THE GROOVE BOOK REPORT

  Schrödinger’s Bookshop in Petone has been named Bookshop of the Year 2026, a recognition that celebrates not just exceptional curation but the living, breathing culture a store builds around itself. The award honours independent bookshops that demonstrate outstanding community engagement, creative programming, and a commitment to fostering literary life.  Owner Claire has shaped the shop into a hub where readers, writers, and curious wanderers collide, creating an atmosphere that feels both deeply local and quietly magical. Winning this title is no small feat—and in Schrödinger’s case, it’s a testament to a space that has become a cultural anchor for Petone. This marks the second time Schrödinger’s Bookshop has earned the award, underscoring the strength of its bookshop community—a loyal, enthusiastic crowd that treats the store as a gathering place rather than a retail stop. Regulars champion local authors, pack out events, and help sustain the eclectic, adventurous spirit ...

Gertrude Stein—avant‑garde American poet, art collector, queer icon, friend to Picasso and Hemingway, and self‑declared genius—may be a new name to many New Zealand readers, yet she remains one of the most influential figures in literary modernism, a writer who has baffled and exhilarated critics for more than a century.  In Deborah Levy’s dazzling new fiction, the narrator travels to Paris to understand why Stein matters, and in doing so becomes entangled with Eva, “with the blinding gaze,” an artist negotiating a long‑distance marriage, and Fanny, a sexually adventurous financier; together they cook, walk, read, and argue late into the night.  As Paris sweeps her along in its ceaseless flow, the narrator thinks about what must be surrendered to become modern—how to navigate anxiety, uncertainty, angry fathers, migration, art, and language—and how these questions looked to Gertrude Stein in the early twentieth century and look to her and her friends now, in the early twenty‑f...

MEDIA RELEASE - AVAILABLE FOR IMMEDIATE PUBLICATION - 23rd JULY 2027 Verb Readers & Writers Festival returns to Pōneke September 25th - 27th 2026!  Post a year’s hiatus,  Verb returns for 2026 with more than 20 events from over 50 artists, doing what it does best - presenting the bold, the brilliant and the unexpected! Verb  Readers & Writers Festival returns to the capital running September 25th - 27th, alongside some exciting pre festival teaser events running from September 23rd. This year's programme features an exceptional lineup of local and international authors, with the first two artists announced below. Across the festival weekend, writers and artists will take to the stage of the iconic Pōneke venue, The Hannah, for a series of joyful events filled with inspiring conversations; where creativity bursts off the page. Book launches, workshops and lively, crafty activations will be set up in satellite venues, all in the heart of Te ...

The Poetry Aotearoa Yearbook 2026 — issue #60 — arrives with the weight of its 75‑year history, a lineage stretching back to Louis Johnson’s slim 1951 volume. What began as a tentative national anthology has become New Zealand’s longest‑running poetry journal, a rare feat of continuity in a literary culture often vulnerable to the vagaries of funding and fashion.   The Yearbook is both mirror and map: A mirror — reflecting the diversity and urgency of contemporary NZ poetry. And as a map — guiding readers toward future directions, from Pasifika voices to experimental forms. From Baxter and Curnow in the early decades to Tse, Ranapiri, and Avia today, the Yearbook remains a living chorus of voice. From Elizabeth Hawkes’ All Souls and Josiah Morgan’s redactions embody the tension between tradition and innovation. A legacy and well grounded whakapapa.  Johnson’s founding vision was succeeded by Frank McKay, who revived the series in the 1970s, and later David Drummond and Al...