IIML
@modernletters.bsky.social
The home of creative writing at Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington. Undergraduate courses, MA and PhD. Also: harbour views and baking.
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'Fewer than 60,000 people – 0.001% of the world’s population – control three times as much wealth as the entire bottom half of humanity, according to a report that argues global inequality has reached such extremes that urgent action has become essential'
www.theguardian.com/inequality/2...
www.theguardian.com/inequality/2...
Just 0.001% hold three times the wealth of poorest half of humanity, report finds
Data from World Inequality Report also showed top 10% of income-earners earn more than the other 90%
www.theguardian.com
December 10, 2025 at 7:40 AM
'Fewer than 60,000 people – 0.001% of the world’s population – control three times as much wealth as the entire bottom half of humanity, according to a report that argues global inequality has reached such extremes that urgent action has become essential'
www.theguardian.com/inequality/2...
www.theguardian.com/inequality/2...
Reposted by IIML
wait until they realize the capitalism they’ve internalized has harmed the victims they advocated for whereas poetry has saved some of them
If you are providing me with an education that is low utility in the world then it’s a disservice. My composition class spent four weeks on poetry. I’m sorry, but that only would’ve been useful if I wanted to be a poet. I don’t need to know iambic pentameter in order to be a victim advocate.
December 9, 2025 at 10:57 PM
wait until they realize the capitalism they’ve internalized has harmed the victims they advocated for whereas poetry has saved some of them
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An A to Z of The Spinoff’s best books of 2025
An A to Z of The Spinoff’s best books of 2025
The year's best reads, as chosen by our panel of experts....
thespinoff.co.nz
December 10, 2025 at 12:30 AM
An A to Z of The Spinoff’s best books of 2025
'Grandad's friend Paddy' is Patrick Leigh Fermor
just riffing on this, in 1944 my grandad's friend Paddy, who would go on to become a very distinguished writer, kidnapped a German general in occupied Crete and took him up into the mountains with a resistance team, from where he was sent on to the UK by submarine. Now, up in the mountains ...
there is not any particularly strong evidence that study of the humanities make people good people. the elites of many brutal empires were extremely well-read!
December 10, 2025 at 1:21 AM
'Grandad's friend Paddy' is Patrick Leigh Fermor
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In this age of authoritarians, online abuse of women is soaring – and it’s leading to ‘real-world’ violence | Julie Posetti
In this age of authoritarians, online abuse of women is soaring – and it’s leading to ‘real-world’ violence | Julie Posetti
Our UN report reveals the link between the online misogyny and offline crimes that are hounding women out of public life, says Julie Posetti, lead author of a new report published by UN Women
www.theguardian.com
December 10, 2025 at 1:02 AM
In this age of authoritarians, online abuse of women is soaring – and it’s leading to ‘real-world’ violence | Julie Posetti
Great to see this work is still finding new readers!
December 10, 2025 at 1:13 AM
Great to see this work is still finding new readers!
Hilarious and poignant, often at the same time. For anyone who enjoyed a misspent youth.
Coming February 2026 – Leather & Chains: My 1986 Diary, by Kate Camp. 🖤⛓️
teherengawakapress.co.nz/products/lea...
Cover by @toddatticus.bsky.social
teherengawakapress.co.nz/products/lea...
Cover by @toddatticus.bsky.social
December 10, 2025 at 1:12 AM
Hilarious and poignant, often at the same time. For anyone who enjoyed a misspent youth.
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running on empty so barely touched the depth of this incredible book nzpoetryshelf.com/2025/12/10/p...
Poetry Shelf celebrates Te Whāriki: Reading Ten New Poets from Aotearoa
Te Whāriki: Reading Ten New Poets from Aoteatoaedited by Anna Jackson, Dougal McNeill and Robert SullivanAuckland University Press, 2025 Auckland University Press page The poets: Sam Duckor-Jones, …
nzpoetryshelf.com
December 9, 2025 at 6:42 PM
running on empty so barely touched the depth of this incredible book nzpoetryshelf.com/2025/12/10/p...
Scifi writer and internet commentator Cory Doctorow - the inventor of the term ‘enshittification’ - has written a book about how to be a better critic of AI
"AI is the asbestos in the walls of our technological society, stuffed there with wild abandon by a finance sector and tech monopolists run amok. We will be excavating it for a generation or more."
This piece on AI by Cory Doctorow is spectactular.
pluralistic.net/2025/12/05/p...
This piece on AI by Cory Doctorow is spectactular.
pluralistic.net/2025/12/05/p...
December 9, 2025 at 8:32 PM
Scifi writer and internet commentator Cory Doctorow - the inventor of the term ‘enshittification’ - has written a book about how to be a better critic of AI
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What I read in 2025 (4):
Maggie Nelson's Pathemata, Or, The Story of My Mouth
'I get up first to be alone, and also because my jaw hurts too much to stay in bed.' What she writes is what I live, since 17 July 2020. πάθηματά μαθήματα, learning through suffering. A chronic pain fellow. I'm not crazy.
Maggie Nelson's Pathemata, Or, The Story of My Mouth
'I get up first to be alone, and also because my jaw hurts too much to stay in bed.' What she writes is what I live, since 17 July 2020. πάθηματά μαθήματα, learning through suffering. A chronic pain fellow. I'm not crazy.
December 9, 2025 at 2:38 AM
What I read in 2025 (4):
Maggie Nelson's Pathemata, Or, The Story of My Mouth
'I get up first to be alone, and also because my jaw hurts too much to stay in bed.' What she writes is what I live, since 17 July 2020. πάθηματά μαθήματα, learning through suffering. A chronic pain fellow. I'm not crazy.
Maggie Nelson's Pathemata, Or, The Story of My Mouth
'I get up first to be alone, and also because my jaw hurts too much to stay in bed.' What she writes is what I live, since 17 July 2020. πάθηματά μαθήματα, learning through suffering. A chronic pain fellow. I'm not crazy.
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What I read in 2025 (6):
Anna Jackson's Terrier, Worrier: A Poem in Five Parts
A splendid prose poem about affirmative doubt, in five seasons, from summer to summer, because you can only be aware of summer when you get back to it. A focused, feeling exploration of thinking. Somewhat fearless.
Anna Jackson's Terrier, Worrier: A Poem in Five Parts
A splendid prose poem about affirmative doubt, in five seasons, from summer to summer, because you can only be aware of summer when you get back to it. A focused, feeling exploration of thinking. Somewhat fearless.
December 9, 2025 at 2:59 AM
What I read in 2025 (6):
Anna Jackson's Terrier, Worrier: A Poem in Five Parts
A splendid prose poem about affirmative doubt, in five seasons, from summer to summer, because you can only be aware of summer when you get back to it. A focused, feeling exploration of thinking. Somewhat fearless.
Anna Jackson's Terrier, Worrier: A Poem in Five Parts
A splendid prose poem about affirmative doubt, in five seasons, from summer to summer, because you can only be aware of summer when you get back to it. A focused, feeling exploration of thinking. Somewhat fearless.
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RMA out: fewer plans, fewer consents – Expert Reaction
RMA out: fewer plans, fewer consents - Expert Reaction - Science Media Centre
Two Bills to replace the Resource Management Act are being introduced to Parliament today by the Government. The Planning Bill is to "enable development and regulate land use", while the Natural Environment...
www.sciencemediacentre.co.nz
December 9, 2025 at 5:00 AM
RMA out: fewer plans, fewer consents – Expert Reaction
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‘Don’t pander to the tech giants!’ How a youth movement for digital justice is spreading across Europe
‘Don’t pander to the tech giants!’ How a youth movement for digital justice is spreading across Europe
Gen z are the first generation to have grown up with social media, they were the earliest adopters, and therefore the first to suffer its harms. Now they are fighting back
www.theguardian.com
December 9, 2025 at 6:10 AM
‘Don’t pander to the tech giants!’ How a youth movement for digital justice is spreading across Europe
Eva Brunel is the winner of the IIML’s David Carson-Parker Embassy Prize in Scriptwriting Prize for 2025, presented this evening by Dame Gaylene Preston!💐
December 9, 2025 at 6:41 AM
Eva Brunel is the winner of the IIML’s David Carson-Parker Embassy Prize in Scriptwriting Prize for 2025, presented this evening by Dame Gaylene Preston!💐
Heidi’s bullet summaries are 🔥
What I read in 2025 (1):
Damien Wilkins' Delirious.
Like reading King Lear; domestic routines amidst physical, emotional, mental deterioration; the loss of personhood; the effect on survivors; violent gusto of voice in Pete's mother, one word gurgling in Claire, no voice in Wil. Tough read. Genius.
Damien Wilkins' Delirious.
Like reading King Lear; domestic routines amidst physical, emotional, mental deterioration; the loss of personhood; the effect on survivors; violent gusto of voice in Pete's mother, one word gurgling in Claire, no voice in Wil. Tough read. Genius.
December 9, 2025 at 4:07 AM
Heidi’s bullet summaries are 🔥
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No ifs no buts no maybes, says a politician just now on the radio. But maybe that’s what poetry does all the time.
December 8, 2025 at 7:22 PM
No ifs no buts no maybes, says a politician just now on the radio. But maybe that’s what poetry does all the time.
Reposted by IIML
Heatwave? hard rain? Blame #climatechange
Sea Surface Temp anomalies out in the Tasman: 2.7˚C above normal
earth.nullschool.net#current/ocea...
#nzpol
Sea Surface Temp anomalies out in the Tasman: 2.7˚C above normal
earth.nullschool.net#current/ocea...
#nzpol
December 8, 2025 at 4:07 AM
Heatwave? hard rain? Blame #climatechange
Sea Surface Temp anomalies out in the Tasman: 2.7˚C above normal
earth.nullschool.net#current/ocea...
#nzpol
Sea Surface Temp anomalies out in the Tasman: 2.7˚C above normal
earth.nullschool.net#current/ocea...
#nzpol
Excited to read the final version of this collection that began in the 2022 MA workshop!
✨ We're thrilled to announce Hungus by Amber Esau (Ngāpuhi / Manase) is coming 12 March 2026 – the arrival of a dazzling new voice in Aotearoa poetry.
teherengawakapress.co.nz/products/hun...
teherengawakapress.co.nz/products/hun...
December 8, 2025 at 6:48 AM
Excited to read the final version of this collection that began in the 2022 MA workshop!
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Comment: The Government is enabling ministers to have the final say in wide areas of NZ public policy – with risks to our democracy, writes Sir Geoffrey Palmer.
Geoffrey Palmer: Ministerial power vs democratic values in New Zealand
newsroom.co.nz
December 8, 2025 at 4:02 AM
Comment: The Government is enabling ministers to have the final say in wide areas of NZ public policy – with risks to our democracy, writes Sir Geoffrey Palmer.
‘Duff sees New Zealand better—its power dynamics between men and women, its social settings—than any writer publishing fiction in 2025’ - Steve Braunias in praise of Michelle Duff’s Surplus Women
Xmas gifts: best fiction of 2025
Literary editor Steve Braunias selects the top 10 works of fiction of the year
newsroom.co.nz
December 7, 2025 at 7:05 PM
‘Duff sees New Zealand better—its power dynamics between men and women, its social settings—than any writer publishing fiction in 2025’ - Steve Braunias in praise of Michelle Duff’s Surplus Women
Interesting to catch up on the career of our former Iowa Workshop convenor Ben Shattuck, who has written the screenplay of his own book, The History of Sound. The film stars Paul Mescal and Josh O’Connor, and opens in NZ later this month.
Ben Shattuck: The History of Sound
The History of Sound is the award-winning book by Ben Shattuck, set to hit the big screen this month with its highly anticipated film adaptation.
www.rnz.co.nz
December 7, 2025 at 3:28 AM
Interesting to catch up on the career of our former Iowa Workshop convenor Ben Shattuck, who has written the screenplay of his own book, The History of Sound. The film stars Paul Mescal and Josh O’Connor, and opens in NZ later this month.
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Comment from Victoria University: The easiest way to prevent others contracting Long Covid is to stay home when sick, and for govt to increase paid leave
Long Covid's long reach
newsroom.co.nz
December 6, 2025 at 6:43 PM
Comment from Victoria University: The easiest way to prevent others contracting Long Covid is to stay home when sick, and for govt to increase paid leave
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Alongside the many critiques of government policies that we published in 2025, we also ran many pieces about fortitude, accomplishment, and optimism. These are the stories that we’d like to leave you with over the summer. Stories of restoration, resistance, and hope.
Summer reading: A year of resistance and hope | E-Tangata
Alongside the many critiques of government policies that we published in 2025, we also ran many pieces about fortitude, accomplishment, and optimism. These are the stories that we’d like to leave you ...
e-tangata.co.nz
December 6, 2025 at 8:47 PM
Alongside the many critiques of government policies that we published in 2025, we also ran many pieces about fortitude, accomplishment, and optimism. These are the stories that we’d like to leave you with over the summer. Stories of restoration, resistance, and hope.
Reposted by IIML
"Writing is the art of disorganizing an order and organizing a disorder."
– Severo Sarduy, Cobra
– Severo Sarduy, Cobra
December 6, 2025 at 11:15 PM
"Writing is the art of disorganizing an order and organizing a disorder."
– Severo Sarduy, Cobra
– Severo Sarduy, Cobra
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‘Elephants so big you could see them for nothing’: Inside Mr Ward’s Wellington
‘Elephants so big you could see them for nothing’: Inside Mr Ward’s Wellington
A glimpse inside a stonking new book that brings historic Wellington alive, one map at a time....
thespinoff.co.nz
December 5, 2025 at 5:34 PM
‘Elephants so big you could see them for nothing’: Inside Mr Ward’s Wellington