By Auckland Writers & Readers Festival on
Wednesday, Sep 24, 2008

American writer David Foster Wallace, perhaps best known for his 1996 novel Infinite Jest, died this month. He was 46. His darkly ironic novels, essays and short stories garnered him a large following and made him one of the most influential writers of his generation. Wallace was found dead in his California home on the 12th, after committing suicide.

By Auckland Writers & Readers Festival on
Wednesday, Sep 24, 2008

Untitled Books is a great new site for the reading chic. The books are arranged in themes such as Desire, Intoxication, Visions of the Future, Great Adventures and Violence, to encourage the type of browsing associated with real life bookshops. The online magazine features articles, author recommendations and interviews with big names such as Julian Barnes, Philip Gourevitch and James Frey.

By Auckland Writers & Readers Festival on
Wednesday, Sep 24, 2008

Children's book magazine the Puffin Post is to be relaunched in January. At its peek there were apparently 200,000 Puffineers who would greet each other with the codeword "Sniffup", which must be answered with "Spotera". A magazine/bookclub for 8-12 year olds, offering stories, competitions, games, quizzes and interviews the Puffin Post was originally created in 1967 but closed in 1982.

By Auckland Writers & Readers Festival on
Tuesday, Sep 23, 2008

By Auckland Writers & Readers Festival on
Monday, Sep 01, 2008

Spectacular books are being produced in New Zealand, the best of which, judged by the New Zealand Listener's  arts and books editor Guy Somerset, bookseller Mark Fry and magazine publisher Michael McHugh, were celebrated in the BPANZ Book Design Awards 2008 in July.

By Auckland Writers & Readers Festival on
Monday, Sep 01, 2008

 but be it the orange spine and rumpled soft pages of a penguin classic, or the glossy lush leaves of a gorgeous art book, design becomes part of the language and experience of any book. For more beautiful and fascinating book design see:

► Covers
► The New York Times Blog: The Book Design Review
► The New York Public Library's digital Gallery's

By Auckland Writers & Readers Festival on
Monday, Sep 01, 2008

Kate Bezar, a New Zealander based in Sydney, has found considerable success and a dedicated international fan club in her magazine Dumbo feather, pass it on. Recently speaking at the design conference Semi-Permanent '08, she described the beginnings of the magazine. Sick of what she saw as a worship of 'manufactured' media stars, Bezar left her high-pressure corporate job to produce the magazine which champions the extraordinary achievements of 'real' people. In every issue she interviews 5 individuals who are remarkable in some way.

By Auckland Writers & Readers Festival on
Monday, Sep 01, 2008

"Sadie Jones thought she was a screenwriter until, as Alison Flood discovers, a film script spilled into prose
It's possible that Sadie Jones just wasn't a very good screenwriter. After "clawing away" (her words) at the profession for 15 years, things weren't looking good – a "lovely romantic comedy", a thriller, and a "really nice coming of age story" all came to nothing. Then along came The Outcast, the film script of which became a bestselling novel, which in a twist of fate is now becoming a film script again."

By Auckland Writers & Readers Festival on
Monday, Sep 01, 2008

The web is full of interesting and entertaining book podcasts. One of the best is John Crace's wickedly satirical Guardian column, The Digested Read, which lampoons the literary style of leading authors by summarising their books in five minutes. Some of the most recent follow:

By Auckland Writers & Readers Festival on
Friday, Jul 11, 2008

Carl Shuker, a New Zealand writer living in London, has published his latest book, Three Novellas for a Novel, online. Shuker stepped into the public gaze when he won the Prize in Modern Letters in 2006 for The Method Actors. His second book, The Lazy Boys, is a bleak, unrelenting and brutal depiction of a young man’s student days in Otago. Shuker's work seems perfect for the random, lawless and often dark underworld of the internet.