THE GROOVE BOOK REPORT

  Photo: Tim Gruar  Michalia Arathimos is a Greek-New Zealand writer. She has published work in many places, including Best New Zealand Fiction Volume 4, Lost in Translation, Sport, Turbine, Overland, The Lifted Brow, Westerly, and JAAM. She completed her Masters in Creative Writing at the IIML in 2006, and was a Writer in Residence at the Robert Lord Cottage in 2008. She is is the Randell Cottage New Zealand Writer in Residence for 2020, and also a Grimshaw Sargeson Fellow for 2020.  She talks to the CoffeeBar Kid about her time at the cottage and her project 'Cartographia'.  She is here with her partner and son and is settling back in to Wellington, her home town.  She tells us about her writing and her 'Covid' experiences amongst other thing in this intriguing and candid interview.   In 2015 Michalia edited Blackmail Press 41, a special issue entitled 'Piercing the White Space', which was published in November. She also won the 2015 LIANZA Libra...

Join the Randell Cottage Writers Trust and Friends of the Randell Cottage for an evening of readings and conversation with the 2020 Creative New Zealand Randell Cottage writer in residence Michalia Arathimos . For Michalia Arathimos notions of home are inextricably bound up with the notion of xenitia - a feeling common in the Greek diaspora, a feeling of being in exile, or of longing for ‘home’. But the real meaning of xenitia is untranslatable. It is a longing for a home that no longer exists, or which perhaps never existed in the first place. How does this longing, this loss play out in the life of a writer who is the child of migrants living in a colonised country? And how does she explore that in her work? www.randellcottage.co.nz  

Sometimes we get books here at the Groove Book Report that just blow you away.  Fran Dibble and a variety of photographers, including the couple themselves, document Paul's incredible sculptural projects and public art over the decade 2010 - 2020. This is Fran's third book on her husband.  But she still writes with fresh eyes and a real affection for him and his work.  She write like she really knows him.  'Course she does.  This is a 'family business' as photos later will show - both are sharing the load, forging, casting, cutting, loading.  This book seeks to illustrate Dibble’s art through the most recent period – 2010 to 2020, previously unrecorded and his most furtive years to date.   "All modern artists have tended to follow a similar path of first mastering realism and then successfully paring it away... first conquering realism and then, through a process of elimination, removing the unnecessary."  Fran Dibble Check the interview on B...

Ko tētahi o ngā tino kōrero mā ngā tamariki ā mohoa nei, ko tā J.K. Rowling Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, kua whakawhitia ki te reo Māori. Auckland University Press have released a version of J.K. Rowling’s most famous book - Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, translated into te reo Māori. In the first volume of one of the greatest children’s stories of all time, Ron and Hermione, Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall introduce Harry and the reader to Quidditch and You-Know-Who, to the promise of magic and the inheritance of the past. Now inspirationally translated into te reo Māori by Leon Heketū Blake, the story starts here.  The book promises to bring new perspectives with the translation and open up Rowling's work and te reo to a whole group of new readers.  T e Kaiwhakamāori / Translator Nō ngā iwi o Tūhoe, o Tūhorangi, o Ngāti Wāhiao, o Ngāti Whāwhākia, o Ngāti Porou, o Taranaki, o Ngāti Kahungunu, o Te Whānau a Apanui a Leon Heketū Blake, ā, kua roa ia ...

Simon Sweetman is a blogger, reviewer, podcaster, and author of the wonderful ' On Song: Stories Behind New Zealand’s Pop Classics ' has released his first poetry collection -'The Death of Music Journalism' ( Cuba Press ).  Simon's website ' Off The Tracks ' is essential reading for any keen music fan.  Simon’s been writing poems since he was first listening to bands on his Walkman, but then he started sharing them via social media and open mic nights.  He writes about late-night encounters on the phone with rock stars, hanging out as a student in Wellington flats, the simplicity of time spent with family and the unpredictable life of a freelance music reviewer, and what happens when these things occasionally intersect. A natural storyteller whose poetry is filled with characters both famous and ordinary, this eagerly awaited collection is unpredictable, anarchic, playful and surprisingly heartfelt. ___________________________________________________________...

Combined Open Days at Randell Cottage, Lilburn House and the Rita Angus Cottage were held on Sunday.  This is where the  homes of New Zealand writers, composers, and artists were open to the public as part of the Wellington Heritage Week.  Sunday 1 November  was an opportunity for the public to enjoy exploring and celebrating art, music and literature at three historic Thorndon creative residencies.  The wonderful Randell Cottage, Lilburn House and Rita Angus Cottage opened their doors and gardens to all comers.  At Randell cottage there were three writers presenting their works. Upcoming poet Ruby Solly read poems from her upcoming book.  Randell Cottage resident author Michalia Arathimos gave us a new short story and a glimpse into what she's working on while she's staying at the cottage, and seasoned writer Linda Burgess read from her best seller: 'Somebody's Wife'.  Ruby Solly (Kai Tahu) is a writer, musician and taonga puoro practitioner livi...

Be prepared for trauma with this moving, honest and raw account, written in prose and verse of one young woman's pathway through violence and addiction.  "at six, my mother's boyfriend forced his fat hairy hand inside my heart-shaped face ... (abbridge) ... his hand tasted of salt a metallic tang of rust the hot edge of petrol from the pump still lingering on his fingers" from 'Dislocation' Whoa.  These lines will make you shiver.  And there's others , too.  Strap in for a harrowing ride. "I slide two fingers down my throat  to ease out the knots  I have folded myself into" from 'Knots' 'My Honest Poem' is a moving and powerful poetry collection surveying one young woman's recovery from a fractured life punctuated by family violence and addiction.  As obvious as it seems, it's both a coming-of-age story and a recontruction of strength strength and hope that try to fill in the gaps where time erodes trauma and where healin...