Mark Pirie

In September, my publishing company HeadworX released two new poetry books by John O’Connor, of Christchurch, and Jack Ross, of Auckland.

O’Connor’s book is a nifty collection of his poems and prose poems called Whistling in the Dark with a neat cover by renowned Canterbury artist Eion Stevens. 

Ross’s book, A Clearer View of the Hinterland: Poems & Sequences 1981-2014, is essentially a major retrospective of his work, and something of much anticipation in New Zealand poetry circles.

I’m very pleased to be publishing both of these well established New Zealand poets.

For more details on each book, please visit the HeadworX website:

Jack Ross, A Clearer View of the Hinterland

http://headworx.eyesis.co.nz/poetry/clearer

John O’Connor, Whistling in the Dark

http://headworx.eyesis.co.nz/poetry/whistling

The latest issue of my poetry journal broadsheet, no.14, November 2014, features the distinguished New Zealand poet Michael Harlow, who has recently read at world poetry festivals in Romania and Nicaragua. In 2014, Harlow published his selected poems Sweeping the Courtyard and a collection of love poems Heart absolutely I can.

The issue of broadsheet is the first journal to feature his prose poetry in New Zealand.

The prose poems are from a work in progress that Harlow is writing. Of these poems, Harlow writes: ‘they are best described as very short prose texts (rather like the French récit—I resist the “flash fiction” definition/category). Closest thing we have to it here is the prose-poem, and I’m happy with that. I like to think of the poème en prose, these texts as an example of the “prose that’s in poetry”—following on from the great Greek poet Seferis, who once remarked words to the effect that “I wish our poets would write poems with more of what our best prose writers have…” Or something like that. Thus far, I’ve only published a few of them in bilingual, translation form, English and Spanish, in overseas journals.’

Others included are: Michael Duffett (USA/UK), award-winning poet Brian Turner, P V Reeves, Laura Solomon, MaryJane Thomson, Nicholas Reid, Edward Sakowski (translated from the Polish by Robert Zuch), Riemke Ensing, Noeline Gannaway, Cameron La Follette (USA), Brentley Frazer (Australia), Michael Walker, Pat White and Mark Young.

Here's the link:
http://broadsheetnz.wordpress.com

This year I published a small book of my poems written between 1993 and 2008 through my imprint The Night Press.

Poems for my Father is a collection of my poems for, concerning, or related to my father.

The poems form a sequence and cover a range of subjects from childhood travels to family portraits and reunions.

"Leo the lion, American President George Washington, poets Allen Curnow and James K Baxter, and the Great Diviner of the Pyramid in Uxmal, Mexico, form unlikely starting points for Mark Pirie’s experiences. His father is ever in the picture."

Here's the link to the free pdf ebook:
/books/poems-for-my-father

My imprint The Night Press (a division of HeadworX Publishers) in Wellington, New Zealand, which publishes high quality limited edition booklets, has released the debut collection of poems by MaryJane Thomson.

Thomson is an artist, writer and photographer living in Wellington, New Zealand. Website: www.maryjanethomson.com Some of her poems have been published in Black Mail Press. Her first book, a memoir Sarah Vaughan is Not my Mother (Awa Press, 2013), was one of the year’s best books at Radio NZ and was widely reviewed in New Zealand papers/magazines. Kim Hill interviewed Thomson in 2013.

Thomson’s book, Fallen Grace, comprises a sequence of 24 poems selected and arranged by HeadworX editor Mark Pirie. These form a selection of her latest poems.

The poems, thought provoking and powerful, bristle with energy and evocative lines, richly layered. Thomson works by the process of thought construction, often using opposite images juxtaposed to build her poems. She offers an original insight in to society.

Auckland poet Riemke Ensing has written on Thomson’s Fallen Grace:
"And then suddenly, something very different to what you might have expected, is sent in the mail, and you’re caught unaware by what you might call the music of the street - a voice looking for a lost self, trying to make sense of the world – personally and politically. A questioning voice that feels marginalized and frequently alienated from much of the material world as we know it, but not necessarily wanting company either. It’s a voice looking for direction, wanting freedom from restraint, yet resorting (at times) to rhyme – wanting to hold on to the familiar without being enslaved. It’s an agitated voice, restless, anxious about conformity, about being ‘swallowed’ into commonality. Sometimes a sense of panic pervades, fear of being self-centered, ‘looking out from within … / your brain the flame’ but in the end, the influence that operates is grace – ‘the gold in the grey is hopeful’ and ‘the light comes in’."

Thomson’s book will be released in July this year in a limited print run and will be made available as a viewable pdf and free download from The Night Press website http://broadsheetnz.wordpress.com/other-publications/ or from my website under EBooks: http://www.markpirie.com/ebooks

The Night Press is a division/imprint of HeadworX Publishers and publishes the poetry journal broadsheet and occasional chapbooks/mini books.