Beloved west Auckland poet Serie Barford was nominated in the NZ Book Awards for Sleeping With Stones, traversing oceans of feeling, expressing the tragic loss of her lover.

Michael Steven’s third poetry collection in five years, Night School,won the Kathleen Grattan award. His live delivery of his work embodies judge’s David Eggleton’s comment: “lucid precision”.

On the night, as we recorded these readings live at Going West’s Shifted Ground event in April 2022, Michael and Serie held the audience enthralled with every line. We know they’ll do the same for you.