Atuanui Press invites you to Two Books launch

Then It Was Now Again: selected
critical writing
by Murray Edmond 


The Gold Leaves 
by Edward Jenner

Both titles to be launched upstairs at
Shakespeares Hotel and Brewery,
61 Albert St, Auckland Central

Thursday Oct 9th, 5.30pm to 8.30pm
Everyone Welcome

Then It Was Now Again: selected critical writing tells the story of a range of controversies, innovations, revolutions and disputes in New Zealand poetry, theatre and drama over the 40 years between 1973 and 2013. To do this 24 individual pieces from Murray Edmond's critical writings have been selected and arranged. The cumulative effect of this volume is ‘a good story,’ a drama with a cast list including figures such as James K. Baxter, Janet Frame, Mervyn Thompson, Kendrick Smithyman, Front Lawn, The Topp Twins, Martyn Sanderson, Alan Brunton, David Mitchell, and Michele Leggott, among others. The intention of the book is to be provocative: provoking thought and memory and feeling. Edmond’s voice is a “good one to argue with,” and he proves to be an opinionated guide through debates about the efficacy of poetry, the nature of artistic revolution, the effect of political change on art, and the interface of social action and artistic practice. 

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The Gold Leaves (being an account and translation from the Ancient Greek of the 'so-called' Orphic Gold Tablets)  is a study of ancient (c.400BC-300AD) verses, often fragmentary, incised on fragile gold leaves that have been found (and continue to be found) buried in graves and tombs in the culturally Greek parts of the Mediterranean world. These leaves have been placed carefully, perhaps on the chest, or in the mouth or in the hand, of the body. The leaves are messages designed to guide the souls of the dead on their journey to immortality and paradise.
Jenner has provided his own translation of a selected number of the texts on the gold leaves. He brings his skill as a poet to these translations.
[ ... ] For me the book is finally a book about poetry, about its potential and its limits, about its "charm" (in the sense of magic). - Murray Edmond

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About Atuanui Press

Atuanui Press was established in order to publish new and historical writing from New Zealand and the Pacific, focusing on memoirs, criticism, and travel writing. Primarily a non-fiction publisher we will also publish fiction that has a strong regional element.