Mākaro Press

29/01/2025

Kataraina makes the longlist of the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards, and what a longlist! Aotearoa fiction is in wild and wonderful good health. Congratulations to all ten authors. Proud of you Becky Manawatu. Ka rawe!

The 2025 Ockham NZ Book Awards longlist is announced! Congratulations to this year's Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction nominees.



Te Herenga Waka University Press Penguin Books Mākaro Press Otago University Press Ultimo Press

22/12/2024

Bestsellers at for 2024 and there’s Kataraina by nestling in.

Thank you Unity staff and Welly readers for your support of Aotearoa fiction.

16/12/2024

The stunning cover for Kataraina by Becky Manawatu in Australia, the UK and US. The publisher is Scribe Publications and publication in Australia is April 2025. We are beyond excited to see Becky’s book heading out into the wider world to join Auē.

Huge thanks to Marika Webb-Pullman and Jessy Reese and the rest of the Scribe team, and to our agent Nadine Rubin Nathan of High Spot Literary who brokered the deal.

12/12/2024

Thank you at WORD Christchurch for your kupu on Kataraina by . One of ’s best books of the year.

12/12/2024

Thank you Kiran Dass at WORD Christchurch for your kupu on Kataraina by Becky Manawatu. One of The Spinoff’s best books of the year. Thank you Claire Mabey for your mahi bringing this together.

This year's best local fiction, nonfiction and poetry for adults and children, as chosen by our panel of readers.

11/11/2024

Alyson Baker writes that Kataraina by Becky Manawatu is a breathtaking read. An insightful, indepth review.

Kataraina is breathtaking, swirling around a repeating incident, given form by the collective memories of members of the Te Au family. Stretching from the distant past, through colonisation, to the…

10/11/2024

and charmed the audience at for the final night of the fabulous weekend.

The kōrero was about Becky’s new book Kataraina. They started by talking about te whenua and ended with te tangata and explored so much in between about the story and characters behind this Auē sequel and Becky’s process for writing and why she needed to do it.

It all came down to the land in the end — Auē being masculine and about dislocation, while Kataraina is feminine and about re-finding and treasuring the whenua. And writing for Becky is a magic thing — she writes and it comes. It’s her thing that she loves.

What a kōrero! Heart-filling and honest. You can’t get more honest than Becky Manawatu, and Meriana’s questions were incisive, stimulating and guided by manaakitanga.

Great to get the whole Mākaro team along to see Becky: .danae.mccallum and Tara Malone — the publishers — and Reece Thornhill, who works on our website (missing Don, who helps us with the royalties). Megan O’Brien from the festival booksellers joined us for the group photo.

Saturday night Becky was part of the Bad Diaries salon at Litcrawl run by — reading from her 12-year-old school diary. Another hit performance from Bex.

Thanks, Verb, for having her.

Becky Manawatu

26/10/2024

Tenacious Wāhine! In an hour Becky Manawatu and Talia Marshall take to the stage at Pukapuka Talks at the Nelson Arts Festival. This will be some kōrero.

21/10/2024

Congratulations to Tusiata Avia, who received the $25,000 Senior Pacific Artist Award at Creative New Zealand’s annual Arts Pasifika Awards last week. We loved having Tusiata launch Kataraina by Becky Manawatu last month and are honoured to have her endorsement on the cover of Becky’s book. We can't wait to see what she writes next!

16/10/2024

If you have a spare 30 minutes, you couldn't do much better than listen to Becky Manawatu on Jesse Mulligan RNZ Afternoons today – the song she thought could have been the soundtrack for the last chapter of Auē, how she and Tina Makereti didn't know they were each writing swamp stories, and how Becky and Mel Parsons went to school together. And you'll hear about Becky's favourite (surprising) movie and favourite TV series ... and a new board game she likes, with cats.

Becky Manawatu is back with the much-anticipated sequel 'Kataraina'.

15/10/2024

What do Fleetwood Mac, Talia Marshall and Becky Manawatu have in common? They are all on Bookmarks at 2.30pm today (Wednesday) on Jesse Mulligan RNZ Afternoons. (One in person, the rest in mention ...) Definitely worth a listen.

Jesse Mulligan presents an upbeat mix of the curious and the compelling, ranging from the stories of the day to the great questions of our time.

09/10/2024

The power of indie booksellers! This is the story of how three booksellers crossed an island to get to the other side and sell copies of Kataraina at a very important book launch.

You’ll probably find some of these wonderful women at Scorpio Books for NZ Bookshop Day this Saturday. (And they’ll definitely have copies of Kataraina.)

We love our independent bookshops and can't wait to celebrate them this Saturday for Aotearoa NZ Bookshop Day!

One reason that indies are so fab is because they go above and beyond to support local authors and publishers, and to uplift culture and community in Aotearoa. Bookshop Day aims to highlight the cultural importance of books and bookshops, and celebrate the people that bring the two together, our amazing booksellers. Read on for just one example of why indie bookshops and booksellers should be celebrated, not just this Saturday, but every day:

The Scorpio team were the bookselling team for the launch of Kataraina by Becky Manawatu in Kawatiri Westport. They drove to Westport from Christchurch on the Friday before the launch with Claudia at the wheel, via the Lewis Pass on State Highway 7, and stayed Friday and Saturday nights at Westport Kiwi Holiday Park & Motels (Claudia says they are 'gorgeous wee A-frame cabins'). Māia explored Kawatiri Beach on Saturday morning, then they had a very successful round of op-shopping in Westport. Bel and Claudia also managed a walk to Cape Foulwind on Saturday afternoon. Saturday evening was the launch at the Denniston Dog pub. They arrived to boxes of Kataraina and some of Auē waiting for them. They set up on the stage beside where the speakers, which included Tusiata Avia, who was launching the book, would be and proceeded to sell to the 100 people who came. 86 copies of Kataraina sold and 10 copies of Auē. The team left on Sunday, stopping in Reefton for coffee at the Broadway Tearooms. They all said it was a great trip. Bel says: "We loved getting some fresh air on the coast, such an awesome treat for us." And publisher Mary McCallum said it was wonderful to have the Scorpio team along. "They worked so hard and were just the right combination of calm, efficiency and exuberance that we needed for this important launch."

Left to right: Kerry Sunderland, Pukapuka Talks Programme Manager; Claudia Herz Jardine of Scorpio Books; Kataraina author Becky Manawatu; Mākaro Press Publisher Mary McCallum; Bel Monypenny and Māia Te Whetu of Scorpio Books.

Scorpio Books
Publishers Association of New Zealand
Mākaro Press
New Zealand Society of Authors

08/10/2024

Jenna Todd speaking on 95bFM’s Loose Reads about Kataraina by Becky Manawatu — how your journey with Becky hasn’t finished if you’ve read Auē, that Auē and Kataraina are intertwined, that Kataraina is a deeply Kāi Tahu story (one reason Jenna – Kāi Tahu – loves it) … and Kataraina is a perfect book to buy on NZ Bookshop Day!

Rock up to Time Out Bookstore on Saturday and Jenna might sell you a copy :)

Jenna from Time Out Bookstore talks to us about the new book from Becky Manawatu called Kataraina - it's an intense read and follows on from Aue, whilst taking a different stylistic tack. This Saturday is also Aotearoa New Zealand Bookshop Day and it's happening all across local bookstores in Tāmak...

06/10/2024

It’s been a week since Kataraina launched in Kawatiri at the Denniston Dog. Whānau and friends and fans packed in to welcome Becky Manawatu’s new novel, five years almost to the day since Auē launched at Cape Foulwind. We printed 500 copies of Auē for the big day, and we’ve printed 15,000 of Kataraina — reflecting the huge surge in aroha and respect for this author and her writing.

Publisher Mary McCallum (me) spoke sbout the journey of Auē to bestselling award-winning book, selling throughout the world in many languages, being made into a TV series and audiobook, and known now as a modern classic – and about the huge talent of Becky Manawatu: “Becky like all great writers writes from a place of knowing deep within herself and Kataraina establishes her as one of this country’s great writing talents.” Amongst those Mary thanked were Becky’s whānau, especially her husband, Tim Manawatu, and children Maddox and Siena for supporting Becky’s writing; and the Scorpio Books team for travelling to Westport to sell the books on the night.

Tusiata Avia launched the book saying it was a beauty, ‘electrifying’, praising the skill and the poetry of the writing, the writing about food (that made her hungry): “Becky is a genius-Queen. She has an extraordinary ability to move back and forth in time, to hold so many characters and storylines in her head and then weave them together into a magnificent korowai.” She declared Becky a tohunga.

Becky spoke of the importance of the novel to her – to give voice to Aunty Kat of Auē – and thanked Mākaro Press for having faith in her and working to help her writing sing and look beautiful on the page. She thanked artist Penny Howard for the exquisite cover image, a taonga, and Tusiata and Jenna Todd for their cover endorsements, and Tusiata for launching. Then Becky went on to to thank her whānau and individually almost everyone at the launch for their aroha and support.

Becky’s friend Toko opened the event with a mihi and karakia and Maddox closed it with a karakia mō te kai. Then Becky and Mary led a waiata, “Tai Aroha”. There was a huge plate of pāua fritters from pāua caught by Toko and Tim Manawatu, and a plate of whitebait fritters.

An amazing night!
Haere tū atu, Kataraina. Hoki tū mai.

[Thanks to Yvette Robinson and Joanne Naish and Penny Walker and Donna McLeod and Kerry Sunderland and others who shared their photos.]

04/10/2024

Kataraina by Becky Manawatu is reviewed on The Spinoff with beauty and grace by bookseller Jenna Todd of Time Out Bookstore. She writes of Auē as the breath in, Kataraina as the breath out. She writes of Becky as her whānauka, of the wāhine as the healers.

A review of one of the most anticipated novels of the year.

03/10/2024

‘s new novel is reviewed by Steve Braunias on Reading Room.

“In my 2019 review of Auē, I compared Manawatu to Alan Duff. It sounds too obvious– ooh look instances of Māori violence, how very Once Were Warriors – but really what I meant was her electrifying prose. It was reminiscent of Duff at his best, when he took the influence of Hubert Selby (Last Exit to Brooklyn) and transformed it into his own, made-in-New-Zealand style. The prose in Kataraina is quieter than in Auē. It’s acoustic, more artful, carries a deeper impact. I would now compare Manawatu to Keri Hulme.“

https://newsroom.co.nz/2024/10/03/becky-manawatu-and-the-perfect-chapters/

03/10/2024

Kataraina by reviewed by for Reading Room — Becky’s done it again! Link in bio.

makarofiction

03/10/2024

‘s new novel Kataraina — a beginning. Link in bio.