Poet Tayi Tibble in Wellington. Photo / Mark Mitchell
To celebrate Waitangi Day, Canvas invited a diverse group of Aotearoa writers to nominate three New Zealand books that were special to them. By Paul Little.
The brief to the writers was as general as possible: "The books could have influenced your writing, changed how you saw Aotearoa/New Zealand or simply be your personal 'best three'."
It was intriguing to see how people interpreted or just plain flouted the rules. Brannavan Gnanalingam slipped in The Bone People as well as his three. Kevin Ireland casually slipped in the entire works of five other authors. Courtney Sina Meredith was the only author to choose one of her own books but for the best of possible reasons.
C.K. Stead pleaded to be allowed a fourth choice of Katherine Mansfield, Collected Stories, and Letters & Journals, saying "Mansfield died too young for her full powers in fiction to be realised, but taken together her stories, letters and journals represent a literary intelligence matched by few New Zealand writers." As if we would let that happen. There were surprisingly few double-ups, although Frame, Hulme and Mansfield were clearly the names most often mentioned. Here's what they wrote:
CATHERINE CHIDGEY
Faces in the Water was the first Janet Frame novel I read, and remains a touchstone. The way Frame spins something so luminous and lyrical from such dark material was a revelation.
I read Journal of Katherine Mansfield while living in Menton, where she battled tuberculosis. Despite questions around the editorial hand of her husband, her ruminations on the writing process – the need to write; the anguish of not writing – and her desk-banging declaration that 'There is nothing like it!' continue to thrill.
I return to Tusiata Avia's Fale Aitu | Spirit House again and again for its dazzling imagery, its fusion of the dreamlike with the confrontingly real, its myriad fluid voices that demand we listen. It's unsettling and exhilarating in equal parts.
Catherine Chidgey's most recent book is Remote Sympathy (Te Herenga Waka University Press).
DAVID EGGLETON
The Dictionary Of New Zealand English: a dictionary of New Zealandisms on historical principles, by lexicographer Harry Orsman musters prize examples of the wild and woolly Kiwi vernacular and corrals them in an enduring monument to the idiosyncratic glories of our language.
Passport to Hell, the Story of James Douglas Stark, Bomber, Fifth Reinforcement, New Zealand Expeditionary Force, as told to Robin Hyde, is a memoir, the story of a rebellious World War I New Zealand soldier, but it is also the most vivid affirmation of the War Hero Myth that we have in our literature. It unreels at a tremendous speed, adrenalin-fuelled and insightful to the very end.
Nuanua: Pacific Writing in English since 1980, selected by Albert Wendt.
Wendt's anthology, totemic and primal, arcs like a mighty rainbow over Oceania's island archipelagos, celebrating poets and story-tellers located variously in the Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Vanuatu, Niue, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Tonga and Samoa, and affirming their mana within Te Moana-nui to which Aotearoa belongs.
David Eggleton's most recent book is The Wilder Years: Selected Poems (Otago University Press).
FIONA FARRELL
Christopher Cricket's Favourite Tales by D.H. Gilmore. Fantasies written and illustrated by a journalist at the Herald and later the Press. I didn't know Gilmore was a New Zealander nor, at 4, did I care. My cousin owned this book. I adored it.
The Trial of the Cannibal Dog: Captain Cook in the South Seas by Anne Salmond. Years ago I picked up for five quid a ratty first edition of engravings of Cook's third voyage. Salmond's book flipped those images. The firelit "Night dance by Women at Hapaee" for instance, was not entertainment but stratagem. "Discovery" was reframed. Lucid, transformative story-telling.
The Red and the Gold. An Informal Account of the Waihi Strike, 1912 by Stanley Roche. I shared an office with Roche in Palmerston North. She wrote this book. It was lively, left-wing, female. "Not proper history," according to one academic. Roche shrugged, said, "If we don't write our books, who will?" That's when I thought perhaps I could give it a go.
Fiona Farrell's most recent book is Nouns, Verbs, etc. Selected Poems (Otago University Press).
BRANNAVAN GNANALINGAM
Janet Frame's Autobiography. There's no such thing as objectively speaking in art, but objectively speaking, this, and The Bone People, are Aotearoa's greatest-ever books. Frame's trilogy is next-level genius in its insight.
Alice Tawhai's Dark Jelly. Tawhai has written three remarkable collections of short stories and this, her third, showcases her remarkable ability to see around corners and use language in ways that constantly surprise.
Gregory Kan's Under Glass: Kan's poetry is so mysterious, so precise, so haunting. Perfect for a desert island, as I could read it over and over again and discover new worlds.
Brannavan Gnanalingam's Slow Down, You're Here will be published in April by Lawrence & Gibson Publishing.
KEVIN IRELAND
When I was young, three books helped open my eyes and become aware of the uniqueness of the local and the everyday: Herbert Guthrie-Smith's wide-ranging study of his huge farm, Tutira: The Story of a New Zealand Sheep Station, first published exactly 100 years ago. A masterpiece.
Then there's John Mulgan's novel Man Alone (1939). Since surpassed by Frame, Gee, Stead, O'Sullivan, Grace. etc, but it helped set things going uniquely. And just as extraordinary was first reading R.A.K. Mason's poems This Dark Will Lighten (1941). The best still remain magical.
Kevin Ireland's most recent book is Just Like That: Kevin Ireland New Poems (Quentin Wilson Publishing).
BILL MANHIRE
The four volumes of Ngā Mōteatea – the amazing collection of Māori song-poems compiled by Apirana Ngata. Fortunately for me, there are English translations by Pei Te Hurinui Jones and Hirini Moko Mead. This treasure-trove (roughly 2000 pages in all) will keep me going for at least a couple of decades.
Short Poems of New Zealand, edited by Jenny Bornholdt. What the title says, but any one of these tiny poems would be imaginative nourishment for several weeks.
Out the Black Window – Greg O'Brien's illustrated account of Ralph Hotere's work with poets. A great introduction to dozens of beautiful images that are calming and unsettling by turns. Also, it's lonely on a desert island, and I'll get to hang out with Hone Tuwhare, Ian Wedde and Cilla McQueen.
Bill Manhire's most recent book is Wow (Te Herenga Waka University Press).
EAMONN MARRA
Hera Lindsay Bird - Hera Lindsay Bird. Bird changed everything for young writers in New Zealand. This book was proof that we could have our own audience, use our own humour and still be successful.
Janet Frame - An Autobiography. Janet Frame somehow managed to write such a complex life full of difficult things as if it was the most simple thing in the world. It's easy to forget how brilliantly crafted it is.
Sydney Bridge Upside Down - David Ballantyne. The voice of a young narrator, who is naive, but not as naive as everyone assumes, is executed perfectly. And the setting really feels like the edge of the world.
Eamonn Marra's most recent book is 2000ft Above Worry Level (Te Herenga Waka University Press).
TALIA MARSHALL
The Priests of Ferris by Maurice Gee. This is my favourite of Gee's O trilogy because it has giant blue bears that can read minds and the birdfolk earn their freedom in an unlikely way as Susan is put to the test again.
The Kuia & the Spider by Patricia Grace. I love the way the kuia and the spider compete about their moko and then once the mokopuna turn up they are sort of hōhā and exhausting. I like children's books that aren't really about children.
The Changeover by Margaret Mahy. I read this when I was 9 but still can't get over the way Laura feels Sorry, her reluctant love interest, smile into her neck. It is also genuinely terrifying. Carmody Braque is an exquisite villain.
Talia Marshall (Ngāti Kuia/Ngāti Takihiku/Rangitāne o Wairau/Ngāti Rārua) is working on a creative nonfiction collection tentatively titled Tutū: A memoir of being hōhā.
COURTNEY SINA MEREDITH
Janet Frame - The Goose Bath. I don't think I could live without this collection of stunning "offcuts" - an accrued/hoped for mountain of verse. I live the words of the first poem over and over again.
Black Marks on the White Page - edited by Witi Ihimaera and Tina Makereti. The perfect read for a desert island - a rush to the head of contemporary Oceanic stories, shifts of light that reward re-reading. Sea salt tears aplenty - a true taonga.
Courtney Sina Meredith - Burst Kisses on the Actual Wind. There's so much love for my darling Janet Lilo in this book, that of all the works I've published, this is the collection I'd want with me on a desert island.
Courtney Sina Meredith's most recent book is Burst Kisses on the Actual Wind (Beatnik Publishing).
PAULA MORRIS
Tu by Patricia Grace. This World War II novel is epic, intimate and visceral, a story of the Māori Battalion and the one son in a family who makes it home, illuminating both the fighting of famous battles and the trauma that never disappears.
The Matriarch by Witi Ihimaera. More than thirty years after publication, The Matriarch is still raw and rich, an exploration of our brutal history and a challenge, in both its structure and story, to the way New Zealand tells its own stories.
How Maui Defied the Goddess of Death by Peter Gossage. My favourite of Gossage's books for its dazzling visuals that embrace Māori mythology, Pop Art and Space Invaders: this is wildly imaginative and unique, and a great story.
Paula Morris's most recent book is A Clear Dawn: New Asian Voices from Aotearoa New Zealand, edited with Alison Wong (Auckland University Press).
ZEB TAMIHANA NICKLIN
He Kupu Tuku Iho – Sir Dr Timoti Kāretu and the late Sir Dr Te Wharehuia Milroy Transcribed conversations with the two te reo Māori linguist on the state of te reo including various aspects of te ao Māori. A regular go-to at irregular times, serving as a constant reminder and inspiration to the quality of te reo Māori one would dream to achieve.
Huia Short Stories Collection 2021 A collection of short stories in te reo Māori and English. A variety of selections from the fiction world that takes your mind to various places, times, events and worlds beyond imagination with an underlying current of Māoti themes. A must-read.
Hone Tūwhare Selected Poems 1981 Goal: To draw inspiration as a writer, which this collection of poems will do, and has done. Consisting of 54 poems, a great selection to inspire and collect thoughts and ideas. Oldie, but a goodie.
Zeb Tamihana Nicklin is the winner of the 2021 Pikihuia Award for an emerging writer in te reo Māori.
SUE ORR
The interiority of Charlotte Randall's The Curative, published in 2000, still astonishes me today. Its narrator is a Bedlam inmate but the world inside his mind is global, intellectual and limitless.
I tried to read The Bone People by Keri Hulme on a flight to London in 1985. I was leaving home, and I sobbed all the way to Singapore. Reading it again on my island, to mark Hulme's death in December, feels just right.
Finally, 99 Ways into New Zealand Poetry by Paula Green and Harry Ricketts explores and explains poetry in all its forms. A book to learn from, as well as read for pleasure
Sue Orr's most recent book is Loop Tracks (Te Herenga Waka University Press).
EMILY PERKINS
Potiki, by Patricia Grace. An essential, enfolding novel whose story is ongoing. Probably more than any other book, Potiki opened my eyes to Aotearoa. And Toko is planted in my mind and heart forever.
I Am a Human Being by Jackson Nieuwland. Tender, funny, questioning, expansive – this collection of poetry enlarges the world, turns over its problems and celebrates its infinite variety. A reminder to imagine the first person within everything.
South Sea Vagabonds by Johnny Wray. A charming account of building a sailboat during the Depression and sticking it to the man; as well as being a joyful read it'll help me escape from the island.
Emily Perkins' new play, The Made, will be on at Auckland Theatre Company in September.
REBECCA K. REILLY
The New Animals, Pip Adam. On an island, there would be lots of time to think about how 71 per cent of Earth's surface is water and what makes a great novel. Here both topics are covered.
The Constant Losers, Alex Wild. Some people don't remember the good old days because they weren't tape-swapping, Smoove-shopping, indies circa 2010. This book remembers, and features a DJ called Frankie Goes to Hollywood Bakery.
The Garden Party & Other Stories, Katherine Mansfield. I love to read about gut-wrenching emotional moments in public spaces. In "Her First Ball" a girl is made to consider her inevitable path to matronliness and death while dancing.
Rebecca K. Reilly is the author of Greta & Valdin (Te Herenga Waka University Press).
C.K. STEAD
F.E. Maning, Old New Zealand. Maning is frowned upon by modern academics but no writer, Māori or Pākehā, penetrates so deep into the psyche of pre-European Māori, or does it with so much style, such panache.
Allen Curnow, Collected Poems From the Canterbury nationalist of his early years through the mid-century Auckland regionalist, to the international Intelligence of his last poems, it is his commanding range that makes Curnow our greatest poet.
Keri Hulme, The Bone People Two adults and a child bond like a family but the bond exists outside biology, beyond sex. There are false notes, but it is the immediacy of Hulme's writing that makes this our finest novel.
C.K. Stead's most recent book is What You Made of It: A Memoir, 1987-2020 (Auckland University Press).
SAMUEL TE KANI
Firstly, Dangerous Desires by Peter Wells. This was one of my first encounters with gay erotica and naturally incredibly formative. Its exploration of not just gay sex but homosexuality subsisting itself in the margins — or shadows — of normative national and cultural grids was, and remains, a powerful insight.
Secondly, Nights in the Gardens of Spain by Witi Ihimaera. Think I read this one in the same year, because after finding Wells I wanted more homegrown homo-erotica. This one's different though, chronicling gay life in a period-city when homosexuality was still technically illegal (or had only recently been decriminalised). The sense of place in this book, and its rendering of sex-on-site venues as a type of church, really informed me as a playbook for establishing setting imbued with sex. Love it.
Thirdly, The Bone People by Keri Hulme. I can't stress enough how profound my encounter with this book was. The marrying of Māori motifs with classical mythology, the wild eclecticism of Māori deities rubbing shoulders with Hephaestus and tarot emblems all giving the impressions of pre-cultural matrices of spiritual reality — basically I've never recovered from these poetics. Love this rightly celebrated book.
Samuel Te Kani is the author of Please, Call Me Jesus (Dead Bird Books).
TAYI TIBBLE
Fale Aitu / Spirit House by Tusiata Avia. A collection in which the subtext is as startling as the poems on the page; Avia layers history, mythology and storytelling with exact details and language so perfectly placed, I grow more enamoured with each re-read.
Festival of Miracles, by Alice Tawhai. A book that's been precious to me since I was 15. Often described as set on the "fringes" of society, these stories are full of ordinary weirdos looking for miracles in the mundane.
Bloody Woman, by Lana Lopesi. A collection of essays exploring womanhood in the Pacific; Lopesi grounds her academic knowledge of history and discourse concerning gender, race and identity in the feminine experience via storytelling and personal anecdote.
Tayi Tibble's most recent book is Rangikura (Te Herenga Waka University Press).
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