General Grant, by Cristina Sanders (The Cuba Press, $37), is out now.