Poetry Aotearoa Anthology 2025 edited by Tracey Slaughter

Now in its fifty-ninth volume, Poetry Aotearoa Yearbook 2025 continues its legacy as New Zealand’s most vital annual showcase of contemporary poetry. Under the passionate and astute curation of editor Dr Tracey Slaughter, this edition captures the prevailing tone of a restless, interconnected world, anchoring 141 poems from 127 contributors around the haunting, urgent theme of “breath.” Released to coincide with National Poetry Day in August, the 2025 issue is not just a collection but a yearly cultural artefact, a barometer of the country’s poetic pulse.

The title “Breath” emerged organically from the submissions themselves, with many poets drawn, consciously or otherwise, to the motif. Here, breath appears as vapour and voice, lifeline and threat. It connects the living, mourns the lost, and resists the forces that choke or silence. Whether referencing climate anxiety, political oppression, or intimate emotional states, breath becomes a metaphor for fragility and persistence.

Slaughter’s introduction is a characteristically electric part poetic manifesto, part rallying cry. She emphasises poetry’s power to bear witness, its role in both exhalation and inhalation, protest and restoration. In this balance, the volume finds its own rhythm: anger and tenderness, anxiety and resistance, all held in dynamic tension.

Featured poet Mark Prisco exemplifies this duality. In pieces like sign, earth to, and photo – 1991, i think, he marries raw emotional truth with lyrical brilliance. Slaughter praises his poetry as “authentic,” “quicksilver,” and “capable of taking your breath away,”  as Prisco’s poems burn with lived experience and a refusal to disengage, offering a potent heart to the collection.

Alongside Prisco, established names and emerging voices share space on equal footing. This inclusive ethos is evident in the presence of the high school competition winners, whose work holds its own among seasoned practitioners. These young poets bring fire and freshness, reminding us that the future of Aotearoa poetry is in bold and capable hands.

The variety within the collection is remarkable. From titles like ‘we’re just collecting some error info, and then we’ll restart for you’ to ‘Tea party in a burning car’, poems range in tone from absurdist to elegiac, experimental to classical. Slaughter’s democratic alphabetical ordering encourages readers to dip in and out, letting the poems come as they will.

There is also a powerful note of remembrance woven into this year’s issue. Three moving tributes honour poets Vincent O’Sullivan, John Allison, and Peter Olds. Their presence, through memory and influence, permeates the volume, reinforcing poetry’s role as both torch and tribute across generations.

The yearbook also includes incisive reviews of recent poetry collections, broadening the reader’s scope and reaffirming New Zealand’s rich literary ecology. With critical insight and generous spirit, the reviews contextualise the poetry scene and offer pathways for deeper engagement.

Poetry Aotearoa Yearbook 2025 is a testament to the depth and diversity of New Zealand poetry today. Slaughter and her team have created more than an anthology; they have captured a collective breath, suspended in ink, resonant with urgency and hope. For any reader - devotee or newcomer - it is a powerful, essential read.

Reviewer: Chris Reed

Massey University Press