Mākaro Press

01/10/2025

Goosebumps! That's what Becky Manawatu and the Mākaro Press team felt on first listening to Auē on audiobook. It was like Ari and Beth and Aunty Kat and Taukiri and all the rest had walked into the room.

If you've read 's award-winning novel, listening to the audio version is an experience you don't want to miss, and if you haven't read it then the audiobook is a marvellous way to meet characters that will get in under your skin and stay there.

Created by in the US and available on Audible the Auē audiobook stars NZ actors Niwa Whatuira, Ebony Andrew, Kiri Danielle and Scotty Cotter.

Thanks to our agent for making the audiobook happen and for getting Auē the book into the wider world.

Check out this great listen on Audible.com.au. auē (verb) to cry, howl, groan, wail, bawl. (interjection) expression of astonishment or distress. Taukiri was born into sorrow. Auē can be heard in the sound of the sea he loves and hates and in the music he draws out of the guitar that was his fathe...

29/09/2025

Brilliant news for Becky Manawatu! This writers residency in Te Wai Pounamu is gold for this West Coast kaituhi. It will give her the time and space and funding she needs to write her third novel. We are so grateful to the University of Canterbury and Creative New Zealand.

26/09/2025

Unusual and edgy! We’ll take that. Empathy by Bryan Walpert, Author is in all good bookshops now.

Thanks Cristina Sanders for the endorsement.

24/09/2025

Utter joy at Mākaro Press to hear that is a finalist in the Keri Hulme Award thanks to the .

Becky feels closely connected to Keri through the whenua of Te Wai Pounamu – both being kaituhi of the West Coast.

Becky is honored to be selected alongside and .makereti

The winner is announced on Sunday at the KUPU festival in Rotorua.

24/09/2025

Utter joy at Mākaro Press to hear that Becky Manawatu is a finalist in the Keri Hulme Award thanks to the Māori Literature Trust.

Becky feels closely connected to Keri through the whenua of Te Wai Pounamu – both being kaituhi of the West Coast.

Becky is honored to be selected alongside Steph Matuku and Tina Makereti. The winner is announced on Sunday at the Kupu festival in Rotorua.

2025 PIKIHUIA AWARDS FINALISTS ✨

Tēnā rā koutou e te iwi, meet your finalists for the 2025 Keri Hulme Award!

Thank you once again to the Hulme whānau for supporting mid-career kaituhi Māori. This year, the award focuses on those who have exemplified a spirit of perseverance and experimentation through their body of work.

All winners will be announced at the awards ceremony in Rotorua on 19 October as a part of KUPU Māori Writers Festival. Tickets for the 2025 Pikihuia Awards are limited and are available for purchase from the link in our bio.

The Pikihuia Awards are made possible through the generous support of our partners and sponsors: Creative New Zealand, Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori, KUPU Māori Writers Festival, Huia Publishers and the Keri Hulme whānau.

Congratulations to Steph, Tina and Becky; we are thrilled to recognise your longstanding contributions to Māori literature and the wider Indigenous literary landscape.

20/09/2025

Good to see Empathy out in the wild — the latest novel from Bryan Walpert, Author. Thanks Unity Books Auckland! We launch there 9 October.

In good company...Thanks

14/09/2025

The new Mākaro novel Empathy by Bryan Walpert will be launched by Lloyd Jones at in October. It is in bookshops now.

10/09/2025

In the release month of our 2025 Mākaro novel EMPATHY by Bryan Walpert, we are delighted to announce our 2026 novel will be AND HOW ARE THINGS WITH YOU by Wellington author Mia Farlane.

Today, 10 September, is World Su***de Prevention Day and Farlane's novel is about a woman who, for her own reasons, is researching su***de – a story that employs the bleak humour and dry observations of human beings that readers loved in Farlane's first novel FOOTNOTES TO S*X, published in the UK by Viking/Penguin Books. A book that British broadcaster Bidisha described as ‘Seinfeld meets Dorothy Parker over a late-night hot drink'.

AND HOW ARE THINGS WITH YOU will be released in September 2026, in time for World Su***de Prevention Day.

The photograph is Mia Farlane at her Mount Victoria home, with some of the books and papers she drew on to write the novel.

***dePreventionDay

06/09/2025

“This is a cracker of a novel! It’s got that slow-burn intensity that only a really good writer can pull off.” Stella Chrysostomou, Nine to Noon reviewer on RNZ about Empathy by Bryan Walpert, Author.

Find the review on rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon

Empathy is our 2026 novel, out in shops now.

06/09/2025

“This is a cracker of a novel! It’s got that slow-burn intensity that only a really good writer can pull off.” Stella Chrysostomou, Nine to Noon reviewer on RNZ about Empathy by Bryan Walpert, Author.

Empathy is our 2026 novel, out in shops now.

Stella Chrysostomou reviews Empathy by Bryan Walpert, published by Makaro Press.

06/09/2025

“A cracker of a novel!”

Thank you Stella of Volume for your review of Bryan Walpert, Author’s novel Empathy.

This link is to Stella’s website review. In the comments is Stella’s review on RNZ this week.

A cracker of a novel. An intelligent thriller with a slowburn intensity that only a very good writer can pull off.

31/08/2025

at talking about Kataraina in and in an interview with Nic Low.

Always wonderful to see Becky talking about her novel in Te Wai Pounamu. Thank you Word for hosting her and for the photos.