01/06/2025
Compound Press presents 'Some helpful models of grief', the new collection of poetry by Hana Pera Aoake, with illustrations by Priscilla Rose Howe.
5:30pm at Lamplight Books
G01/100 Parnell Road, Parnell, Auckland
Book sales, signings, and readings featuring special guests:
Arielle Walker
Carin Smeaton
Liam Jacobson
Praise for 'Some helpful models of grief':
"Everything Hana writes has a pulse. It could be moss, Britney or Plato but it sings a song that is nervous, in the body and out of the body, you’d be a fool not to take in all of Hana’s grins."
—Talia Marshall
"Hana’s writing is daring, elliptical, charismatic and above all, interesting. The kind of writer where it doesn’t matter what the subject is, you know you are always in good company."
—Hera Lindsay Bird
About the book:
A composite chronicle of various loves—desired, lost, or never realised—and their corresponding joys and griefs against the backdrops of contemporary art and late capitalism. These poems radiate with Aoake’s characteristic force, tenderness, intelligence, and humour, often all within the very same breath. The personal is the political is the personal.
About the author:
Hana Pera Aoake (Ngāti Mahuta, Ngāti Hinerangi, Tainui/Waikato) is an artist, writer, curator and sweaty m**f from Aotearoa. Hana’s first book, 'A bath full of kawakawa and hot water', was published with Compound Press in 2020. Their second book, 'Blame it on the rain' was published in 2025 with no more poetry (Australia). They are also publishing a book of essays with Discipline (Australia) in late 2025. Hana is currently slogging through hell and doing a PhD at Auckland University of Technology. Hana lives in the shadow of Pūtauaki maunga and likes dirt and worms, long walks on the beach, Pilates, orange wine and sparkling water.
