americano

in his mephistophelean slink
toward some visceral glimmer
of ‘democracy’

in this ‘failed state’,

americano
pauses to pat
his shades
I n t o p l a c e.

he redeems his
brusque suit collars
with a residual slap

imperceptibly

twists
the silver fob watch
his granny gave him
before he l e f t to serve.

his precise shave chin
struts just a little more
as he grimaces his smile
against this humid hecatomb.

diplomatically,

he thews

d
e
e
p
e
r

into his groin
a special issue
snubnose

&

- vibrating like a clockwork bunny –

he waits
to redact
this next big
threat
to the flag.

Extracted from china as kafka [Kilmog Press, Dunedin, Aotearoa-New Zealand
http://kilmogpress.wordpress.com/2013/02/17/vaughan-rapatahana-china-as-kafka-phoenix-edition/

Reproduced by permission of the author.

Book Launch: http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/CU1305/S00301/two-books-lauched-by-vaughan-rapatahana.htm

Vaughan Rapatahana is a poet, philosopher, educator and now novelist. His writing has appeared in a variety of publications in Hong Kong and New Zealand. He also reviews for the Scoop Review of Books.

Vaughan's various publications include:

• Home Away Elsewhere [Proverse Hong Kong]

  http://proversepublishing.com/authors/rapatahana_vaughan

• English Language as Hydra [Multilingual Matters, U.K.] http://www.multilingual-matters.com/display.asp?K=9781847697509
• Schisms [Stonesthrow Poetry, Nevada, USA]
  http://www.amazon.com/Schisms-ebook/dp/B00AAXDOR8/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1353739266&sr=8-6&keywords=rapatahana
• She was No Good Anyway [Good Samaritan Press, Thailand]
  http://www.amazon.com/She-Was-No-Good-Anyway/dp/1482634295/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1362022447&sr=8-2&keywords=She+Was+No+Good+Anyway
• Toa - a novel [Atuanui Press, Auckland, Aotearoa-New Zealand]
  http://atuanuipress..co.nz/

Speaking in Tongues: Michael Hofmann

In the year New Zealand takes centre-stage at the Frankfurt Book Fair, it’s a pleasure to present one of the world’s most highly-esteemed translators of German literature. Michael Hofmann has translated many of the greats (Roth, Brecht, Kafka, Eich, Süskind), including his own father, the novelist Gert Hofmann. He is an award-winning poet in his own right, as well as an astute poetry critic and editor. He appears in conversation with Bill Manhire.

Date: Monday 13 August
Time: 12.15-1.15pm
Venue: The Marae, Level 4, Te Papa (please note that no food may be taken onto The Marae).

Writers on Mondays is presented with the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, and additional support from Circa Theatre, City Gallery Wellington and the New Zealand Centre for Literary Translation at Victoria University. These events are open to the public and free of charge.

WRITERS ON MONDAYS

I Come from Palmerston North: James Brown

This month sees the release of James Brown’s fifth poetry collection, Warm Auditorium. We thought it was time to find out more about the man behind the poems, and tease out the shifts and changes in the work itself. Chair Fergus Barrowman drags the poet away from his desk at Te Papa to consider how work, world and words have cohabited and evolved between the covers of his books, and to give the new poems a hearing.

DATE: Monday 30 July

TIME: 12.15-1.15pm

VENUE: The Marae, Level 4, Te Papa
(please note that no food may be taken on to The Marae)

Writers on Mondays is presented with the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, and additional support from Circa Theatre, City Gallery Wellington and the New Zealand Centre for Literary Translation at Victoria University.

6 AUGUST Bohemian Girl: Terese Svoboda
New York writer Terese Svoboda has a body of work that includes poetry, novels, memoir, translation and over a hundred published short stories. Black Glasses Like Clark Kent is a memoir of her uncle’s chilling experience as a military policeman in occupied Japan, and Weapons Grade uses poetry to interrogate the power of occupation – both political and personal. Svoboda’s latest novel is Bohemian Girl, ‘a cross between True Grit and Huckleberry Finn’. She talks with Mary McCallum.

Date: Monday 6 August
Time: 12.15-1.15pm
Venue: The Marae, Level 4, Te Papa (please note that no food may be taken onto The Marae).

Writers on Mondays is presented with the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, and additional support from Circa Theatre, City Gallery Wellington and the New Zealand Centre for Literary Translation at Victoria University.
These events are open to the public and free of charge.

We Are Immortal Launches Today

Friday 27 April
Media release
For immediate release

A limited edition journal showcasing the work of two local artists will launch in Wellington this evening.

We are immortal is the collaboration between photographer Emma Anderson and writer Jenah Shaw, both recent graduates and young artists at the beginning of their careers. The book, which combines three short stories with a series of black and white photography, went to print with funding raised on PledgeMe – New Zealand’s first crowdfunding website.

The launch will be followed by a city-wide poster exhibition displaying imagery from the book. Supported by Phantom Billstickers Ltd, this very public exhibition will run for three weeks from mid-May.

We are immortal will launch at 7pm this evening, Friday 27 April, at Wellington’s The Russian Frost Farmers Gallery. The book will be available for purchase through the project’s website, www.weareimmortal.co.nz, and stockists to be confirmed.

ENDS

http://wellington.scoop.co.nz/?p=44298
From Wellington.Scoop

Friends and former colleagues attended this week’s launch of a new book written by Mike Nicolaidi. The event was held at the Film Archive in Wellington. Read more »

POETRY ON POSTERS RECLAIMING THE WORLD.

Giving poetry the street visibility of punk and rock’n roll, Phantom Billstickers is once again launching a new series of poem posters in late April 2010. Placing poems on the walls of cities across New Zealand, the United States and towns and cities everywhere, the intent is to bring poetry to the attention of the world. This will be Phantom Billstickers fourth run of Poem Posters.

THE LAUNCH

The ten new poems will be launched at a ceremony on the 28th of April at the old Government House, University of Auckland, Princess Street and Waterloo Quadrant, Auckland, New Zealand. The event will take place from 5pm until 7pm. All are welcome.

Read more »

21 September: Short/Sharp/Script (1)
One hour, five different dramas: actors perform rehearsed readings of work produced by MA (Script) students at the IIML. This week Ken Duncum introduces scripts by Amy Rountree, Sugu Pillay, Matthew Nagel, Gwyneth Hyndman and Colin Hodson.

Read more »

31 August: Screen Dreams – Philippa Boyens

Philippa Boyens, MNZM, co-wrote the screenplay for the Lord of the Rings trilogy with Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh, for which the trio won an Oscar in 2004. She also worked on the screenplay for King Kong and the adaptation of Alice Sebold’s novel The Lovely Bones, and is collaborating on The Hobbit. She talks to Ken Duncum about her scriptwriter’s dream run.

Read more »

Writers on Mondays

John Newton’s book The Double Rainbow: James K. Baxter, Ngati Hau and the Jerusalem Commune is ‘a work of cultural history that aspires to be a work of bicultural history’. He talks with publisher Fergus Barrowman about his pilgrimage to uncover what life was really like for Maori and Pakeha communities in Baxter’s Jerusalem.

Read more »