Te Herenga Waka University Press

03/06/2026

🎉 The news is out: The Starving Bride by Catherine Chidgey is on its way!

Publishing in October 2026 from Te Herenga Waka University Press in Aotearoa New Zealand, and Penguin Books in Australia, this is an astonishing new novel from one of our most celebrated storytellers.

In the iconic Blackpool Tower, with a ravenous lion prowling the enclosure, Hazel must lie in silence while strangers view her body… If you couldn’t put down The Book of Guilt, you’ll love this one too.

We’re delighted to reveal this gorgeous cover, and to share a glimpse of the process behind it, with artwork by Max Thompson and design by Todd Atticus.

02/06/2026

We join communities across Aotearoa in honouring the legacy of Tā Hirini Moko Mead, a distinguished scholar, writer and visionary leader in te ao Māori.

Tā Hirini was the founding Professor of Māori at Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington, where where he established the first Department of Māori studies along with Te Herenga Waka, the first university-based marae.

His influence across education, publishing and the arts is immense. At Te Herenga Waka University Press, we are proud to have published his essay collection Landmarks, Bridges and Visions: Aspects of Māori Culture, and Ngā Pepeha a ngā Tūpuna, which Tā Hirini co-edited — an important book that continues to guide readers in understanding ancestral knowledge and language.

We send aroha to his whānau, to Ngāti Awa, Ngāti Tūwharetoa, Ngāi Tūhoe and Tūhourangi, and to the many communities shaped by his work.

Moe mai rā e te rangatira.

28/05/2026

26/03/2026

Introducing NOVA by Tim Corballis, publishing 11 June 2026! 🪐

Set on a self-contained world launched into deep time, NOVA unfolds through conversations between Kalla, a former councillor uneasy with consensus and ceremony, and System — the voice of all NOVA's mechanisms and processes, curious and anxious, knowing everything and somehow nothing at all. Together they circle questions of democracy, labour, memory, entropy and love.

Formally inventive, unabashedly brainy, and — as Alice Miller says — 'strangely joyful.'

This is Tim Corballis's first novel since Our Future Is in the Air, and we think it's something special.

Cover: Todd Atticus

12/03/2026

Today we are thrilled to publish two excellent new books of poetry, and to bring back three modern classics by Catherine Chidgey with stunning new covers... Congratulations James, Amber and Catherine! ✨

03/03/2026

Huge congratulations to Nafanua, Erik, Ingrid, Catherine, and Tina 🎉🎉

We are thrilled that five Te Herenga Waka University Press titles have been shortlisted for the 2026 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards — congratulations to all our authors! Shortlisted for the Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction All Her Lives — Ingrid Horrocks The Book of Guilt — Catherine Chi...

18/02/2026

18/02/2026

We're so excited to share this one with you soon! Have This Heart by Lawrence Patchett is a compulsively readable story collection about men who are trying to do better.

Whether training a rescue dog, starting a bucket chain to put out a raging fire, raising a marquee beside a line of Ferraris, or reporting on a sensitive workplace accident, the men in these stories are striving for more. They care about their work, even when no one else does, because they know what the consequences will be if they don't.

Tightly coiled, rich with rough talk and fear-sweat and tenderness — this is an award-winning writer at his sharpest.

Out 14 May.
Cover painting by Euan Macleod.
Cover design by Todd Atticus.
Author photo by Janneth Gil.

18/02/2026

Kate for Wellington Alive...