News · Ngā Pitopito Kōrero

The Coalition for Books is delighted to announce that writer, reviewer and WORD Festival Programme Director Kiran Dass is set to join Kete as Editor in Chief in September. We’re also excited to announce that writer and reviewer Erica Stretton, fresh from running National Poetry Day, has taken on Kete’s interim editorship.

Our 2024 Winter Reading catalogue and promotional campaign begins soon! Submissions for the catalogue open today and publishers will be contacted with information shortly.

We caught up with Tandem Collective to get a few insights into working with Bookstagrammers and BookTokers and to find out about the readalong and listenalong formats they’re using.

We’re excited to have brought together an incredible showcase of Māori and Pasifika books. Take a look and share our downloadable social media assets to help spread the word.

Find out what Dunedin UNESCO City of Literature Project Coordinator Anne Shelah is working on, what the team is up to in 2024 and the one thing they would like you to know about their work (and of course what Anne’s reading)!

We’re excited to welcome Public Libraries of New Zealand and Kate Gordon-Smith author at Relish Books and owner of The Kiwi Kids’ Bookstore to The Coalition for Books. Find out more about these new members!

Visit our stand at Pasifika Festival this weekend. The Coalition will be at Auckland’s Pasifika Festival at Western Springs Park (9 &10 March) and so will our Māori Books | Ngā Pukapuka Māori 2024 and Pasifika Books 2024 catalogues.

Ka rawe and congratulations to the writers and publishers of the sixteen books shortlisted for this year’s Ockham New Zealand Book Awards. Kete has been promoting and celebrating these books with a guide to the shortlist.

In February, to celebrate Auckland Pride, we launched a campaign promoting and showcasing books by writers from LGBTQIA+ communities in Aotearoa.

Poet Laureate Chris Tse joined forces with The Coalition for Books and Kete to curate a reading list to celebrate Lunar New Year and Aotearoa’s East and South East Asian writers.

Our 2024 Māori and Pasifika Books campaign will begin in the New Year. Submission for the catalogues open next week and publishers will be contacted with information shortly.

The first two sessions of The Coalition’s digital training for the book sector, Mastering digital: a toolkit for marketing books in Aotearoa, were held in November.

We’ve created shareable social media assets to help promote the New Zealand Summer Reading Guide! Take a look.

We’re excited to be welcoming four new members to The Coalition for Books. Find out more about these new members!

The Spinoff’s Duncan Grieve talks to WeCreate Chair Paula Browning on The Fold podcast about Aotearoa’s need for a Minister of Culture and Creativity.

The Summer Reading Guide is here! Packed with brilliant Aotearoa books, take a look.

Take a look at our Winter Hui Series report. The report highlights key themes, issues and opportunities raised in our Winter Hui series discussions.

Our book sector digital marketing training programme begins on 16 November. Online materials form this course will be available for all Coalition for Books members in 2024, once the in-person iteration of the programme concludes.

In the lead up to Diwali, Kete will feature a campaign showcasing recent books by Aotearoa’s South Asian authors. Curated by, and with special guest editorial from, Saraid de Silva and with an illustrative element by Vasanti Unka.

BookHub, the new site where New Zealand readers can browse and buy books from more than 70 bookstores around Aotearoa is being hailed as a game changer for selling books online in Aotearoa.

In September we switched the Kete home page to te reo Māori. Take a look at the reviews and news from Te Wiki o te Reo Māori.

The Coalition for Books has partnered with RNZ in a new content sharing agreement that will expand coverage of books in Aotearoa.

Our congratulations to all those who received awards at the Aotearoa Book Trade Industry Awards. We were also delighted to receive an award for our Māori and Pasifika Books campaign.

The latest monthly bestseller list showcasing Aotearoa junior and young adult fiction released last week on Kete. This is the third month of our collaboration with Storylines to promote Aotearoa junior fiction and YA in this way.

The Coalition for Books’ Māori & Pasifika Books 2023 catalogue is now available in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch through the Commuting Book’s Stories on the Go project. Bus users in those centres are able to view the catalogue through the QR codes provided by the Commuting Book.

Between May and July, Kete published 32 reviews, extracts and interviews. Read on to find out about regular features, upcoming content, including Te Wiki o te Reo Māori, and what was most-read in the May to July period.

In June, WeCreate launched its 2023 manifesto video, focused on why creativity counts when it comes to Aotearoa’s economic policy. Take a look.

WORD Christchurch Programme Lead and writer Kiran Dass has joined the Coalition for Books Board. We sat down with Kiran to chat about her role at WORD, the nexus between festivals and the Coalition’s activities and a few bookish things besides.

Dorothy Butler Children’s Bookshop co-owner and Booksellers Aotearoa Board member Mary Wadsworth has joined the Coalition for Books board. Find out her thoughts about this new appointment and how it aligns with her work as a bookseller … and what she’s reading right now.

Mānawatia a Matariki. This year's Coalition for Books Matariki Winter Reading catalogue is out on Kete as well as here on The Coalition for Books website. A real collaborative effort it brings together 67 new Aotearoa New Zealand books.