Books

Mark's complete publication bibliography is available here.

Books/Anthologies edited by Mark Pirie

Out of It: A Novel Cricket NovelOut of It: A Novel Cricket Novel (Published 2012)
Michael O'Leary's Out of It was first published in 1987. Since then it has become a New Zealand cult classic and is possibly the only New Zealand literary cricket novel published here. The novel conjures a surreal cricket game between New Zealand and an invitation Out of It XI at Eden...
A Tingling Catch: A Century of New Zealand Cricket Poems 1864-2009A Tingling Catch: A Century of New Zealand Cricket Poems 1864-2009 (Published 2010)
'A Tingling Catch' is the first anthology of New Zealand cricket poems to be collected. This substantial volume traces the history of cricket poetry in New Zealand from 1864 to 2009 spanning 145 years of New Zealand cricket. It brings together verse and song by some of our best poets - past...
Rail Poems of New Zealand Aotearoa: An AnthologyRail Poems of New Zealand Aotearoa: An Anthology (Published 2010)
The railway has been a dominant presence in New Zealand life for a century, connecting freight and people. In this new collection of rail poems, editor Mark Pirie presents a fresh and vibrant journey through many facets of the railway and explores its significance in our daily lives. ...
The Pop Artist's Garland: Selected Poems 1952-2009The Pop Artist's Garland: Selected Poems 1952-2009 (Published 2010)
The celebrated poet Eileen Duggan and the influential editor J H E Schroder were among the early appreciators of Niel Wright's verse. This selection edited by Mark Pirie draws on six decades of writing, 120 Books of Wright's epic poem The Alexandrians as well as his Post-Alexandrian work, a...
No Boat May Allow Drowning to Vanish: New PoemsNo Boat May Allow Drowning to Vanish: New Poems (Published 2010)
Basim Furat's previous collection of poetry, Here and There, the first Arabic poetry book to be translated into English in New Zealand, was published by HeadworX in 2004. This new collection (edited by Mark Pirie and with a striking cover by poet/painter Gregory O'Brien) continues Furat's...
Voyagers: Science Fiction Poetry From New ZealandVoyagers: Science Fiction Poetry From New Zealand (Published 2009)
Prose writers have had it their own way for too long. At last, here is an anthology of poetry from New Zealand that captures the essence of science fiction: aliens, space travel, time travel, the end of the world - as well as concepts you may not previously have thought of as science fictio...
The Earl is in...: 25 Years of the Earl of SeacliffThe Earl is in...: 25 Years of the Earl of Seacliff (Published 2009)
"After doing my research, soliciting and collecting all the articles, I started to think of a way to put together a book on the Earl. I had several ideas: one was doing a kind of 'rock star' presentation of the Earl as the best way to bring out his unique personality and qualities as an art...
The White Album ReadingsThe White Album Readings (Published 2008)
Winter Readings is an annual event in Wellington organised by HeadworX Publishers, Earl of Seacliff Art Workshop and Kwanzaa - the Afrikan Shop in conjunction with Wellington City Council and the City Gallery. The aim is to promote New Zealand poetry to the wider public through a series of ...
PoetrywallPoetrywall (Published 2007)
Winter Readings is an annual event in Wellington organised by HeadworX Publishers, Earl of Seacliff Art Workshop and Kwanzaa - the Afrikan Shop in conjunction with Wellington City Council and the City Gallery. The aim is to promote New Zealand poetry to the wider public through a series of ...
Poetrywall: Anthology of the PoetrywallPoetrywall: Anthology of the Poetrywall (Published 2007)
Winter Readings is an annual event in Wellington organised by HeadworX Publishers, Earl of Seacliff Art Workshop and Kwanzaa - the Afrikan Shop in conjunction with Wellington City Council and the City Gallery. The aim is to promote New Zealand poetry to the wider public through a series of ...
PoetrymathPoetrymath (Published 2006)
Winter Readings is an annual event in Wellington organised by HeadworX Publishers, Earl of Seacliff Art Workshop and Kwanzaa - the Afrikan Shop in conjunction with Wellington City Council and the City Gallery. The aim is to promote New Zealand poetry to the wider public through a series of ...
The Moon That Excels in Nothing But WaitingThe Moon That Excels in Nothing But Waiting (Published 2006)
The Moon That Excels in Nothing But Waiting is Basim Furat's second collection of poetry translated into English and edited by Mark Pirie. Furat was born in 1967 in Karbalaa, Iraq. In early 1993 he left Iraq and became a refugee in Jordan. Four years later he arrived in New Zealand. His po...
The Manuka TreeThe Manuka Tree (Published 2005)
Winter Readings is an annual event in Wellington organised by HeadworX Publishers, Earl of Seacliff Art Workshop and Kwanzaa - the Afrikan Shop. The aim is to promote New Zealand poetry to the wider public through a series of lively readings taking place in the winter months in Wellington. ...
"Greatest Hits" - JAAM 21"Greatest Hits" - JAAM 21 (Published 2004)
Since the 1980s and 1990s the small press Earl of Seacliff Art Workshop and the literary magazine JAAM and its offshoot publishing arm, HeadworX, have made a unique and significant contribution to New Zealand writing. This 'special 21st birthday issue' of JAAM offers a retrospective showcas...
The Second Wellington International Poetry FestivalThe Second Wellington International Poetry Festival (Published 2004)
The Second Wellington International Poetry Festival took place in October 7-11 2004. The book is the official festival anthology and features all 28 of the poets appearing at the festival. The theme of the festival is human rights. Includes: B R Dionysius, Brentley Frazer, Melissa Ashl...
Tupelo HotelTupelo Hotel (Published 2004)
Winter Readings is an annual event in Wellington organised by HeadworX Publishers, Earl of Seacliff Art Workshop and Kwanzaa - the Afrikan Shop. The aim is to promote New Zealand poetry to the wider public through a series of lively readings taking place in the winter months in Wellington. ...
Here and There: A SelectionHere and There: A Selection (Published 2004)
Basim Furat is an exciting new voice in New Zealand and world poetry. In Here and There his first book to be translated into English, Furat explores his life as a refugee 'in the far away' (New Zealand) and his displacement from his homeland, Iraq. His book (edited by Mark Pirie) is fill...
The First Wellington International Poetry FestivalThe First Wellington International Poetry Festival (Published 2003)
During October 2003, the first Wellington International Poetry Festival took place. It was centred on the theme of peace and reconciliation and featured 35 poets from 18 different countries. This is the official festival publication and features poems by leading world and local poets such a...
Bookmarks: Winter Readings at Bizy Bee'sBookmarks: Winter Readings at Bizy Bee's (Published 2003)
Winter Readings is an annual event in Wellington organised by HeadworX Publishers, Earl of Seacliff Art Workshop and Kwanzaa - the Afrikan Shop. The aim is to promote New Zealand poetry to the wider public through a series of lively readings taking place in the winter months in Wellington. ...
Storyteller: Poems 1988-1999Storyteller: Poems 1988-1999 (Published 2002)
Storyteller is a commemorative volume of work by a young Wellington poet who died early at 31 and who was well known at pubs and local reading areas for his lively performances. The poems collected here reveal a prolific and widely read writer, wide-ranging in his subjects - love, death, ...
The NeXt Wave: New Zealand WritingThe NeXt Wave: New Zealand Writing (Published 1998)
The NeXt Wave is an iconoclastic collection of writing by a new generation of New Zealand writers. It presents a sample of the emerging and innovative voices of the 1990s. hard-edged realism and fantasy, pulp and Science Fiction, postmodernism and multiculturalism mix with unruly urban r...

Fiction written by Mark Pirie

Swing and Other StoriesSwing and Other Stories (Published 2002)
Mark Pirie's new book Swing brings together a group of early stories written in the mid-late '90s that represent a view of young urban living in '90s New Zealand (comic and dark). They are set in the free market society of the time and often portray a certain political and social vent. Ther...

Poetry written by Mark Pirie

Thinking Cap: A Book of EpigramsThinking Cap: A Book of Epigrams (Published 2011)
            ANON    Putting yourself in the public domain;    Remember to leave out your name. Thinking Cap is Mark Pirie's latest collection of poetry. It consists of over 80 epigrams written over the past ...
TOM: A Novel in VerseTOM: A Novel in Verse (Published 2009)
I am nineteen, I live in a souped-up Victorian temple, I make confessions to Katherine Mansfield's ghost, and write poetry no one will read… Mark Pirie's new book, Tom, is a verse novel set in Wellington during the mid-'90s. It follows the adventures of a struggling, young student and ar...
Trespassing in Dionysia: Uncollected Early Poems 1993-1997Trespassing in Dionysia: Uncollected Early Poems 1993-1997 (Published 2008)
Trespassing in Dionysia is the second archival collection of uncollected early poems from Mark Pirie's folders, notebooks and unpublished manuscripts. It collects the remaining unpublished poems from Mark Pirie's early notebooks, folders and manuscripts (1993-1997) and shows his development...
Bottle of Armour: Early Poems/Lyrics 1992-93Bottle of Armour: Early Poems/Lyrics 1992-93 (Published 2008)
Mark Pirie started to write the poems in Bottle of Armour in 1992 (when he was 17). It is the first archival collection of uncollected early poems from Mark Pirie's folders, notebooks and unpublished manuscripts. Originally, he had titled it Informing the Tabula Rasa and had presented it to...
Slips: cricket poemsSlips: cricket poems (Published 2008)
Light-hearted poems about cricket that focus on everything from a cricketer's love life to bizarre ways of being dismissed, unusual match reports, and elegies for dead cricket heroes like Freddie Trueman.
Private DetectivePrivate Detective (Published 2007)
Private Detective is a hand-bound limited edition booklet of 70 copies, published by Dunedin handcraft press, Kilmog Press. Cover and title page are hand-printed, and booklet is hand-sewn. Other books in the Kilmog series include works by Peter Olds, Bob Orr, Stephen Oliver, and Sandr...
The SearchThe Search (Published 2007)
The Search brings together a collection of 'lost' poems and two stories unearthed from Mark Pirie's early folders, notebooks and journals (mostly handwritten and written between 1993-1996). Together they form an interesting collection showing his early experimentation with form and style to...
Wellington FoolWellington Fool (Published 2006)
Wellington Fool is Mark Pirie's thirteenth poetry collection. Published in the ESAW mini series, Wellington Fool consists of 15 new poems and includes a photo of the author by John Girdlestone (after the John Cougar Mellencamp album photo for American Fool). The poems, mainly situated in...
Sounds of SonnetsSounds of Sonnets (Published 2006)
Sounds of Sonnets is a collection of sonnets by two well known New Zealand poets. The collaborative volume has a long history in poetry, e.g. Wordsworth and Coleridge's Lyrical Ballads. In contrast Pirie and O'Leary have chosen the sonnet form, a well-known form in New Zealand verse. Each p...
Mahones (Anthology: Four Poets)Mahones (Anthology: Four Poets) (Published 2005)
In the tradition of New Zealand multi-poet anthologies like "Poems Unpleasant" (James K Baxter, Louis Johnson, and Anton Vogt (1951)) comes a new anthology of 4 experienced New Zealand poets. Functioning as a type of side project to the poet's more traditional individual collections, this c...
London NotebookLondon Notebook (Published 2005)
London Notebook is an all-new collection of poems by prolific Wellington poet, Mark Pirie. Following hot on the heels of his Selected Early Poems from ESAW, Giving Poetry a Bad Name, this new book presents a witty artist's sketchbook of his time in the UK from March-April 2005 when he atten...
Blues For SamBlues For Sam (Published 2005)
Blues For Sam is a broadsheet containing two poems, the first a dedicatory poem to the New Zealand poet Sam Hunt. The broadsheet was printed for the author by well-known poet Peter Olds' new publishing press, The Broadsheet Company in Dunedin. A copy is held in the Alexander Turnbull Librar...
Giving Poetry a Bad NameGiving Poetry a Bad Name (Published 2005)
"A flamboyant figure of his generation, Mark Pirie was born in Wellington, New Zealand, in 1974. In the past six years, he has published nine collections of poems, a collection of song lyrics and a book of short fiction. In 1995 he co-founded the literary journal JAAM (Just Another Art Move...
The Bet: Poems in Memory of Jim MorrisonThe Bet: Poems in Memory of Jim Morrison (Published 2004)
The Bet is Mark Pirie's hand-made collection of poems in memory of the American poet and rock singer Jim Morrison written between 1992-1993. Only a limited number of copies were hand-printed in 2004. These poems form a tribute to the death of the singer who died in Paris in 1971. A cop...
Two Poems: An Impression of the SeaTwo Poems: An Impression of the Sea (Published 2004)
Two Poems is Mark Pirie's ninth book of poems. It is a pamphlet of two experimental poems written for the Australian poet Ken Bolton. Printed and bound in a limited edition of copies. A copy is held at the Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington. Cover drawing of Paekakariki is by Michael O'...
The Angel Bus: Songs 1992-1994The Angel Bus: Songs 1992-1994 (Published 2004)
The Angel Bus is Mark Pirie's collection of his early song lyrics written between 1992-1994. At the time Mark had been attempting to form a band called Hydraulic Sidearm though various attempts to start it never left the bedroom. These lyrics are what remain from the period. The cover is...
Poems for PoetsPoems for Poets (Published 2004)
Poems for Poets is Mark Pirie's eighth book of poems. It is a hand-bound booklet printed for the poet's 30th birthday and is a limited edition of 50 copies only. The book is a series of poems dedicated to 30 poets (national and international, dead and living, famous and obscure).
Bullet PoemsBullet Poems (Published 2004)
Bullet Poems is Mark Pirie's seventh collection of poems. Structured into four rounds, Pirie takes aim at a wide variety of contemporary issues and debates, particularly war, politics and world events. In the process the book shows a widening of style and subject matter from one of this cou...
Gallery: A SelectionGallery: A Selection (Published 2003)
With the publication of Shoot in 1999, Mark Pirie established himself as one of the most promising of the younger New Zealand poets. Gallery brings together the best of Pirie's early work from his first five books published in New Zealand.
Dumber: PoemsDumber: Poems (Published 2003)
What do you propose, a marriage? It can be arranged, I hear... Mark Pirie's new collection laments that our culture is getting 'dumber' and thus presents poems that are both parodic and purposely 'dumb'. Written in the frame of a mock conversation with God, it covers wide ground: reli...
Reading The WillReading The Will (Published 2002)
Reading the Will is Mark Pirie's fourth book of poems. Its contents are divergent in style and manner, yet define themselves on the borders of light verse in epigrammatic wit and intensity. This is the poetry of focus and its essential context.
No JokeNo Joke (Published 2001)
No Joke is Mark Pirie's second book of poems. Its contents are varied in approach, yet often subvert traditional readings by employing strategies of simplification and exaggeration out of a wide range of sources, including films, song lyrics, comic strips and other forms of popular culture....
The BluesThe Blues (Published 2001)
Mark Pirie's new book The Blues (dedicated to the memory of John Lee Hooker) forms a tribute to the influence of music in the creative process of poetry and writing, and brings together a group of early poems that portray a certain political and social vent. Sometimes angry, often humourous...
ShootShoot (Published 1999)
Shoot is the first book of poems by Wellington writer and editor, Mark Pirie. It collects the best of his early work, from 1994-1997, all of it written while in his early twenties. Pirie's poems display a wide range of styles and techniques and are distinguished by a deceptive simplicity, a...