New Zealand (with the South Pacific Islands)

My first year in the role of bibliographer of New Zealand (and South Pacific) literature for the Journal of Commonwealth Literature has been something of a revelation; certainly it has given me a greater appreciation of both the continued growth of my subject and its wide range of genre. New Zealand authors have long excelled in the genre of romantic fiction. Dorothy Eden and Essie Summers were the most prolific from the midtwentieth century, writing to the required formula stories which could often often have been set in any western society. Their descendents are more inclined to use distinctly New Zealand locations. The stories credited below to Robyn Donald, one of Mills & Boon’s most translated authors, boast the uniquely New Zealand titles of The Temptress Of Tarika Bay and One Night At Parenga, indicative of the same sort of pride-of-place that lies behind the recent film adaptation of Witi Ihimaera’s novel Whale Rider. Concerned on the whole with a more local market, the university presses continue to be major producers of good poetry and fiction, particularly Auckland (AUP) and Victoria (VUP). Cliff Fell, Anne Kennedy, Sarah Quigley, Kapka Kassabova, and Graham Lindsay are among the most successful of their poets. Fell’s The Adulterer’s Bible (VUP) draws inspiration from the 1631 edition of the holy book, banned for its misprint ‘Thou shalt commit adultery’. Suitably, his poems are alternatively erotic and playful, toying with the ambiguity of language. Elizabeth Knox retains her place as the most celebrated of the university press fiction writers with her new novel Daylight (VUP). And daylight has indeed dawned after the dark convolutions of Black Oxen, with New Zealand (with the South Pacific Islands)