Otago University Press

14/12/2025

Doesn’t this send a tingle down your spine??
Our year in book spines 😍

Find all our 2025 books at oup.nz

#2025

14/12/2025

'Writing the book was a journey in itself. As I travelled around talking to various family members, the research threw up far more great material than I’d anticipated. It was a mammoth effort to organise it all, piecing together bits of the puzzle from interviews, diaries, letters, photos, newspaper articles and more. At times, I felt like a detective. ‘Archival research’ has a boring ring to it, but the regular quirky, poignant or surprising discoveries kept it compelling.'

Hannah Bulloch speaks to Erica Stretton about Overland to the Island for Kete Books ✨

Author of OVERLAND TO THE ISLAND, Hannah Bulloch, delves into the writing and research processes that brought her book to life. ...

09/12/2025

Congratulations to our poets included in this year’s New Zealand Listener top poetry collections of 2025 ✨ Read the list here: https://www.nzherald.co.nz/the-listener/books/top-poetry-books-of-2025/premium/SAUXRHFETVBNHEJ6FUA7BTZ2UM/

09/12/2025

A massive congratulations to Hannah Bulloch, whose book, Overland to the Island: New Zealand to Skye with six kids in a homemade house-truck, made last week's Nielsen Indie Top 10 list! 🥳

https://bookhub.co.nz/c/this-week-s-official-nielsen-indie-top-10?srsltid=AfmBOop8bskBXNIKBLtPZmCX2xvqlPTTUr3UX0I6t9fpKOeWiMWGDTXR

09/12/2025

She expertly unpicks the improbable story, digging deep into generations of MacLeods, Alan’s unique story, his marriage to Joan, and giving their children a voice. The journey itself is of course meticulously detailed, an almost hallucinatory jaunt through exoctic lands that the family knew little about. Often the were driving blind, literally into the unknown.

Gavin Bertram writes about Overland to the Island by Hannah Bulloch for South Magazine (Summer 2025)

Read here: https://alliedpress.smedia.com.au/south-magazine/

09/12/2025

"The issue gathers an abundant array of voices that together form something close to a portrait of the national imagination at this moment. Readers encounter short fiction, poetry, essays, visual art and critical commentary that sit alongside one another without competing for authority. The effect is cumulative rather than hierarchical. Individual pieces often explore personal experience that intersects with environmental forces, social shifts or intergenerational memory. Others probe moments of loss or transition, sometimes with sharp intimacy, sometimes through a wider cultural lens. The editorial approach encourages pieces to converse across genres, so a quiet lyric may echo against a reflective essay or a story rooted in a specific locality."

Chris Reed reviews Landfall Tauraka 250: Spring 2025 edited by Lynley Edmeades for NZ Booklovers ✨
https://www.nzbooklovers.co.nz/post/landfall-tauraka-250

Landfall Tauraka 250 arrives as both a celebration and a statement of intent. Marking seventy eight years of continuous publication, the anniversary volume edited by Lynley Edmeades demonstrates why the journal remains a central meeting place for artistic and literary expression in Aotearoa. The new...

08/12/2025

What a beautiful stack of books 😍 Here’s everything we published in 2025, featuring a lovely sunny day here on Ōtepoti ☀️

A massive thank you to all our authors, editors, contributors, illustrators, booksellers, reps, distributors, industry partners, journalists and everyone else we’ve worked with this year – We couldn’t do it without you! ❤️

Roll on 2026! 😎
Find all our 2025 books here: https://oup.nz/categories/

07/12/2025

On Saturday 22 November, we gathered at the Dunningham Suite, Dunedin City Library, to celebrate the double book launch of Ruth Dallas: A writer’s life by Diana Morrow and This Moment, Every Moment: Ruth Dallas Collected Poems edited by Nicola Cummins. It was a beautiful event and we thank everyone who came to help us celebrate.

We held a special author talk between Diana Morrow and Nicola Cummins, in conversation with OUP publisher, Sue Wootton. We were also delighted with a musical performance of Ruth’s poems by Cathy Highton-Sim (soprano) and Anthony Ritchie (pianist). Afterwards, we had a lovely afternoon tea provided by the wonderful team at the City of Literature Dunedin, New Zealand , Nicky Page and Anne Shelah. Thank you to everyone who made this event happen. Thank you also to Jill Bowie from Dunedin Public Libraries for the photography, videos and the amazing backdrop. And thank you to the University Book Shop Otago for being our awesome booksellers on the day ❤️

A massive thank you also to the wonderful Jocelyn Harris, who launched the two books for us and gave a moving speech to open the event.

“It was all too easy to underestimate the unobtrusive but watchful Ruth Dallas. She dressed plainly, and after her fiancé went to the war and found someone else, she stayed put with her mother Minnie Mumford then her niece Joan Dutton. Commenting on the attention paid to writers who had travelled, she remarked, ‘What about writers who have never moved off their home plot, like Jane Austen and Thomas Hardy?’ … Between them, Diana Morrows and Nicola Cummins have restored the mana of a great poet. You are all in for a treat.”

Read Jocelyn’s full launch speech online now at oup.nz/celebrating-ruth-dallas

Photography by Jill Bowie 📸

06/12/2025

Today! Don’t miss this conversation between Lynley Edmeades and Claire Mabey at Unity Books Wellington ✨ Open to all and free to attend ⭐️

04/12/2025

Tomorrow! Lynley Edmeades in conversation with the lovely Chloe Blades from Unity Books Auckland at The Frame Workshop and Gallery 😍 All are welcome!

RSVP via the link in our bio or to [email protected] ✨

04/12/2025

On Thursday 27 November, we launched Overland to the Island: New Zealand to Skye with six kids in a homemade house-truck by Hannah Bulloch. A massive thank you to the wonderful for hosting us in their lovely space ✨

We had some amazing speeches, including from author Hannah Bulloch and Hannah’s uncle, Alan MacLeod (Ginger). And Vanessa Manhire did a fantastic job of launching the book for us.

‘This book was a real page turner – I kept stopping and saying to my husband “Listen to this” and reading him snippets, or commenting out loud so much that he’d ask what had happened … Overland to the Island is every bit as bonkers and as brilliant as that first description promised.‘

Read more here: https://oup.nz/library/overland-to-the-island/