Specimen: Personal Essays by Madison Hamill

$30.00 NZD

Category: New Zealand Literature | Reading Level: near fine

A father rollerblading to church in his ministerial robes, a university student in a leotard sprinting through fog, a trespass notice from Pak'nSave, a beautiful unborn goat in a jar . . . In scenarios ranging from the mundane to the surreal, Madison Hamill looks back at her younger selves with a sharp eye. Was she good or evil? Ignorant or enlightened? What parts of herself did she give up in order to forge ahead in school, church, work, and relationships, with a self that made sense to others? With wit and intelligence, these shape-shifting essays probe the ways in which a person's inner and outer worlds intersect and submit to one another. It is a brilliantly discomfiting, vivid and funny collection in which peace is found in the weirdest moments. ‘I never felt that I was looking at fine writing – only at astonishing writing.' —Elizabeth Knox. MADISON HAMILL is based in Wellington. She has an MA in Creative Writing from the International Institute of Modern Letters. Her work has appeared in The Spinoff, Sweet Mammalian, Turbine Kapohau and Pantograph Punch. ...Show more

Every Force Evolves a Form - Twenty Essays by Guy Davenport

$14.00 NZD

Category: Essays | Reading Level: very good

Guy Davenport demonstrates his unparalleled critical vision as he interprets art, literature, and culture In this collection of 20 essays, Guy Davenport applies his insightful gaze and critical wisdom to topics including modern art and the effects of the automobile on contemporary society. His work rang es from "What Are Those Monkeys Doing?" in which he links the paintings of Rousseau to the writings of Rimbaud and Flaubert, to "Imaginary Americas," a survey of the different roles America has filled in the imagination of Europeans. Davenport, 1 of the foremost American critics and intellectuals of the 20th century, brings his piercing intellect, encyclopedic references, and careful eye for detail to each piece in Every Force Evolves a Form. Whether writing on the philosophy behind modernism or a study of table manners, the paintings of Henri Rousseau or the design of Shaker handicrafts, Davenport always devotes his full attention and multi-angled analysis to the subject at hand. To read this thought-provoking collection is to see the inner-workings of Davenport's brilliant mind, with its varied fascinations and unparalleled insights. ...Show more

The Art of Memoir by Mary Karr

$14.00 NZD

Category: Essays | Reading Level: very good

Credited with sparking the current memoir explosion, Mary Karr's The Liars' Club spent more than a year at the top of the New York Times list. She followed with two other smash bestsellers: Cherry and Lit, which were critical hits as well. For thirty years Karr has also taught the form, winning teachin g prizes at Syracuse. (The writing program there produced such acclaimed authors as Cheryl Strayed, Keith Gessen, and Koren Zailckas.) In The Art of Memoir, she synthesizes her expertise as professor and therapy patient, writer and spiritual seeker, recovered alcoholic and "black belt sinner," providing a unique window into the mechanics and art of the form that is as irreverent, insightful, and entertaining as her own work in the genre. Anchored by excerpts from her favorite memoirs and anecdotes from fellow writers' experience, The Art of Memoir lays bare Karr's own process. (Plus all those inside stories about how she dealt with family and friends get told- and the dark spaces in her own skull probed in depth.) As she breaks down the key elements of great literary memoir, she breaks open our concepts of memory and identity, and illuminates the cathartic power of reflecting on the past; anybody with an inner life or complicated history, whether writer or reader, will relate. Joining such classics as Stephen King's On Writing and Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird, The Art of Memoir is an elegant and accessible exploration of one of today's most popular literary forms-a tour de force from an accomplished master pulling back the curtain on her craft. ...Show more

Reality Hunger: A Manifesto by David Shields

$12.00 NZD

Category: Essays | Reading Level: good

The Secret Life - Three True Stories of the Digital Age by Andrew O'Hagan

$15.00 NZD

Category: Essays | Reading Level: very good

Examining three lives - Julian Assange, Craig Wright, the Australian behind the Bitcoin inventor 'Satoshi Nakamoto', and Ronald Pinn, an online character O'Hagan created - he explores identity, secrecy, and the relationship between the individual, the state, and technology.

Headlands: New Stories of Anxiety by Naomi Arnold (editor)

$14.00 NZD

Category: Essays | Reading Level: very good

In 2017, Ministry of Health figures showed that one in five New Zealanders sought help for a diagnosed mood or anxiety disorder, and these figures are growing. Headlands: New Stories of Anxiety tells the real, messy story behind these statistics - what anxiety feels like, what causes it, what helps and what doesnt. These accounts are sometimes raw and confronting, but they all seek to share experiences, remove stigma, offer help or simply shine a light on what anxiety is. The stories in Headlands are told by people from all walks of life: poets, novelists and journalists, musicians, social workers, and health professionals, and includes new work from Ashleigh Young, Tusiata Avia, Danyl McLauchlan, Selina Tusitala Marsh, Hinemoana Baker and Kirsten McDougall. Edited by journalist Naomi Arnold, Headlands shows that some communities have better access to mental health services than others and it underscores the importance for greater understanding of the condition across the whole of society. It is not a book of solutions nor a self-help guide. Instead, it has been put together for all individuals and whanau affected by anxiety. It's also for those who are still suffering in silence, in the hope they will see themselves reflected in these pages and understand they are not alone. ...Show more

Lady Gregory's Toothbrush by Colm Toibin

$7.00 NZD

Category: Essays | Reading Level: very good

This sharp and stylish biography redefines the woman George Bernard Shaw once described as 'the greatest living Irishwoman' - Augusta Gregory. A remarkable figure in Celtic history, she was married to an MP and land-owner, yet retained an unprecedented independence of both thought and deed, actively cha mpioning causes close to her heart. At once conservative and radical in her beliefs, she saw no conflict in idealizing and mythologizing the Irish peasantry, for example, while her landlord husband introduced legislation that would, in part, lead to the widespread misery, poverty and starvation of the Great Famine. Nevertheless, as founder of the Abbey Theatre, an outspoken opponent of censorship, and mentor, muse and mother-figure to W.B. Yeats, Augusta Gregory played a pivotal role in shaping Irish literary and dramatic history. Moreover, despite her parents' early predictions of spinsterhood, she was no matronly figure, engaging in a passionate affair while newly-wedded and, as she approached sixty, falling for a man almost twenty years her junior. ...Show more

Courage Calls to Courage Everywhere by Jeanette Winterson

$10.00 NZD

Category: Essays | Reading Level: very good

Courage Calls to Courage Everywhere is a timely and inspiring call to arms by one of Britain's most acclaimed and important writers. Whilst recognising how far women have come in the hundred years since getting the vote, Jeanette Winterson also insists that we must all do much more if we are to achieve true gender equality. Examining recent women's rights movements, the worlds of politics, technology and social media and changes in the law, Winterson calls out all the ways in which women still face discrimination and disadvantage. Like the women who won the right to vote, we need to shout up, reach out, be courageous and finish the job.Also included in this volume is Emmeline Pankhurst's landmark Suffragette speech, 'Freedom or Death', which she delivered in 1913. ...Show more

Selected Prose of T. S. Eliot by T. S. Eliot

$10.00 NZD

Category: Essays | Reading Level: very good

Collected Essays by Graham Greene

$30.00 NZD

Category: Essays | Reading Level: very good

Dubliners by James Joyce; Robert Scholes

$6.00 NZD

Category: Essays | Reading Level: good

Dubliners is a collection of fifteen short stories by James Joyce, first published in 1914. They form a naturalistic depiction of Irish middle class life in and around Dublin in the early years of the 20th century. The stories were written when Irish nationalism was at its peak, and a search for a natio nal identity and purpose was raging; at a crossroads of history and culture, Ireland was jolted by various converging ideas and influences. They centre on Joyce's idea of an epiphany: a moment where a character experiences a life-changing self-understanding or illumination. Many of the characters in Dubliners later appear in minor roles in Joyce's novel Ulysses. The initial stories in the collection are narrated by child protagonists, and as the stories continue, they deal with the lives and concerns of progressively older people. This is in line with Joyce's tripartite division of the collection into childhood, adolescence and maturity. Between 1905, when Joyce first sent a manuscript to a publisher, and 1914, when the book was finally published, Joyce submitted the book 18 times to a total of 15 publishers. The book's publishing history is a harrowing tale of persistence in the face of frustration. The London house of Grant Richards agreed to publish it in 1905. Its printer, however, refused to set one of the stories (Two Gallants), and Richards then began to press Joyce to remove a number of other passages that he claimed the printer also refused to set. Joyce protested, but eventually did agree to some of the requested changes. Richards eventually backed out of the deal. Joyce thereupon resubmitted the manuscript to other publishers, and about three years later (1909) he found a willing candidate in Maunsel & Roberts of Dublin. Yet, a similar controversy developed and Maunsel too refused to publish it, even threatening to sue Joyce for printing costs already incurred. Joyce offered to pay the printing costs himself if the sheets were turned over to him and he was allowed to complete the job elsewhere and distribute the book, but when Joyce arrived at the printers they refused to surrender the sheets. They burned them the next day. Joyce managed to save one copy, which he obtained "by ruse". He then returned to submitting the manuscript to other publishers, and in 1914 Grant Richards once again agreed to publish the book, using the page proofs saved from Maunsel as copy. ...Show more

At Their Word - Essays on the Arts of Language Volume II by Cid Corman

$10.00 NZD

Category: Essays | Series: At Their Word Ser. | Reading Level: good

"In poetry as in life," says Cid Corman, "no rules exist that promise success or can deny what succeeds despite the odds." At Their Word is his judicious selection from twenty years of poetry criticism . . . and criticism of life.