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Poetry Aotearoa Yearbook 2026
Edited by Tracey Slaughter
Massey University Press
Reviewed by Hamesh Wyatt
Anthologies are always interesting.
They collect together so much.
Poetry Aotearoa Yearbook 2026 celebrates 75 years of this landmark publication and has been edited once again by Tracey Slaughter.
I like how this one-stop shop comes out in the middle of winter.
This big book contains 138 poems by 125 poets and concludes with 29 recent poetry collections reviewed in detail.
The reader gets the best of what we have done over the last year: new stuff and three winners in its schools’ competition.
Jackson, Megan Kitching, Michele Powles, Richard Reeve and Tara Leckie address readers without embarrassment or alarming them.
Slaughter may talk about the fire of this latest poetry but really, this latest annual anthology lets the reader relax and listen to intimate conversations, or at least up-close monologues.
Many of these new poems are stunning.
The feature poet is Christchurch’s Josiah Morgan.
Morgan published his first four books in the United States.
I’m Still Growing was his first to appear in New Zealand.
This is bold and queer.
The 25-page chapbook in this edition has the same feel.
It is full of sex and adrenaline.
Massey University will be releasing, free of charge, 75 copies of this big book in public spaces around our little country.
This is celebrating the anniversary but also taking poetry to cafes, libraries, buses and other unexpected spots.
Poetry is not always found in one particular person but often in the many pages of a good book, like this one.
There is a a lot of free verse used here.
This means no rules, no fixed stanzas or a particular pattern.
Many of these pieces have that haunted middle-of-the-night wake-up feel.
I hope you find one resting on a park bench.
Hamesh Wyatt lives in Bluff. He reads and writes poetry.