AI email text excerpt: "The algorithm is showing your book to people searching for literary awards contenders. Those people want serious and grounded. You are neither of those things. You are strange and playful and sad."
Savage email received from an AI this morning. I'll take "strange and playful and sad" as a compliment. But I feel this should not preclude writing from also being serious and grounded or literary 💀😂
We're stoked to announce the return of the Matariki Short Short Story Celebration for 2026!✨✨✨
Nine selected stories receive editorial feedback and publication in the August issue (#117) of takahē, along with NZ$150.
www.takahe.org.nz/competitionn...
Lots of tech dudes think the "idea" is the important part of creating, not the creative journey you take through work to give that idea actual meaning. Ideas are the easiest, cheapest and least fulfilling part of it. Giving ideas life through work, and sharing that work with others, is the stuff.
Basic Income for the Arts: "A revolutionary new policy at zero fiscal cost, in fact likely fiscal gain, and yet seemingly too challenging for Labour and the Greens."
And @erikkennedy.com raises a fair point – go bigger, go UBI.
#NZpol
newsroom.co.nz/2026/03/23/i...
Photo showing the spines of Hilary Mantel's Cromwell trilogy: - Wolf Hall - Bring Up the Bodies - The Mirror and the Light
Just finished Hilary Mantel's masterful trilogy:
- Getting Rid of Katherine
- Getting Rid of Anne
- Getting Rid of Cromwell
Brutal and brilliant. Hard to name a more significant, sustained achievement of literary craft in recent times.
Of course, I'm rather late to the party 👑📚
"How can we use our skills and expertise to make a difference."
Lawyer Jessica Palairet on accountability and opportunity in upholding climate change law.
#NZpol
www.rnz.co.nz/national/pro...
Thrilled to be part of this Toi Art x Verb event on Saturday 28 March at Te Papa, sharing new fiction in response to photography by Leslie Adkin, with:
@jordanhamel.bsky.social @jackremiel.bsky.social @clairemabey.bsky.social
📸✍️💚
tepapa.govt.nz/visit/events...
This library was especially important to me, when I moved to Welly as a closeted uni student still trying to make sense of who I was. On these shelves I found essential perspectives into the questions I was carrying, and a new sense of belonging. Crazy to see they've now got space for me on a shelf.
Felt a bit tearful returning to Te Matapihi Central Library. It's an extraordinary place, well worth celebrating.
Today was like greeting a dear friend after many years, and finding them in better health than ever.
Language is indeed a virus and corporate-ese has infected every sphere of society, spilling from offices into politics, sports, the news, even the arts. Withering nuance, shrinking depth, starving variety. I too have found myself weakened by this plague, covering my mouth in shame and shock.
The Art Lens is a new youth-led journal designed to support young (under 25) writers in Aotearoa by providing a platform to publish, promote, and discuss their work.
"The Law Commission said the status quo wasn’t strong enough... The practical effect of these changes would have been to confirm that these groups have protection from discrimination in housing, hiring and access to goods and services."
#NZpol
newsroom.co.nz/2026/02/25/h...
He uses targets as a convenient way to shift blame. Just a hack manager who makes bad rules then tells everyone else they're the problem.
Thank you! Hope others agree 😅
Thank you! 😁
Thanks Helen!
Damien and Ruby: e kore rawa e mutu aku mihi ki a kōrua. Your mahi at Āporo Press continues to show that with vision, grit, and the right partnerships, more writing from the fringes can break through to the light.
Call it a mordant, literary crime novel about love, family, nostalgia, and obsession.
#TheCarnivoreDiaries #pukapuka #NZbooks
Gay scriptwriter Lewis returns to the home he once fled. His parents have recently separated, and are now missing. Lewis tries to unravel the tangled mysteries, while looking after Doggo the family Labrador. We witness a darkening world through his recordings and those of his luckless mum and dad 🐶📒
TITLE PAGE: The Carnivore Diaries By Anthony Lapwood about 86,000 words “Now the truth of the story was this:” — Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote “It seemed like a nice neighbourhood to have bad habits in.” — Raymond Chandler, The Big Sleep “Love is an open wound.” — Charles Brasch, “Into the Hands of Men” “I think perhaps all of us go a little crazy at times.” — Robert Bloch, Psycho
Photo of a golden Labrador lying on green grass and smiling with an open mouth into the camera.
Thrilled to share some big news: my next book, The Carnivore Diaries, will be published later this year with Āporo Press 🍎
#TheCarnivoreDiaries #pukapuka #NZbooks
@damienlevi.bsky.social
"It would be funny if it weren’t so depressing. Because while politicians are dragging their feet, hoping someone else will be in charge by the time New Zealand runs out of time and has to start making difficult decisions, climate change is already here."
#NZpol #climatechange
life ending and infrastructure destroying floods are now an annual occurrence in new zealand. there is no political recognition of this new reality, and thus there is no resourcing for its prevention. we are not ready
"Crossed With the Cat" is now available to read on the NZ Listener website.
PS: I like the choice of image for the story. Unexpected but quite appropriate.
www.nzherald.co.nz/the-listener...
DELIGHTED to be included as a summer fiction writer for NZ Listener 🥳🙏 A wonderful way to start 2026, and in such fine company, esp @antzlapwood.bsky.social 🥂🥰
Thank you. I enjoyed your story 🐦⬛
For those who've been following along at home, you may recognise some medical details relating to our own beloved cat... It's worth noting these are the only specifics in the story taken from life.
RIP Virginia, we miss you.
Magazine spread featuring the text of "Crossed with the cat" by Anthony Lapwood, with a supporting image of a blow torch flame.
Portion of magazine spread of "Crossed with the cat" by Anthony Lapwood.
Photo of a tabby cat (Virginia) at the vet, with bandaged paw and IV drip line.
Photo of a tabby cat (Virginia) in a cat box with head hanging out the doorway hole.
Chuffed to have a new short story, "Crossed With the Cat", out via NZ Listener 😺
The title comes from a Mark Twain quote: "If man could be crossed with the cat, it would improve man, but it would deteriorate the cat."
Huge congratulations to our Pushcart Prize 2026 nominees! 🎉 We’re cheering loudly and wishing you all the luck.
www.takahe.org.nz/nominations/
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My year in books (apologies for the awkward cutoffs). Loved many, disliked very few. Hope you found plenty of great reading too 📚💚 1/2