In case anyone missed it, the Media Council did not uphold complaints about Stuff’s publication of Tusiata Avia’s poem and feature. Here is my personal favourite line from the decision.

Look ⁦Anna Smaill⁩, here’s your beautiful book! #BirdLife is coming from ⁦Scribe Publications⁩ in November

Somehow our conversation has led to this, one of the two best photos of John Ashbery

Love the illustration! Always great to talk to Philip Matthews

Shopping grief and madness Anna Smaill rnz.co.nz/national/progr…

HAPPY PUBLICATION DAY to Anna Smaill's BIRD LIFE (Scribe UK) — wonderful to watch this book fly 🐦‍⬛ . . . ‘Bird Life is an astonishing book about grief, beauty, and survival ... the writing enters your bloodstream like a strange and wonderful drug.’

Very buzzed to wake up to a starred Publishers Weekly review for this wayward wee book. Oddly pleased by the horror descriptor too 🦅 publishersweekly.com/9781957363547

BIRD LIFE reviewed by Jane Stafford. Launching this evening Unity Books Wellington 6pm – all welcome! newsroom.co.nz/2023/11/16/the…

Thanks Unity Books Wellington for such a perfect launch celebration for Bird Life. To Fergus Barrowman and Emily Perkins for such generous words and all at Te Herenga Waka University Press for making it possible.

That sweet sweet book launch bump 😁

Announcing the Guest Poet for takahē 109, James Brown! We're delighted to be including a exciting selection of poems from James' forthcoming collection, 'Leadership Material' (Te Herenga Waka University Press, 2024).

Fewer

Lovely review in ⁦⁦the Sunday Times The Times and The Sunday Times⁩ of ⁦Anna Smaill⁩’s #BirdLife… ‘a deeply affecting novel, transcending cultural barriers while reaching through them to the essentially human’ ⁦Janklow & Nesbit UK⁩ thetimes.co.uk/article/bird-l…

Oh, thank you, Rebecca! So lovely to hear this

Brilliant news for a brilliant and important poet. Congratulations, Tusiata!

1/10 I've been arguing on twitter for the lavish public funding of art, & yesterday I was reminded of a superb subgenre of public art. I wish that I hadn't gotten the reminder, though. It came after my father was admitted to Middlemore hospital's intensive care unit.

Helloooo 2024! We’re starting the year strong with five new books hitting bookshops. We have a genre-bending memoir, the life companion you need as we start the year fresh, and a magical new novel, as well as two new editions of insightful novels.⁠ More about each book🧵

Dive into the enchanting world of Bird Life by award-winning author Anna Smaill, a tale of friendship and alternate realities, longlisted for the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards 2024. Listen on BorrowBox now!