2012
March 2012 - Apirana Taylor
Ngati Porou, Te Whanau a Apanui, Ngati Ruanui, Te Ati Awa, Ngati Pakeha.
Apirana Taylor is a nationally and internationally published poet, short story writer, storyteller, playwright, novelist, actor, musician and painter. He was 1996 ‘Writer in Residence’ at Massey University and 2002 ‘Writer in Residence’ at Canterbury University. He has twice been invited to India and in 2000 was invited to tour Europe with his poetry. In 2003 he was ‘Writer in Residence’ for 3 months at St Andrew’s College, Rangi Ruru, and Hagley Community College. He was again invited to Europe in 2005 to read at Udine University and to tell stories at schools in Northern Italy. In 2009 he was invited to present his music and poetry in Rome. In 2012 he was invited to the Medillen International Poetry Festival in Colombia to read his poetry. Apirana frequently visits schools, libraries, tertiary institutions and prisons, storytelling, reading his poetry and taking creative writing workshops.
May 2012 - Doc Drumheller
Doc Drumheller was born in Charleston, South Carolina and has lived in New Zealand for more than half his life. He has worked in award winning groups for theatre and music and has published ten collections of poetry. His poems have been translated into more than twenty languages, and he has performed in Cuba, Lithuania, Italy, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, Japan, India, Nicaragua, USA, and widely throughout NZ. He lives in Oxford, where he edits and publishes the literary journal Catalyst.
June 2012 - Leanne Rattray
Leanne has been writing & performing since 1997. Over the past 12 months Leanne has performed LIVE at the Library Bar at the viaduct in Auckland four times alongside Michelle Bolton, Gus Simonovic, Penny Ashton, Matthew Harvey, The South Auckland Collective & many other well known NZ poets. She was a judge at the finals of the NZ Poetry Slam at the Fringe Bar in Wellington in October 2011 & is a foundation member of the NZ Poetry online web site which now has 144 poets posting regularly. Her recent performances include "Front Page at the Library Bar" in Auckland in March, and "The Blackberry Jam" at the Soundshell in Gisborne in April.
July 2012 - Shane Hollands
Shane has been an innovator in the spoken word/performance poetry scene in New Zealand for decades & is instrumental in New Zealand’s poetry-music crossover renaissance. Shane fronts the jazzbeat poetry-rock band Freaky Meat, who have been credited with ‘Bringing back a sexy form of Beat Poetry at home on the stained streets of Auckland’ (No Magazine). He was one half of the Cellotronics/Beatspeake duo 'Beautiful Losers', and is the creator of The Kerouac Effect- NZ’s annual celebration of Beat Poetry. As well as being a kick ass poet, Shane has done great things for the poetry community - he founded Auckland performance poetry collective The Literatti & was Creative Director for the collective’s initial year. He ran the spoken word/music The Dirty Wordz Radio Show on Fleet FM, instigating the ‘Dirty Wordz Live Sessions’ pairing performance poets with live musicians in an improv setting. Shane has performed throughout New Zealand and his work has been published in Live Lines, Side Stream, & Tongue In Your Ear.
August 2012 - Coco Solid & Gregory Kan
Coco Solid is the musician, writer and artist Jessica Lee Hansell hailing from New Zealand. Acclaimed on her home-turf and abroad, the outspoken Maori/Samoan/German Aucklander is both the cult and eclectic artist. A passionate collaborator, Coco is also a member of “swamp-punk grunge-electro” quartet BADD ENERGY. With Sam Moore, Coco released a limited edition EP ‘Tropic of Scorpio’ to critical praise and even a few fans. After convincing Trixie Darko and Jeremy ‘Jsuave’ Sauvao to join, the outfit have since been signed to iconic label Flying Nun Records. Their record ‘Underwater Pyramids’ is due out mid-2012. In 2008 Coco released her groundbreaking double album The Radical Bad Attack, half part MC and half part riot grrl. Since then Coco has attended the Red Bull Music Academy in Barcelona, South by Southwest in Texas, she has been sampled by Princess Superstar, rapped with Flight of the Conchords, toured Mexico, New York, Berlin, Portugal, London and Tokyo, lived in South Korea and released 3 limited edition vinyl recordings.
Gregory Kan steps on all the cakes when he walks down the banquet table. He is completing his MA a book of poems at the International Institute of Modern Letters, Victoria University of Wellington. He is also one of this year’s editors of Turbine, the school’s online literary journal. He has work published in the New Zealand journals brief, Percutio, Blackmail Press, otoliths and Turbine.
September 2012 - Geoff Cochrane
Geoff Cochrane is a poet and fiction writer. His poems have appeared in journals and anthologies, and he has published several volumes of poetry. His writing has been described as, ‘spare in form and precise in language’. He published a novella, 'Quest Clinic' in 1992, and his first novel, Tin Nimbus (1995), describes an alcoholic’s quest for sobriety and eventual escape from institutions that may provide it. Geoff has recently released a new book The Bengal Engine's Mango Afterglow and we're really looking forward to having this Wellington legend come and read.
November 2012 - Michelle Bolton
Michelle Bolton is a member of Auckland performance poetry troupe The Literatti and earlier this year performed in their Rethink Possible Worlds show at the Basement Theatre. In February this year she featured as a guest poet at Poetry Live, and shortly after in April featured at Rhythm & Verse. She performed in several shows in Melbourne at Easter alongside last year's NZ National Poetry Slam winners. Michelle is well established in Auckland's poetry scene, acting as an MC for LIVE @ The Library Bar last year, this year joining the Poetry Live crew as their 5th Tuesday MC. She has also been involved with poetry organization Printable Reality. She acted as Slam-mistress at this year's Going West Poetry Slam final which was also the Auckland regional final for the NZ Poetry Slam. She will continue to showcase her awesome organizational and Slam-mistress abilities at the National Poetry Slam final at Meow on 10th November. As the writers co-ordinator for The Butterfly Diaries book project due for release in 2013, Michelle has a special interest in suicide prevention and is passionate about seeing more community awareness and support for people with mental difficulties.
Ngati Porou, Te Whanau a Apanui, Ngati Ruanui, Te Ati Awa, Ngati Pakeha.
Apirana Taylor is a nationally and internationally published poet, short story writer, storyteller, playwright, novelist, actor, musician and painter. He was 1996 ‘Writer in Residence’ at Massey University and 2002 ‘Writer in Residence’ at Canterbury University. He has twice been invited to India and in 2000 was invited to tour Europe with his poetry. In 2003 he was ‘Writer in Residence’ for 3 months at St Andrew’s College, Rangi Ruru, and Hagley Community College. He was again invited to Europe in 2005 to read at Udine University and to tell stories at schools in Northern Italy. In 2009 he was invited to present his music and poetry in Rome. In 2012 he was invited to the Medillen International Poetry Festival in Colombia to read his poetry. Apirana frequently visits schools, libraries, tertiary institutions and prisons, storytelling, reading his poetry and taking creative writing workshops.
May 2012 - Doc Drumheller
Doc Drumheller was born in Charleston, South Carolina and has lived in New Zealand for more than half his life. He has worked in award winning groups for theatre and music and has published ten collections of poetry. His poems have been translated into more than twenty languages, and he has performed in Cuba, Lithuania, Italy, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, Japan, India, Nicaragua, USA, and widely throughout NZ. He lives in Oxford, where he edits and publishes the literary journal Catalyst.
June 2012 - Leanne Rattray
Leanne has been writing & performing since 1997. Over the past 12 months Leanne has performed LIVE at the Library Bar at the viaduct in Auckland four times alongside Michelle Bolton, Gus Simonovic, Penny Ashton, Matthew Harvey, The South Auckland Collective & many other well known NZ poets. She was a judge at the finals of the NZ Poetry Slam at the Fringe Bar in Wellington in October 2011 & is a foundation member of the NZ Poetry online web site which now has 144 poets posting regularly. Her recent performances include "Front Page at the Library Bar" in Auckland in March, and "The Blackberry Jam" at the Soundshell in Gisborne in April.
July 2012 - Shane Hollands
Shane has been an innovator in the spoken word/performance poetry scene in New Zealand for decades & is instrumental in New Zealand’s poetry-music crossover renaissance. Shane fronts the jazzbeat poetry-rock band Freaky Meat, who have been credited with ‘Bringing back a sexy form of Beat Poetry at home on the stained streets of Auckland’ (No Magazine). He was one half of the Cellotronics/Beatspeake duo 'Beautiful Losers', and is the creator of The Kerouac Effect- NZ’s annual celebration of Beat Poetry. As well as being a kick ass poet, Shane has done great things for the poetry community - he founded Auckland performance poetry collective The Literatti & was Creative Director for the collective’s initial year. He ran the spoken word/music The Dirty Wordz Radio Show on Fleet FM, instigating the ‘Dirty Wordz Live Sessions’ pairing performance poets with live musicians in an improv setting. Shane has performed throughout New Zealand and his work has been published in Live Lines, Side Stream, & Tongue In Your Ear.
August 2012 - Coco Solid & Gregory Kan
Coco Solid is the musician, writer and artist Jessica Lee Hansell hailing from New Zealand. Acclaimed on her home-turf and abroad, the outspoken Maori/Samoan/German Aucklander is both the cult and eclectic artist. A passionate collaborator, Coco is also a member of “swamp-punk grunge-electro” quartet BADD ENERGY. With Sam Moore, Coco released a limited edition EP ‘Tropic of Scorpio’ to critical praise and even a few fans. After convincing Trixie Darko and Jeremy ‘Jsuave’ Sauvao to join, the outfit have since been signed to iconic label Flying Nun Records. Their record ‘Underwater Pyramids’ is due out mid-2012. In 2008 Coco released her groundbreaking double album The Radical Bad Attack, half part MC and half part riot grrl. Since then Coco has attended the Red Bull Music Academy in Barcelona, South by Southwest in Texas, she has been sampled by Princess Superstar, rapped with Flight of the Conchords, toured Mexico, New York, Berlin, Portugal, London and Tokyo, lived in South Korea and released 3 limited edition vinyl recordings.
Gregory Kan steps on all the cakes when he walks down the banquet table. He is completing his MA a book of poems at the International Institute of Modern Letters, Victoria University of Wellington. He is also one of this year’s editors of Turbine, the school’s online literary journal. He has work published in the New Zealand journals brief, Percutio, Blackmail Press, otoliths and Turbine.
September 2012 - Geoff Cochrane
Geoff Cochrane is a poet and fiction writer. His poems have appeared in journals and anthologies, and he has published several volumes of poetry. His writing has been described as, ‘spare in form and precise in language’. He published a novella, 'Quest Clinic' in 1992, and his first novel, Tin Nimbus (1995), describes an alcoholic’s quest for sobriety and eventual escape from institutions that may provide it. Geoff has recently released a new book The Bengal Engine's Mango Afterglow and we're really looking forward to having this Wellington legend come and read.
November 2012 - Michelle Bolton
Michelle Bolton is a member of Auckland performance poetry troupe The Literatti and earlier this year performed in their Rethink Possible Worlds show at the Basement Theatre. In February this year she featured as a guest poet at Poetry Live, and shortly after in April featured at Rhythm & Verse. She performed in several shows in Melbourne at Easter alongside last year's NZ National Poetry Slam winners. Michelle is well established in Auckland's poetry scene, acting as an MC for LIVE @ The Library Bar last year, this year joining the Poetry Live crew as their 5th Tuesday MC. She has also been involved with poetry organization Printable Reality. She acted as Slam-mistress at this year's Going West Poetry Slam final which was also the Auckland regional final for the NZ Poetry Slam. She will continue to showcase her awesome organizational and Slam-mistress abilities at the National Poetry Slam final at Meow on 10th November. As the writers co-ordinator for The Butterfly Diaries book project due for release in 2013, Michelle has a special interest in suicide prevention and is passionate about seeing more community awareness and support for people with mental difficulties.