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Mark Williams

The Anthropocene by Julia Adeney Thomas, Mark Williams, and Jan Zalasiewicz & Diary of a Young Naturalist by Dara McAnulty

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March 2021, no. 429
Libby Robin reviews 'The Anthropocene' by Julia Adeney Thomas, Mark Williams, and Jan Zalasiewicz and 'Diary of a Young Naturalist' by Dara McAnulty

When fourteen-year-old Dara McAnulty penned a diary entry on 7 August 2018, his grief poured out in stanzas. He felt an acute need for ‘birdsong, abundant fluttering / humming, no more poison, destruction. / Growing for growth, it has to end.’ One month later, he took these words to the People’s Walk for Wildlife in London: ‘I call it a poem but I am not sure it is. I feel it would be good to say aloud, to a crowd … the words spilled out.’ For the event, McAnulty added a title: Anthropocene.

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Can You Tolerate This?:: Personal essays by Ashleigh Young

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September 2017, no. 394
Mark Williams reviews 'Can You Tolerate This?: Personal essays' by Ashleigh Young

Ashleigh Young is one of a number of writers currently distinguishing themselves as the latest generation to emerge from the creative writing program at Victoria University in Wellington. The course, founded by Bill Manhire in 1975, maintains the supply of excellence that attracted so much resentment as its ‘spectacular babies’ – from Barbara Anderson to Elean ...

The Oxford History of the Novel in English: Volume 9: The world novel in English to 1950 edited by Ralph Crane, Jane Stafford, and Mark Williams

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April 2017, no. 390
Paul Giles reviews 'The Oxford History of the Novel in English: Volume 9: The world novel in English to 1950' edited by Ralph Crane, Jane Stafford, and Mark Williams

The latest instalment in the Oxford History of the Novel in English is notable for having one of its editors based in Australia and the other two in New Zealand. As these editors admit in their introduction, this volume is ‘something of a hybrid when set alongside the other eleven volumes that make up the series’, since it is organised partly by historical date, ...

A History of New Zealand Literature edited by Mark Williams

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April 2017, no. 390
Elizabeth McMahon reviews 'A History of New Zealand Literature' edited by Mark Williams

A History of New Zealand Literature is a rewarding collection replete with the pleasure of new information that is both strange and strangely familiar. I commend it for both its intrinsic interest and, for Australian readers in particular, as one means of redressing Australia and New Zealand’s mutual ignorance of each other’s literary histories and cult ...