The Weight of a Thousand Oceans – review & giveaway

Wellington writers increasingly (and entirely justifiably) are viewing the ongoing climate disaster as a rich source of material for creating intriguing, imaginative speculative fiction. Based in future worlds where humanity has failed to stop a catastrophic, civilization-altering change in the climate system, these stories of what might be, if we don’t sort our shit out, […]

Books giveaway: Dreamweavers #1 and #2

Te Rā Aroha Press are about to launch Isa Pearl Ritchie’s Into the Labyrinth, the second of her Wellington-based YA Dreamweavers fantasy series (following on from Awa and the Dreamweavers, released last year). The series features Awa… …an intermediate student navigating changes to her family as a child of divorce, moving to a new school, […]

James and Bullseye Bella

While the Wellingtonista is what we do on the side of our day jobs, it turns out that almost all Wellingtonistas have a side hustle on the side of the side. Case in point: our fearless leader only went and wrote a bloody book didn’t he? So I had a chat to him.   Hey […]

DCM Bookfair dates & donations

The day of  the 2017 DCM Bookfair is Set. Set aside time for book foraging on Saturday August 5th from 8am till 8pm, at Shed 6 in Queens Wharf. Want to donate books to DCM’s Bookfair on 5 August? This week, is your last chance to donate books because there is a strong likelihood DCM may have […]

A journey around the Billiards Room (and tables)

Last week, Wellingtonista’s ace literary team was lucky enough to get invited along to the pre-launch Writers’ Week Welcome, held within the Museum Art Hotel‘s very swanky Billiards Room. Following on from last year’s sale of the Courtenay-district landmark (let’s not go busting out the dreaded “iconic” just yet) to Sydney-based EVT (Event, Hospitality and […]

Read Books, Save Lives – The Annual DCM Bookfair

Instead kicking off on all the amazing books you’ll find at Bookfair this weekend. I thought you might like to know how cold it’s been in Wellington, last night it was 2.7°C in Kelburn overnight, with a light dusting of snow.  Snow is fun except when you don’t have a place to call home, to store your belongings, […]

Zig-zag Texts

Bridget Williams Books publishes a series called BWB Texts, “short books on big subjects by great New Zealand writers”, and two new ones will be launched next Thursday at Unity Books. Martin Edmond’s Barefoot Years recounts childhood memories of life near Ohakune, while Thorndon: Wellington and Home, My Katherine Mansfield Project by Kirsty Gunn (Rain, The Big Music) will be of […]

Snakes and Shadows: History as Poetry in Chris Tse’s Year of Snakes

Cross Tory Street heading toward Aro; banish the Carrilon’s long shadow behind the white-and-teal Bible Society on your left, Nurse Maude’s mosaic gaze upon your right shoulder. Point your nose toward Tara-Ngaki Street – “shining mountain-peak” – and feel Haining Street incline beneath your feet as Tory’s constant woosh recedes into urban din. The senses […]

Curl up with a good Bookfair

It’s true i get excited by books, and every year i get excited by the Annual DCM Bookfair,  which lucky for my excitement meter (which dipped a bit post film festival) is on this weekend. At The DCM Bookfair you’ll find over 90,000 books Books, Magazine, Comics, Graphic Novels,  jigsaw-puzzles, games, DVDs, CDs, Vinyl Records, Stamps …. […]

Review: The Wind City

The latest book from local speculative fiction publishers Steam Press is the début novel of nineteen-year old Summer Wigmore. It’s a wonderful urban fantasy, set quite concretely in the very real environs of modern-day Wellington, but populated throughout with mythical characters and creatures from Maori folklore (collectively known as iwi atua). Our two main protagonists […]