Poetry Aotearoa Yearbook 2025

For the 2025 edition of Poetry Aotearoa Yearbook, editor Tracey Slaughter has once again hit the zeitgeist in her selection of 141 new poems from an exhaustive submissions process

Another packed issue, #59 showcases the raw and vital — including from this year’s featured poet, Mark Prisco — and a blistering introduction from Slaughter herself. In addition there are excellent reviews of a crop of recent poetry books.

With work by both established and emerging New Zealand poets, the Yearbook is essential reading for all poetry fans.

Take a look inside.

About the authors 

Dr Tracey Slaughter teaches creative writing at the University of Waikato. She is also an award-winning poet and short story writer.

Health Design in New Zealand

One hundred and ninety years of hospital building history

In many New Zealand towns and cities the hospital is one of the largest buildings, with a history of community aspiration behind it.

This history of their architecture starts with the tiny hospitals that served the early colony and tracks their evolution through to the high-tech facilities of today, showing how, as medicine developed and communities grew, hospitals have constantly adapted to meet our health needs.

Most of the earliest buildings have been demolished and many of their architects forgotten. This book brings them back into the light.

Take a look inside.

About the author

Chris Thom is an Auckland architect who specialises in health design. He is a Principal at Chow: Hill Architects, where he has worked on hospitals and mental health units across New Zealand.

Everything But the Medicine

A doctor’s tale

Wise, candid, brave and moving, this superbly written memoir by a New Zealand GP is reminiscent of the warm wisdom and humanity of the American physician and writer Atul Gawande.

Over her long career Dr Lucy O’Hagan has developed deep insights into the profound but often complex relationship between patients and doctors. Reading about her own struggle with what it means to be a truly useful doctor is both fascinating and absorbing.

From working with people living on the margins and her own burnout to her efforts to better serve her Māori patients and the humour that’s sometimes needed to get through the day, she keeps her eye on one key question: What is it to be a good doctor in this place?

Take a look inside.

About the author

Lucy O’Hagan has been a rata hauora/general practitioner for over 30 years.

Olveston

Portrait of a home

Olveston is one of New Zealand’s most remarkable and beautiful heritage homes. Built in 1907 by David Theomin, a wealthy merchant and one of Dunedin’s accomplished Jewish businessmen of that era, its opulence reflects the economic power that was concentrated in Dunedin at the start of the twentieth century, largely thanks to the earlier gold rush and the booming farming sector.

Theomin and his wife Marie were cultured people who travelled a great deal and the house is full of items brought back from abroad, as well as valuable furniture and significant paintings. Designed by leading British architect Sir Ernest George, the beautifully cared-for house is now in public ownership and open for tours.

Olveston: Portrait of a Home, evocatively photographed by Jane Ussher, documents its exquisite rooms full of treasures.

Take a look inside.

About the authors

Jane Ussher MNZM is one of New Zealand’s most lauded photographers.

John Walsh is the author of several major books on New Zealand architecture.