Until you send them on their way to be killed, they grant the grace of their company, draw you in with flared nostrils that pause over the bones of their dead. - – from ‘Drenching’ Unseasoned Campaigner is a layered collection exploring the complexities of farming life in Horowhenua. Poet Janet Newman uncovers territory ripe for exploration as she juxtaposes the often troubled aspects of commercial farming – the life and death of animals –with loving family relationships. The collection begins with the poet’s contemporary farming life, interspersed with memories of growing up on the same dairy farm. Newman then goes on to provides a portrait of her late father, the seasoned campaigner – a farmer working on the land, his war-induced anxiety, his hardness yet tenderness, and his widowhood. The final section, ‘Ruahine’, presents a take on being on the land now as the torch is passed to the next generation. Newman’s lyric poems are plainly and beautifully put together, with her delicate and surprising attention to form and language marking her as an exciting new voice in Aotearoa.

Bind: paperback

Pages: 106

Dimensions: 148 x 210 mm

Publication Date: 30-07-2021

Koe invites readers to explore human connections with nature through a selection of over 100 poems composed in Aotearoa New Zealand from pre-European times to the present day. Including a substantial introduction and editors’ notes, Koe is the first anthology to provide a comprehensive overview of ecopoetic traditions in Aotearoa and to locate these traditions as part of the global ecopoetry scene. In Koe, editors Janet Newman and Robert Sullivan reveal the genesis, development and heritage of a unique Aotearoa New Zealand ecopoetry derived from both traditional Māori poetry and the English poetry canon. Organised chronologically into three sections—representing the early years (poets born in or before the nineteenth century), the middle years of the twentieth century, and the twenty-first-century ‘now’—each segment presents a diverse array of voices. Across all these time frames, speaking from the conditions of their era, the poets delve into themes of humility, reverence and interconnectedness with the nonhuman world. They challenge traditional Eurocentric perspectives, highlight the significance of indigenous narratives, and wrestle with the impacts of European colonisation. With more than 100 poems of celebration, elegy, apprehension, hope and activism, Koe gives us the history that holds our future.

Bind: paperback

Pages: 315

Dimensions: 170 x 220 mm

Publication Date: 22-08-2024