New book announcement
05 Friday Apr 2024
Posted Events
in05 Friday Apr 2024
Posted Events
in20 Tuesday Jun 2023
Posted Events
in24 Friday Jun 2022
Posted Briar Wood, Events
inMānawatia a Matariki. It feels auspicious to be launching this new collection, A Book of Rongo and Te Rangahau, at this special time. Ka mua, ka muri, walking backwards into the future – in this collection poet Briar Wood considers how the lives of the two wāhine toa of the title, nineteenth century tūpuna of Ngāpuhi, continue to impact their descendants today.
We have made a short video to celebrate the launch, please check out:
Video by Annie Goldson.
Buy Briar’s book here: www.anahera.co.nz/books
Thank you to Creative New Zealand for their support of this publication.
03 Tuesday May 2022
Posted Uncategorized
inWe’re so proud of Serie Barford, whose poetry collection Sleeping with Stones is a finalist in the Ockham NZ Book Awards. Check out this digital sampler that features excerpts from the books of all four of the amazing poetry finalists this year.
Ockham NZ Book Awards 2022 Finalist Sampler
28 Friday Jan 2022
Posted Awards, Serie Barford
inCongratulations to Anahera Press author Serie Barford, longlisted in the Ockham NZ Book Awards for her poetry collection Sleeping with Stones, and to all the other longlisted authors and publishers. Wonderful to see so many wahine Māori poets on the longlist this year. Ka rawe!
01 Thursday Jul 2021
Posted Uncategorized
inAll welcome to the launch of Sleeping with Stones, a new poetry collection by one of NZ’s foremost Pasifika poets, Serie Barford. Books will be available for sale and a light afternoon tea will be served. Sleeping with Stones will be launched by Leilani Tamu. Thanks to Creative NZ for their support.
Saturday 17th July, 2–4pm, Old St Michaels, Corban Estate Arts Centre, 426 Great North Rd, Henderson.
10 Sunday Jan 2021
Posted Serie Barford
inAnahera Press re-opens: We are delighted to announce that at Anahera Press we’re opening our doors again after a 3-year hiatus. Our first offering will be Sleeping with Stones, a poetry book by Serie Barford, to be released during Matariki 2021. In 2022 we will release Briar Wood’s third collection, A Book of Rongo and Te Rangahau. Thank you to those colleagues and friends who supported our recent grant application. Ngā mihi nui.
08 Friday Jun 2018
Posted Uncategorized
inKia ora koutou, Anahera Press is taking a break while publisher Kiri Piahana-Wong is on maternity leave. All of our existing in print titles are still for sale! Buy or order at your local bookshop, or order from this website by clicking the Books tab. We regret we will be closed for submissions during this time. Ka kite ano.
16 Wednesday May 2018
Posted Awards, Briar Wood
inHere at Anahera Press we are delighted that our most recent publication, Rāwāhi by Briar Wood, has been shortlisted for the Ockham NZ Book Awards Poetry Prize. Warmest congratulations to you Briar!
01 Thursday Feb 2018
Posted Apirana Taylor
inRead the story being discussed on Jesse Mulligan’s show on Radio New Zealand on 1st February 2018.
We hope you enjoy this brand new short story by Apirana Taylor (author of Five Strings, Anahera Press, 2017).
Marae Shuffle
Just before the first ray of sunlight peeped in the door. ‘Karanga. Karanga.’ Clang, clang rang the bell. ‘E oho. E oho e te whanau.’
Aw jeez, these Ngati’s got no sleep kawa, I thought.
An arm of sunlight reached through the window. In the shadows and light on the other side of the whare shapes began to shuffle and wriggle. I turned on my back and gazed up at the kowhaiwhai on the roof above me. It’s been a long time since I’ve been on a marae. Oh just one more hour’s sleep, I sighed.
Clang. Clang. Despite the bell some slept on. My cousin Hepa snored loud enough to blow the roof off and my bro droned away beneath the pou of our tipuna.
Clang. There was no escape. I had to, maranga. I lay stretched out covered by my sleeping bag and surrounded by others who slept or began to shuffle making moaning noises and calling as they woke. ‘Kia ora sis.’
I stretched out my long arm and groped about for my overnight bag. My socks are in there, I thought. Grasp grapple. Nothing. The overnighter had disappeared. What to do.
I lay hidden from the world by my sleeping bag. Half naked and faced with the problem of getting dresed without exposing my wherewithal to all.
My feet poked up like tongues at the end of my mattress. My bag was just beyond my feet. I shuffled and stretched my leg and toes towards the elusive bag and continued to clasp my bed clothes about me. A similar shuffling and wriggling began on the opposite wall of the house as more manuhiri woke. ‘Morena. Waiata mai ra, Kiri te Kanawa,’ said Manu to her daughter who snored high as the top string.
At last I hooked my toe over my bag’s handle. I was amazed by the way I managed to crane it up to my hand, under the blankets, without being noticed as I twisted about in my mini lava lava.
A change of underwear and socks was needed and they were in my overnighter somewhere. In the semi dark I groped about for these necessary items. They were nowhere to be found. I emptied the bag beside me. Whose is this phone and whose is this lipstick. Struthe. It’s not my bag.
You idiot. I cursed myself. You left your bloody bag up by your pillow. There it is tucked away under your ancestor’s feet. I reached out. I released my sleeping bag with my left hand clutched the bed clothing with my right, keeping myself covered, as I stretched out with my left and grabbed the overnighter. The socks and undies weren’t in it.
I gave up. Somehow I’d worked myself into a tangle. One end of my lava lava was twisted around my collywobbles and the other was wrapped about my neck. I wriggled about in the dim shadow light and untangled myself. A couple more acrobatic contortions and I was ready to begin again. Off with the old and on with the new.
I found my undies and socks. They were beside me all the time. By a miracle I kept undercover and wriggled into them.
The carved faces of our ancestors gazed at me as they looked over all who slept within the house. The whaikorero, laughter, songs and chit chat. They heard it all as they sat in the fields of tukutuku under the stars on the roof.
‘E oho. Kia tere.’ Wake up. Quick. I kite au te rangatira o te tangata whenua e tu ana ki mua i te tatau.
How could I get my trousers on. Right foot stretched toe wriggled. Hook the daks up from the foot of the mattress. Still undercover. Scuffle shuffle I wriggled into my pants. I sat up and put on my shirt.
I watched other manuhiri as they stirred and wriggled out of their cocoons. Beyond the door outside, I saw the tangata whenua gathered and waiting for karakia. ‘Me karakia tatau i mua i te parakuihi.’
My shoes have disappeared. Where did I put them? Who shifted them? Who’s wearing them?
Clang Clang. Karanga karanga. As day dawned we answered the call and gathered outside the whare beneath the arms of our tipuna. I stood before the dawn in bare feet with my shirt on backwards, ready for karakia.