7:30 pm: MC intro & instrumental music
1st half: Taranaki launch of The Anatomy of Sand, Mikaela
Nyman’s new poetry collection set in Taranaki – hot off the press
and straight from the Auckland Writers’ Festival 2025!
Mikaela in conversation with poet Rob Hack (Everything is Here),
followed by Q&A and poetry readings by Mikaela & Rob.
2nd half: Carol Bean reads from her ripping yarn Gone to Heaven
(a novel) and memoir Red Iris (about her battle with breastcancer).
The readings are accompanied by songs, written and performed by
Carol, with Wayne Morris and Andy Bassett as backup musicians.
ABOUT THE THREE WRITERS & SOME OF THEIR BOOKS
Red Iris
A memoir written by Wellington musician Carol Bean. During her experience with breast cancer, she joined a writing group run by playwright Renée Taylor.
“Red Iris is extremely open and vulnerable. It is also funny and observant.” Renée.
“Red Iris is a useful tool about how to be emotionally present.” Evie Chauncey
Gone to Heaven
Every Saturday night at Carlotta’s Bar on the outskirts of a desert town, Gone to Heaven play their southern soul music to a full house. The band leader and his English drummer have the added bonus of featuring the Ratt Sisters – backing vocalists, Honey and Sissie Ratt. Sent to this desert precinct is Guy Joiner, a young undercover detective. The problem is, he brings big trouble.
The Anatomy of Sand
The Anatomy of Sand is Mikaela Nyman’s first poetry collection in English, published by Te Herenga Waka University Press in May. Mikaela is a beach dweller, and The Anatomy of Sand is firmly grounded in Taranaki. These poems listen to the creaking of space and wash of oceans, document the methane dunes on Pluto and eroding runes at Back Beach, and search the Finnish Kalevala mythology for answers.
‘Like the tide, The Anatomy of Sand returns to the shoreline as a haven and a lens to examine our relationship with nature and environmental loss. Nyman is fascinated by the ways we insist on artificially replicating what nature has already abundantly provided, and reminds us that we do not sit outside of our environment. This book is urgent and timely, rich and lively.’ — Helen Heath, author of Are Friends Electric?
‘This is a book with flashes of humour, a querying of everything, and minute observation. There is a lovely mental toughness, an evolution in the poet herself, in a collection that is absolutely contemporary.’ —Elizabeth Smither, author of My AmericanChair
Everything is Here
Everything is Here – in spare, accessible poems, Rob Hack tells stories from Porirua, Niue, Paris, Rarotonga, Sydney and the Kapiti Coast. Of Cook Island heritage, Rob’s poems are both strongly placed and full of people, with a wry humour to boot.
“Hack’s poem sings its own distinctive mōteatea, here a lament of abdication, rather than a rhyming song of celebration.” — Vaughan Rapatahana, editor of Katūīvei: Contemporary Pasifika poetry from Aotearoa New Zealand.
“Rob’s poems evoke island life through rich imagery and familiarity – and that includes New Zealand. They reinforce our quintessential Pacific-ness.” — Escalator Press publisher Mary-Jane Duffy
