Thursday, July 16, 2009

Lucky me.


It was my birthday the other day and I was given two books I have had my eye on: Relief by Anna Taylor and As the Earth Turns Silver by Alison Wong. The next book on my pile is The Rehearsal by Eleanor Catton, so a varied and sumptuous feast of debut New Zealand fiction awaits! (Just a quick aside: I just love the covers of Wong's and Catton's books: both designed by the very talented Keely O'Shannessy.)

As Bookman Beattie pointed out a while ago, there are a lot of new books being published in NZ this year, all of which seem to be by women (and I know for a fact there are a few more to come before the year is up). It seems the NZ lit scene is alive and well and is turning out new faces all the time.

But where are all the blokes? 

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Lucky you indeed - I am waiting to see The Earth Turns Silver her in Australia..

Maybe all this fiction being published in NZ is a rebalance somehow from years gone past? But then again, since you NZeder's have a poet Laureate etc maybe it is your cultural richness ( am having NZeder envy at the moment! :) Let me go have a sip of my NZ breakfast tea (yes there is such a thing)

Rachel Fenton said...

A feminist might say the absence of dudes being published in NZ right now is indeed "a rebalance" ;)

Wonder what the actual stats are?...must investigate...

Thanks for info on designer! I love book covers, want to design my own...one day...I can dream!

Rachel Fenton said...

PS Happy Birthday!

Unknown said...

Happy birthday.

I'd love you to post a review of The Rehearsal if you get a chance after you read it.

Helen said...

Women read far more fiction than men, so it makes sense to me that they write more also.