It’s been five years since we launched my first book of poetry, The Death of Music Journalism.
I did a little audio podcast at the time sharing some of the story behind the writing of the poems, the making of the book, and reading some of the work.
I thought for its fifth birthday, I’d share a reading of five poems that I don’t think I’ve ever read out from the book before. A range of the content — from toxic masculinity, to family and friendships and memory, all framed by music. And of course the book was reimagining the way you can write about music; or a way I could write about music.
We launched at Meow in Wellington. Here’s the fabulous Cuba Press team of the time that helped with this book:
Mary on the left, publisher and editor supreme. Sarah (not with the company now) was the designer of the fabulous cover (from an amazing painting by Matthew Couper). And Paul was the selector of a lot of the poems, editor, typesetter, and really the champion for this work to happen. I think it was his first book where he stepped up into more of an editing role — and if I’m remembering that right, it was my great luck to have him in that role, as he showed all care, all responsibility, and wise choices.
The launch was to be a party — and so Mike Blue opened with music (and a poem):
The phenomenal Freya Daly Sadrove read poems from her amazing book, Head Girl, which we sold at the launch too:
And the amazing Rachel McAlpine read poems too. She had her book about How To Be Old (now the title of her most excellent podcast). So we sold her book too, after she read some of the funny, lovely, and wise poems from it:
I was so lucky to have Pip Adam launch the book. And Mary McCallum (publisher) also spoke about it and introduced me to do a reading:
If you bought the book you could scan a QR on the back (2020 called, it wants its tech back!) and you could access a huge playlist of every song reference from the book. You still can have access to that by the way:
I wrote about the launch — including sharing my speech from the day:
And the aforementioned podcast reading:
I was even interviewed by RNZ — and got to read a poem out live on air!
And then, or what felt like shortly after, it was over. But it lives on in Facebook and OneDrive memories and reminders. Which is why I offer this reading today.
Hope you enjoy it. The book is out of print, but in second hand stores — including some of the last of the new copies. If you wanted a copy I could find you one. Give me a holler. For real.
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