Left of the Equator Press

25/02/2024

Live poetry reading from Nadia Freeman / Miss Leading from her mind-bending book, Another Universe, at The Performance Arcade popup bookshop we're running with Lawrence & Gibson Publishing, 5ever books, Book Haven and The Freedom Shop. We're here til 11pm tonight on the waterfront just behind Te Papa.

22/02/2024

Come to The Performance Arcade next to Te Papa to check out the popup bookshop we've put together with the excellent people from 5ever books, Lawrence & Gibson Publishing, The Freedom Shop, Rebel Press and Book Haven. It's fitted out with beanbags so you can read for free while watching the stingrays slither by. Open til Sunday 10am-11pm

25/11/2023

🇵🇸🇵🇸 Publishers for Palestine are launching a Read Palestine Week from Nov 29 til Dec 5 where they will make available over 24 titles for Palestinian authors in more than 6 languages on their website publishersforpalestine.org 🇵🇸🇵🇸

22/11/2023

We invite publishers, editors, and writers around the world who stand for justice, freedom of expression, and the power of the written word, to sign this letter and join our global solidarity collective, Publishers for Palestine: https://www.haymarketbooks.org/blogs/497-publishers-for-palestine-statement-of-solidarity. Thanks to Haymarket Books. Keen? 5ever books The Freedom Shop Lawrence & Gibson Publishing Rebel Press

22/08/2023

We had a super fun weekend being part of the first ever Small Press Fest in the wonderful City of Literature Ōtepoti/Dunedin. Huge thanks to Frances at Evening Books and the cool crew at Yours for making it possible. Can't wait for next year!

18/08/2023

Save the date! 18-20 August 2023

Small Press Fest at Evening Books/Yours, 43 Moray Place.

More exciting details to follow.

18/08/2023

Loved hearing from Katie at GLORIA Books last night discussing their publishing process from concept on one end all the way to reflection on the other, and also from the wonderful Rat World Magazine talking about the interplay between print and online publishing, the wonder and discovery of that happens IRL, the materiality of books, and why they do the wonderful things that they do. Great stuff at a great space, Yours.

17/08/2023

WE are super excited about the start of Small Press Fest today in Ōtepoti/Dunedin. There is a great line up of talks and activities throughout the weekend & some super cool crew! Thanks Evening Books!

13/08/2023

A leading climate crisis author has staged a walkout at the Edinburgh international book festival in protest at its sponsor’s links to fossil fuel companies. The author and climate activist Mikaela Loach interrupted a discussion about changing the climate narrative on Saturday evening to lead a demonstration about the festival’s main sponsor, the investment company Baillie Gifford. In an emotional speech, the author said: “I think, especially recently, if you look across the world, Maui is literally on fire as we’ve seen right now.” Loach, who is British and was born in Jamaica, added: “I don’t know if my ancestral land will still be there if I have children or if I have descendants. And the reason for this is because of investments in fossil fuels.

Activist Mikaela Loach staged protest over investment firm’s ‘bankrolling’ of the climate crisis

12/08/2023

We are so looking forward to being in Ōtepoti/Dunedin on Friday for the start of the very first Aotearoa Small Press Fest! Keen to connect with all the others doing this mahi: Katie Kerr from GLORIA (Tāmaki Makaurau), Brannavan Gnanalingam from Lawrence and Gibson (Pōneke), Dunedin Youth Writers (Ōtepoti), Sasha, Achille and Renae from 5ever Press (Pōneke), Chris Holdaway from Compound Press (Tāmaki Makaurau), Rosa, Sam and Flynn from Newzician Magazine (Ōtepoti, Ōtautahi), Jennifer and Aidan from Rat World Magazine (Tāmaki Makaurau), Gilbert from Point Design (Ōtepoti), Blue Oyster Project Space (Ōtepoti), Gabi Lardies an independent book designer & writer / editor (Tāmaki Makaurau).

01/08/2023

Dismantling racism requires much more than empathy, it requires political justice, writes Tina Ngata. "Racism is an economic project. The idea that one group has a right to claim domination over another — based on supremacy of genes, skin colour, ethnicity or similar characteristics — was never a mere intellectual exercise. From the very beginning, it’s been about the extraction of labour, resources and land from non-white people."
You can order a copy of Tina's book from us: https://leftequator.github.io/

“Those in power are so accustomed to extreme privilege that anything less than maintaining that feels like oppression.” — Tina Ngata.

23/07/2023

Tīhema Baker’s experiences as a Māori public servant who’s been “laughed at, eye-rolled at, lectured on Crown policy I already know, shut down and so on”, has led him to write a satirical sci-fi novel called Turncoat, based on the trauma of Māori working in the public service. Another great title from our friends at Lawrence & Gibson Publishing

“I wanted to write something that puts Pākehā in the shoes of a colonised people. I want them to imagine a world in which their principles and values are routinely laughed at.” — Tīhema Baker, author of ‘Turncoat’, a satirical sci-fi novel.

08/07/2023

Thomasin is such a talented creator of characters - this new one is def worth a read! Great work Lawrence & Gibson Publishing!

It seems that we have become dependent on photographs for our memories, for our identities, even for our authenticity. This fascinating novel explores what would happen if people started to become unrecordable by media, to disappear from photographs, to become gaps in a world in which image has beco

06/07/2023

Russia’s war against Ukraine forces us to interrogate non-western imperialisms. Decolonial and postcolonial scholarships, due to their specific intellectual lineage and geographical anchoring, have been mostly preoccupied—rightly so—with critiquing the ‘West’ and its imperial and colonial projects. Yet these tendencies have led to a deliberate downplaying or accidental overlooking of Russia as an imperial power, as well as other oppressive imperial/colonial regimes outside the places that have constructed themselves as the ‘West’. South South has just published these important kōrerorero exploring critical questions of imperialism and decolonisation.

Russia’s war against Ukraine forces us to interrogate non-western imperialisms. Decolonial and postcolonial scholarships, due to their specific intellectual lineage and geographical anchoring, have been mostly preoccupied—rightly so—with critiquing the ‘West’ and its imperial and colonial ...

06/07/2023

There is an amazing list of people and projects nominated for this year's Bert Roth Award for Labour History showing just how critical it is that we know and celebrate the lives, stories and struggles of people on the front lines against capitalist exploitation and the daily drudgery of work. Awesome work Labour History Project (LHP) - New Zealand!

Announcement: Bert Roth Award for Labour History 2023 Shortlist

The Bert Roth Award for Labour History, named for the late historian Herbert Roth, is presented annually by the Labour History Project. It is awarded to a work that best depicts the history of work and resistance in New Zealand published in the previous calendar year.

We take a broad perspective on the definition of labour history, including non-paid work, and consider how a work reveals exploitation and people’s efforts to challenge exploitation; whether it gives voice to histories that remain out of view or marginal; and its accessibility.

With that in mind, here is the shortlist for 2023:

Comrade: Bill Andersen – A Communist, Working-Class Life by Cybele Locke (Bridget Williams Books)
'In Defence of Living Standards: The Federation of Labour and the Politics of Economic Crisis, 1975-1987' by Ross Webb (thesis)
Jumping Sundays: The Rise and Fall of the Counterculture in Aotearoa New Zealand by Nick Bollinger (Auckland University Press)
Keystrokes Per Minute by Storycollective (podcast series)
Making Space: A History of New Zealand Women in Architecture edited by Elizabeth Cox (Massey University Press)
'Māori Workers in Colonial New South Wales, c.1803-1840' by Rohan Howitt (paper, History Workshop Journal)
New Zealand Nurses: Caring For Our People 1880-1950 by Pamela Wood (Otago University Press)
Takeout Kids directed by Julie Zhu (documentary series)
'Women and the New Zealand office, 1945-1972: Keystrokes to a rewarding life?' by Sarah Christie (thesis)
Women Will Rise! Recalling the Working Women’s Charter edited by Gay Simpkin and Marie Russell (Steele Roberts)

The winner will be announced at the AGM of the Labour History Project, held at the National Library on Monday 17 July 2023.
Labour History Project AGM: ‘1970s Protest photos New Zealand project’ | National Library of New Zealand (natlib.govt.nz)

05/07/2023

We are super excited to be part of the first ever Small Press Fest in Ōtepoti/Dunedin next month. The beautiful Evening Books are putting together this kick ass event centring small presses and independent publishers from across the motu. Be a part of helping to make this radical gathering happen!

Small Press Fest brings together small-presses and independent publications from across Aotearoa.

03/07/2023

No other words to say: F**k Putin. Stop the war.

A war crimes researcher and novelist, the 37-year-old died from wounds sustained in Tuesday’s missile attack.

28/06/2023

Formed to ‘break the silence’ for female voices and still as essential and influential as ever, fans and founding members pay tribute to the trailblazing feminist press, Virago.

It was the early 70s, and in a tiny flat above a synagogue in Chelsea, London, decorated with lime-green paint, red tiles and an alternative cover for Germaine Greer’s The Female Eu**ch on the wall, a group of women sat talking around a dining table.

The attic bedsit soon became the first office of the feminist publisher Virago, which turns 50 this month. It has published more than 4,000 titles and over 1,000 authors, including Sarah Waters, Pat Barker and Monica Ali, and brought the likes of Margaret Atwood and Maya Angelou to British readers.

Formed to ‘break the silence’ for female voices and still as essential and influential as ever, fans and founding members pay tribute to the trailblazing feminist press

27/06/2023

Such a great night at the first ever (annual) Rebel Press Ball on Friday night. We are super lucky to be part of such an amazing space and working with amazing comrades like 5ever books, Lawrence & Gibson Publishing and The Freedom Shop.

20/03/2023

Thanks for the fair! Great to connect with you all.

Thanks heaps everyone for coming!!! We had a blast! So nice to meet so many new people from so many parts of the country.

Heartwarming to get some really kind and positive messages on how much people got out of the day, and asking that we do it every year! If you're keen on organising that, please do get in touch.

We did spend more than we raised in our crowdfunder three years ago if people are able to chip in a bit of koha please do here: 02-1245-0193044-001

For those who stayed to dinner and haven't paid yet it's pay as you feel / are able (suggested $10) to this account please: 12-3136-0309852-00

Thank you to all our amazing speakers, performers and stallholders you made the day what it was! See you all next time

20/03/2023

Thanks heaps everyone for coming!!! We had a blast! So nice to meet so many new people from so many parts of the country.

Heartwarming to get some really kind and positive messages on how much people got out of the day, and asking that we do it every year! If you're keen on organising that, please do get in touch.

We did spend more than we raised in our crowdfunder three years ago if people are able to chip in a bit of koha please do here: 02-1245-0193044-001

For those who stayed to dinner and haven't paid yet it's pay as you feel / are able (suggested $10) to this account please: 12-3136-0309852-00

Thank you to all our amazing speakers, performers and stallholders you made the day what it was! See you all next time

16/03/2023

We'll be at the Tāmaki Anarchist Bookfair this Saturday.
We're bringing down 24kg of the newsprint Renters United edition of Murdoch Stephens' Rat King Landlord novel available for koha.

We'll also be selling our books:
* Splendid Bush: Q***r poetry by Clare Havell-Shufflebotham.
* Peace Action: Struggles for a Decolonised and Demilitarised Oceania and East Asia
* The Day the Raids Came: Stories of Survival and Resistance to the State Terror Raids. An oral history of the Muru/ Operation 8 raids
* Kia Mau: Resisting Colonial Fictions by Tina Ngata

See you this Saturday at the Mount Albert War Memorial Hall, Auckland.

09/03/2023

Super excited to be part of the fair next weekend!

27/02/2023

Down from Upland, by Murdoch Stephens

22/02/2023

OPINION: Brannavan Gnanalingam shares his top writing tips, "from someone who became a writer by accident."

04/12/2022

Yesterday we made our newest book, Splendid Bush. Here's the author Clare Havell-Shufflebotham having a go on the binding machine.

14/09/2022

In memory of the 15th anniversary of the state terror raids on Tūhoe, we are offering a special reprint of the Day the Raids Came: Stories of survival and resistance to the State Terror Raids, a collection of first hand accounts of the October 15th, 2007 raids.

You can get a copy of this for $20, or get a bonus three pack including Tina Ngata's Kia Mau: Resisting Colonial Fictions and the brand new book, Peace Action: struggles for a decolonised & demilitarised Oceania & East Asia that includes essays from outstanding voices across Aotearoa & the region including Pania Newton on Ihumātao, Dr Emalani Case on Hawai'i, and Tuhi-Ao Bailey on Parihaka. Please DM us for ordering details. The 3 pack is $50 including regular postage within NZ.