| Kia ora tātou,
We’re entering Haratua – the twelfth and final lunar month of the maramataka, recognised as a powerful time for reflection, harvesting knowledge and setting foundations for the future – and at AUP we’re observing this season with the timely release of a new memoir from Witi Ihimaera Smiler. Te Kaikaukau | The Swimmer: I te Ao o te Reo recounts the acclaimed author’s journey to learn te reo Māori at the age of eighty. It’s a story as generous as it is personal, recording a moment of both individual and cultural reset. As Paula Morris says, ‘it is a rallying call for all of us to overcome our feelings of shame and inadequacy, to take up the challenge of embarking on “a new and enthralling journey.”’
The book lands in stores this Thursday and we’re looking forward to celebrating it with audiences at the Auckland Writers Festival. Witi is one of eight writers appearing in the Festival gala night, each of them sharing personal ‘moments of reckoning, rebellion, resilience, reinvention, resolution or raw nerve’ in response to the theme ‘Resetting the Compass’, which was inspired by a line from the book.
You can hear more from Witi at his (free) session on Saturday 16 May at 10am, where he’ll be in conversation with Stacey Morrison. Fellow AUP authors Sereana Naepi and Philip Garnock-Jones are also taking part in the Festival this week, so if you’ve enjoyed their books or want to learn more, don’t miss their sessions – Saturday at 10am and Friday at 1pm respectively.
Read on for more on upcoming events and books and recent news from the press.
Kia mataora tātou.
Nā, te whānau o AUP
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NGĀ PUKAPUKA HOU | NEW BOOKS |
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Te Kaikaukau│The Swimmer I te Ao o Te Reo
Witi Ihimaera Smiler
Novelist, memoirist and playwright Witi Ihimaera – author of Pounamu, Pounamu and The Whale Rider – decided, at the age of eighty, to dive back into the water and spend a year full time at Te Wānanga Takiura, immersing himself in his own language, in te reo Māori.
A riveting and revealing memoir, Te Kaikaukau | The Swimmer sparkles with whaikōrero and whakataukī and is written for all – Māori and Pākehā, fluent reo Māori speakers and those for whom the language is still a mystery, a dream, an aspiration. It is the story of a Māori New Zealander reclaiming his voice, history and whakapapa in contemporary Aotearoa.
In stores 14 May. |
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| | | NGĀ PUKAPUKA E WHAI AKE NEI | FORTHCOMING BOOKS |
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Te Tiriti, Equality and the Future of
New Zealand Democracy
Dominic O’Sullivan
In this major work, the leading Māori political scientist Dominic O’Sullivan draws on theories of republicanism and the commonwealth to challenge understandings of Te Tiriti as a partnership between races, or between Māori people and the Crown.
O’Sullivan enables us to see a future for Aotearoa in which political authority and responsibility belong to everyone and should therefore work equally well for all; a country where Māori people, as much as anyone else, bring their tikanga to public life; and a society where the Crown is no longer the word we use to describe government.
For scholars, policymakers and political leaders, for Māori and Pākehā, for all of us imagining a respectful and inclusive future for our island democracy, this is essential reading.
In stores 11 June. |
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Portrait
Jackson McCarthy
A crowd gathers like black water, the mind forgets the mind, memories come knocking in the hallway, a pair of hands perfect the moon: Portrait is the debut poetry collection by Jackson McCarthy. Desire, time, vision, beauty, and solitude count among this collection’s obsessions – obsessions rendered with such close-up intensity that even Death seems to reverse or suspend its trajectory. Interrupting this lyrical streak, we hear from a narrator whose tragicomic dedication to art over life results in fraught, surreal misunderstandings of the world around him. Portrait, too, is invested in its own artfulness. Playing with layers of voice and identity, these poems appear to paint portraits of their subjects – but do so blending observation with invention, memory with deep fantasy.
In stores 11 June. |
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Ngāti Kuia He Pūtake, Hei Pakiaka Ora | A History
Madi Williams
Ngāti Kuia are tangata whenua of Te Tauihu-o-Te-Waka-a-Māui (the northern South Island). Descended from the ancestress Kuia, their whakapapa sits within a rich and complex Māori lineage, connecting with the stories held by neighbouring iwi – particularly the other Kurahaupō waka groups. Their networks also stretch towards the head of the country, linking to iwi originating from the East Coast of Te Ika-a-Māui (the North Island), such as Ngāi Tahu, Ngāti Kahungunu, Muaūpoko, and ultimately back to the Polynesian homelands, Hawaiki.
Drawing on hundreds of whakapapa, pūrākau, waiata and karakia recorded in nineteenth-century tribal manuscripts and court records, Madi Williams presents Ngāti Kuia history in Ngāti Kuia voices. From the stories of such tīpuna as Kaikaiāwaro and Hinepopo, through early encounters with neighbouring iwi and European settlers, to recent events such as the Treaty settlement process, this expansive account places Ngāti Kuia at the heart of the region’s living, layered history.
As Te Kenehi Teira observed during the Ngāti Kuia Treaty claim, the history of the iwi resembles ‘one huge jigsaw puzzle – you have to find all the pieces and put them together’. In this book, the pieces finally sit alongside one another.
In stores 11 June. |
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| | NGĀ KAUPAPA | UPCOMING EVENTS |
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| | BOOK LAUNCH
Join us in Wellington or Auckland to celebrate the launch of Portrait, the debut poetry collection by Jackson McCarthy. |
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Thursday 11 June, 6pm
Unity Books 57 Willis Street Wellington
To be launched by Anna Jackson. |
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Thursday 25 June, 6pm
Lamplight Books G01/100 Parnell Road Auckland
To be launched by Paula Green. |
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| | | | | | | AUTHOR TALK
Richard Langston will be joined by The Clean’s Robert Scott at Featherston Booktown Karukatea Festival this month. The two will be swapping stories, memories, anecdotes, and even a song or two.
Sunday 10 May, 2.30pm
Featherston Memorial RSA 57 Fox Street Featherston |
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| | | WHAKAATU PĀPĀHOU | RECENT NEWS |
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| | | They deserved a book. But what kind of book? Their longtime friend Richard Langston seems to have provided an answer.' – Russell Brown, the Listener
A whirlwind fortnight of touring, music, interviews, articles – and even a limited edition T-shirt – was wrapped with Richard Langston’s The Clean: In the Dreamlife You Need a Rubber Soul topping the New Zealand book charts as the bestselling non-fiction title in the country according to data from Nielson IQ. Read coverage in the Listener, Guardian, RNZ and more. |
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| | | ‘Congratulations, Elizabeth. Yet another triomphe.’ – Peter Simpson launches Elizabeth Smither’s The Interview Rose
Thursday, 9 April – While the South Island shook loudly with tributes to The Clean as Richard Langston’s book launched there, an intimate group gathered in the courtyard of Auckland’s Lamplight Books to welcome another collection of perfect poems by Taranaki-based poet, Elizabeth Smither. Launcher Peter Simpson said it well in his speech: |
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‘One approaches a new collection by Elizabeth with a mixture of confidence and anticipation: ‘Confidence’ because of the certainty you are in good hands, and are bound to encounter a gathering of shortish poems brimming with wit, sharp observation, surprising but telling comparisons, stylish and apt phrasing, and lashings of honesty, insight and truth. ‘Anticipation’, because although you know the sort of thing that’s coming, it always surprises and delights with fresh and unexpected discoveries. And so it is with The Interview Rose.’ |
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| | | | We’ve been alerted to several phishing scams circulating in the book industry and targeting AUP authors. They often claim to represent high-profile book clubs or other promotional services. Please be cautious of any emails offering book-related services. If in doubt, share them with us at [email protected]. |
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