Latest News

October 2009

Watching for Smoke, by Helen Heath, was launched with much fun, music and celebration (and pikelets) at St Peter's Hall in Paekakariki on the 18th of October. Local poet Dinah Hawken, who is also Helen's supervisor for her MA in creative writing, did the honours.

Copies of this limited-edition, hand-bound chapbook will be available from Unity Books in Wellington, or can be ordered through your local bookshop or direct from Seraph Press.

July 2009

Montana Poetry Day 2009

To celebrate Montana Poetry Day 2009, we're featuring a poem from Cold Comfort, Cold Concrete: Poems & Satires by Scott Kendrick.

For other ways to celebrate Montana Poetry Day on the 24th of July 2009, visit the official site or NZLive.com.

Biograph

By Scott Kendrick

Chapter 1 – Early Days
First Name Second Name Last Name was born.
In that era, it was common practice.
A sickly, stunted child, Last Name quickly.
Even at school, the young First Name often.
Friends from that time say he was never the sort.
A teacher recalled a typical example.
In the holidays, a job in his uncle’s shop.

Chapter 2 – The Watershed
It was at university, however.
Here, Last Name discovered for the first time.
Inspired by his new-found freedoms, he completed.
But even then, the political climate.
Recalled Last Name, “It was a time.”
From that point on, Last Name’s mind was.
But for the ambitious young man, there remained the problem.
So Last Name returned.
It was a decision that was.
Would the future bring?
Or would it?

Chapter 3 – The Arrow Flies.
The tensions were evident from the moment Last Name.
Despite these setbacks, however, he never once thought.
It was simply not his way to.
Disappointed, but more determined than ever, Last Name approached.
And so, at A Specified Age, First Name Second Name Last Name became.
Said Last Name at the time, “It’s simply not.”
But if he could have known then, would he still?
This is a question.

Chapter 4 – What Price Success?
The critical and commercial reaction was.
Although Last Name feigned indifference, it came as no surprise.
Family and friends found him.
It was during this time that the drinking.
In an interview, Last Name said “I”.
In A Specified Year, buoyed by his success, Last Name made the fateful.
It was to be the last time.

Chapter 5 – The Backlash
The public response was.
Hitting out angrily at his critics, Last Name accused.
Furiously, he began.
But the new work wouldn’t.
Again, Last Name turned to the bottle, but this time.
By now Last Name’s physical appearance shocked even.
Worried for his health, his friends tried.
“He just didn’t care,” said Footnote Friend, “no matter how.”
There seemed to be no way.

Chapter 6 – Final Days
On A Specified Date, Last Name visited.
The diagnosis was.
Last Name, however, was determined to.
Throwing himself into his work.
And there was to be another.
After A Specified Number of Years, Last Name and Footnote Friend at last.
Despite his rapidly declining health, Last Name.
A Specified Amount Of Time before he died, Last Name.
It was to become known as his finest.
On A Specified Date, First Name Second Name Last Name finally succumbed.
But even in death, Last Name.
As he said, just hours before.
“I was.”

July 2009

New books forthcoming from Seraph Press

Seraph Press is getting back on the publishing horse this year, and will publish two new collections before Christmas.

The first is Watching for Smoke, a debut chapbook by Helen Heath. Helen is a writer and craft-maker from Paekakariki, who blogs at Show your Workings. This short collection gathers poems that explore the different roles we have, especially in our families, such as mother, wife, lover, daughter, sister, and the tensions within and between them. It circles around in time, and makes the domestic mythic. Watching for Smoke will be a limited-edition, hand-bound chapbook. It will be published in September 2009.

Also playing with the mythic in the every day is Vana Manasiadis's debut collection Ithaca Island Bay Leaves: A Mysthistorima. Vana is a Wellington writer currently based in Crete. This collection also explores family, in particular the lives of the author's mother and grandmother, their lives in Greece, and her mother's move to New Zealand as a young woman. It weaves their lives with Greek mythology, and people from Greek myth walk out and about in present-day Wellington. Ithaca Island Bay Leaves: A Mysthistorima will be published in November 2009.

January 2008

The latest issue of the Poetry Society’s magazine, A Fine Line, contains a positive review of Cold Comfort, Cold Concrete: Poems & Satires, by Scott Kendrick.

Bernard Gadd says:

'[…] Kendrick displays a deft competence with rhyme and rhythm. He’s a useful writer for the times, his satires and barbs often being aimed at the nonsense that’s in our minds courtesy of corporate-dominated media. Readers may find themselves even reeling back in horror or shock at some of the things to be found here. And that’s as it should be … there’s plenty in our world to be horrified about.'

November 2007

Check out Winged Ink, a new blog from Seraph Press Managing Editor Helen Rickerby, in which she writes about poetry, publishing, writing and reading.