Assoc Prof Paul Tankard will be bringing Eliot’s landmark poem to life at numerous venues around town over the next week or so.  Don’t miss the chance to hear Paul channeling the haunting voices of Modernism at your favourite venue.  Feel free to download and distribute the PDF flyer.

Te Takarangi ki te Ao is hosting a Book Quiz event in the Dunningham Suite Dunedin Public Library  this evening Tuesday 11 July to celebrate Puaka Matariki with all things books! Arrive 5.15pm, quiz starts at 6pm.

If you’re free this evening, please please come along to our Te Takrangi quiz, it’d be super lovely to have you there, lots of beautiful books to gift and beautiful food being served by His&Her Catering (think pork belly with green applie five spice; tofu steamed bao buns with pineapple and chilli; pumpkin, watercress and parmesan arancini and more).

A special book quiz, book prizes, book authors and loads of book joy.

This is an invitation to join us and share in our Matariki celebration and love of books!

Please share this news, all welcome – bring friends and family. Share with your students too.

Some example pātai:

• Which part of the body is tatooed with the puhoro pattern?
• Who was the first Māori woman to gain a PhD in Aotearoa New Zealand?
• Where did the landmark exhibition Te Māori first open?
• Where does Mataatu Wharenui now reside?
• When was Whakaata Māori, formerly Māori Television, launched?

After checking out the very exciting Te Tauhoko Nui o Matariki night market on the Union lawn, come down to the Dunedin Public Library for a fun quiz.

Book of Hours, France (perhaps Paris), ca. 1435–1450. Dunedin Public Library

Friends of the Centre for the Book will be excited to learn that Dr. Christopher de Hamel will be presenting a public lecture entitled, “Medieval Manuscripts in Dunedin in the 1960s” at the Dunningham Suite of the Dunedin Public Library on Wednesday, August 16th at 5:30 pm.  The event is free and all are welcome.

Dr. de Hamel is an Otago graduate and recipient of a DLitt from the University in recognition of his expertise on medieval manuscripts.  He is a Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, and former Fellow Librarian of the Parker Library.

Anyone who has heard Dr. de Hamel present before will know what an enthusiastic and intelligent speaker he is.  Put the event in your diary now to avoid disappointment.  And please RSVP to ensure a place on the night: https://tinyurl.com/CFBPublicLecture

The Centre for the Book is delighted to present a public lecture by Lynn Jenner, author of Peat.

“With Charles Brasch on my Shoulder I Examine a Big Roading Project.” 

 “Peat is an archive. The black soil, the tea-coloured water, the sticks and the great trees. Whole ecosystems from the past are stored down there.” 

Peat (Otago University Press, 2019) is a real-time record of the lead-up to and the building of the Mackays to Peka Peka Expressway on the Kāpiti coast, north of Wellington. Made up of essays and poems and two large poetic indexes, Peat has a literary and archival intent. It subjects the intention and process of the road building to scrutiny informed by the ideas of Charles Brasch. In her talk, Jenner will discuss the juxtaposition of Brasch with transport politics in more depth and the reason for choosing to write about events unfolding in the present.    

Lynn Jenner is a Northland-based writer and teacher of writing who lived on the Kāpiti Coast until 2020. She is the author of Peat (OUP 2019), Lost and Gone Away (AUP 2015) which was shortlisted in the non-fiction section of the 2016 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards and Dear Sweet Harry (AUP 2010) which won the 2010 NZSA Jessie MacKay prize for Best First Book of Poetry.  Lynn has a particular interest in writing which crosses genre. Author website: Pinklight.nz 

Join us from 5.30 p.m. in Quad 1 Lecture Theatre on Monday 3 July. Free entry, all welcome.