It's New Zealand Book Month!

March is NZ Book Month and so I headed to the library this morning to hunt out novels to read over the next few weeks, written by New Zealand authors. Here's what I'll be delving into in the days to come:

• The Rehearsal by Eleanor Catton
• Classical Music by Joy Cowley
• Come Yesterday by Sue Emms
• Towards Another Summer by Janet Frame
• The Night Book by Charlotte Grimshaw
• The Vintner's Luck by Elizabeth Knox

Find out more about NZ Book Month at their website, including info about events around the country, and to print out your $5-off voucher -- http://www.nzbookmonth.co.nz/ 

stacks

of poetry 

books

i choose 

a novel

Kirsten Cliff

New Zealand's National Poetry Day & a question for YOU!

Well, today's the day! Events are happening all around the country. For a list take a look here. But what I want to know is:   

How do you get your daily dose of haiku?

I read from Martin Lucas' Stepping Stones: a way into haiku daily, and have been doing so for maybe a year now. (I must have missed a few daily readings because there's only a years worth in there!). I also check in to the on-line haiku journal DailyHaiku each day and most days also now see what the Per Diem: Daily Haiku is on The Haiku Foundation home page (mid way down the page on the right hand side.)

My haiku reading also comes from Facebook posts and blogs I'm subscribed to. And then when new journals arrive in my letterbox I'll read them on a daily basis until I'm sated. Lastly, as I've been involved in writing quite a few rengay and renku this year, I'm almost daily reading haiku related to my latest linking verse. So much fun! :)

Enjoy National Poetry Day New Zealand! And enjoy your daily dose of haiku, where ever you are! :)

What Are YOU Reading?

March is NZ Book Month in New Zealand - a celebration of books and reading and words. I thought I'd let you know what I'm reading this March: I always have at least one book each of poetry, fiction and non-fiction on the go at any one time so that I have something to read no matter what mood I'm in.

Poetry:

• Stepping Stones: a way into haiku by Martin Lucas (British Haiku Society, 2007)
• And poetry journals that have arrived in March - Kokako 16, paper wasp: a journal of haiku 18:1, Ribbons 7:4.

Fiction:

•  The Carpathians by Janet Frame (First published in 1988)
• And I have just finished reading The Anthologist by Nicholson Baker (Simon & Schuster UK, 2009)

Non-fiction:

• Dreams and the search for meaning by Peter O'Connor (Methuen Haynes, 1986)
• And I'm reading aloud to hubby Marie-Louise von Franz: The Classic Jungian and The Classic Jungian Tradition edited by James A. Hall and Daryl Sharp (Inner City Books, 2008)

I've also bought five books so far this month (all 2nd-hand). At the NZ Book Month website you can download a $5 book voucher to discount your next book purchase. That’s for ANY book you choose priced over $10 from participating bookstores. Get all the details here.

I'd love to hear about what you're reading. Please feel free to share in the comments section, whether it's a book, journal or blog!

By The Light

          the day after chemo
          he reads by the light
          of his cellphone

a handful of stones, Thursday, 24 November 2011

A New Year

With my birthday mid-year, it's a time for me to take stock of where I'm at, and August 1st feels like the start of a new year for me. I've been busy this morning catching up on errands, writing in my journal, and generally feeling positive about the potential of life.

Only eleven months of my maintenance chemo to go, and thankfully, my blood tests are only once a month at the moment, but this scene plays out time and time again.



monday morning blood test

all the old men

reading women's magazines

Prune Juice, Issue 6, Summer 2011

Happy New Year! I hope you find something that makes you smile today :)