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[Cover Image: Michael Dean]


This site exists in order to provide a conveniently accessible online index for the New Zealand literary journal brief, founded by Alan Loney in 1995, and carried on (under a succession of editors) until now.

No copyright works have been reproduced here, with the exception of covers and contents pages for the various publications produced by the Writers Group - brief's community of subscribers and contributors - over this period. Some of these works are available elsewhere on the internet, however, and hyperlinks to these locations have been provided wherever possible.

There are individual pages below for the contents of each issue, supplemented by an alphabetical index of the contributions of each author. A short history of brief has also been provided, with a selection of various of the statements and manifestos issued by its editors at different times, as well as a list of the books published to date by the magazine.

For up-to-date information on submission policies, subscription rates, and any other information about the journal, please go to the official website at http://www.briefthejournal.nz; alternatively, you can email the present managing editor, Olivia Macassey, or write to her c/o the following address:
brief
1416 Kaiaua Road
RD 3
Pokeno 2473
New Zealand



Subscription rates:


$NZ 30 for two issues post free in Aotearoa.
$55 for institutional addresses.
$50 for Australia.
$70 elsewhere.
$20 for single issues and back issues.

Please make cheques payable to:
The Writers Group
(address as above)




Upcoming issue:


Call for Submissions to
brief
the magazine formerly known as:
A Brief Description of the Whole World



Brief has re-emerged and is seeking all manner of changes, transformations, alterations, mutations, re-orderings, transfigurations, conversions, variations, reorganizations, evolutions, metamorphoses, modifications, and reconstructions.

Issue 57 will be a general issue (no theme).

Submissions are to be received by the end of October, 2018, and can be emailed to brief.the.journal@gmail.com. Non-electronic submissions up to A4 in size can be mailed to the editor by prior arrangement.




The magazine was founded in December 1995 by Alan Loney. Its format was simple: A4 sheets, copied exactly as their authors wrote them, stapled together, then distributed with bio notes and a cover. Subsequent editors and guest editors of brief since 1999 include John Geraets, Jack Ross, Brett Cross, Bill Direen, Ted Jenner, Jen Crawford, Scott Hamilton, Hamish Dewe, Richard von Sturmer, Bronwyn Lloyd, Michael Arnold, Alex Wild and Olivia Macassey - the current Managing Editor of brief.

Brief is a space for new experimental writing, work that does something interesting, adventurous, challenging, or exploratory. It publishes poetry, prose, essays & criticism, hybrid forms, and occasionally visual art. Contributors receive an issue of the journal as payment. Website: www.briefthejournal.nz.

The present format of brief is A5, perfect-bound, with bio-notes and a card cover, but although the scale is smaller than the original, the magazine continues to adhere to the original policy of reprinting work exactly as it is sent, which enables contributors to pay close attention to the design and layout of their pages.

If you feel your writing fits the brief for brief then our editors will be very pleased to receive your submission.






[Cover Design: Alan Loney]



[Cover Image: Will Maclean]

Books:

  • K. M. Ross. Falling Through the Architect. ISBN 0-476-01578-2. Auckland: The Writers Group, September 2005.

  • Kendrick Smithyman. Campana to Montale: Versions from Italian. Edited by Jack Ross. ISBN 0-476-00382-2. Auckland: The Writers Group, October 2004.

  • Jack Ross. A brief index: A breakdown by issue & author of 7 years / 26 issues of brief, the magazine formerly known as: A Brief Description of the Whole World / ABDOTWW / description / ABdotWW / Ab.ww / brief. &c., December 1995 – January 2003. ISSN 1175-9313. Auckland: The Writers Group, February 2003.

    • --. Supplement 1. A breakdown by issue & author of 3 years / 7 issues of brief ... June 2003 – May 2005. Auckland: The Writers Group, 2005.

  • Sugu Pillay. The Chandrasekhar Limit and Other Stories. Auckland: The Writers Group, December 2002.

  • Alan Loney. Reading / Saying / Making: Selected Essays. Auckland: The Writers Group, 2001.


[Cover Design: Janet Hunt]


Sunday

Issue 56 (October 2018)



[Cover: Matt Kelly]

brief
Editor: Olivia Macassey
Number 56 (Winter 2018):






Olivia Macassey / Editorial / 3
essa may ranapiri / O|r - gender dysphoria - agonies-Eternity / 5
Makyla Curtis / i am utterly a village / 8
Chris Pigott / The Dispossessed / 9
Bronwyn Lloyd / Afterlife / 11
Loren Thomas / Wrists / 13
John Downie / from The Only Time / 14
Erena Shingade / the poetics of infinity revisited (a flarf manifesto) - Celestial Maps of a Novice Mystic / 22
Carin Smeaton / what to do with them all / 25
Nick Ascroft / Academic Blurbomatic - Bring Me a Pie / 26
David Taylor / The Ploughboy / 28
Erik Kennedy / Tentative Readings / 29
Brent Cantwell / leaving clean - cut-fessions - Janet Leigh / 30
Richard von Sturmer / Four Seed Stories / 32
Vaughan Rapatahana / the raw man - poet in his castle / 36
Norman Franke / Looking for the poet David Howard on the Internet / 40
Sahanika Ratnayake / Case Study #1: Vocabulary Lesson - Case Study #2: Cognitive Distortions - Case Study #3: Chariot / 41
Caoimhe McKeogh / Christmas - Anxiety / 45
Nicholas Butler / Jack in the Box / 46
Michael Giacon / Night Light - sun - shade / 54
Stephanie Christie / Three visual poems / 58
Mark Young / sugarloaded - The Boas ficcione / 61
Iain Britton / polarities / 63
Sugu Pillay / The Painter's Window / 64
Jill Chan / Changes - Dust to Dust / 67
Lisa Samuels / from Symphony for Human Transport / 69
John Adams / sharing a bed with your mother on holiday / 74
Chris Stewart / My father the elephant / 75
Doc Drumheller / The Kids' War / 76
Fiona Stevens / Lamb Spit / 77
Joy Holley / They say "you are what you eat" / 82
Rhiannon Leddra / 21.40.09 / 84
Jasmine Gallagher / Downers / 85
Mark Houlahan / Judith / 86
Piet Nieuwland / Lucid / 88
Keith Nunes / Walking on by / 89
Sarah Penwarden / Tinderness / 90
Richard Taylor / My Voyeur - The Question of Entrance - Being is Seeing / 94
Jack Ross / General Grant in Paeroa / 97

REVIEWS
Stephanie Christie / Vaughan Rapatahana, Atonement / 108
Lisa Samuels / Jen Crawford, Koel / 113
Daniel Williams / Two chapbooks by Denys Trussell & Robert Kempen / 117
Richard von Sturmer / Ted Jenner, The Arrow That Missed / 120

Contributor bios / 122














Saturday

Issue 55 (January 2017)



[Front cover: Matt Kelly]

brief
Editor: Olivia Macassey
Number 55 (Summer 2016/17):








Olivia Macassey / Editorial / 4
Richard Taylor / you, too, have three heads. - Absolute blackness - Amphisbaena / 5
Mary Cresswell / Rats at midnight - Voices of change / 8
Ivy Alvarez / Penelope - Dry Pantomime - Continu, -ing, -ity / 10
Keith Nunes / disquiet among the unloved - take this shovel and dig deep / 13
Brett Cross / terrortory - time.decay / 15
Sahanika Ratnayake / Whakapapa - Blameless - Bird Song / 18
John Geraets / anasuropa - absence of abruptness / 23
Stephanie Christie / three visual poems / 24
Mark Young / the turn of the screw - w/heel - The Aspects / 27
Iain Britton / Cosmic Attitudes - from Enclosed in Parenthesis (Love Songs by Number) / 31
Michael Morrissey / Waiting for Becketo / 36
Michael Steven / Walking to Jutland St / 47
Vaughan Rapatahana / Down at the Schooner Tavern - He kanikani ki te kura - delicious irony / 51
Rata Gordon / How I arrived / 55
Carin Smeaton / shamans n curtains - Frances had no hammer even / 56
Sid Khanzode / Convinced forof) my ( self-less ( sect? - Basil Zaharoff-ed / 58
Michael Giacon / Open / 60
Janet Newman / How to construct a tent / 61
Lisa Samuels / from Mariology/ The Book of Joy / 62
John Downie / Headwound / 64
Caoimhe McKeogh / Five Ways To Be Okay / 74
Fiona Stevens / the great New Zealand poem / 75
joshua morris / lynchpin - fuckedinamachine / 77
Brent Cantwell / Twitterference / 80
Doc Drumheller / Collect Calls Home / 82
Robert Kempen / a landing a mooring a parking / 83
Victor Billot / zero hour - new seasons of the blue fields / 84
Dale Johnson / Ashen Cones / 86
Isaac Brodie / look / 90
Aimee-Jane Anderson-O'Connor / For Further Understanding / 91
Rosalie Liu / we dreamed her / 93
Makyla Curtis / pomegranate / 94
Andrew Maximillian Niss / Loud full journey in the everybody's land / 95
E Wen Wong / Spoon in the mirror / 96
Denys Trussell / Breaking Down Love / 97
Piet Nieuwland / Cliffs / 98
Nick Ascroft / A Kea's Tongue - To McKinnon - Its Beak and Breast in the Blossom / 99
Richard von Sturmer / Resonating Distances 3 / 103
William Direen / For Alan Brunton / 111
Jack Ross / How Many Miles to Babylon? Three Faces of Mike Johnson's Lear / 113

REVIEWS
Jen Crawford / Holly Painter, Excerpts from a Natural History / 132
Jen Crawford / Olivia Macassey, The Burnt Hotel / 135

Contributor bios / 138
















Thursday

Issue 54 (July 2016)



[cover image: Matt Kelly]

brief
Editor: Olivia Macassey
Number 54 (July 2016):






Olivia Macassey / Editorial / 3
David Lyndon Brown / Five Poems / 5
Richard von Sturmer / Clock Tower, Preston Park / 13
Nick Ascroft / Euphoria, Hemispheres and Hair / 14
Keith Nunes / Two poems / 15
Iain Britton / Eve - Aviatrix - Textbook Drawings / 17
Ted Jenner / from Genius Loci / 24
Piet Nieuwland / Three Poems / 25
Mark Young / Three Poems / 28
Cassandra Atherton / Percussion - Spot - Hygrometry / 33
Vaughan Rapatahana / he wāhine - she caught me - night moves / 36
Carin Smeaton / Shorty - St Kev's Arcade / 41
Bill Wolak / Five Collages / 44
René Harrison / Pinhole - Haunches / 49
Berengaria Burns / Fiery One / 51
Sugu Pillay / Gulf / 52
Ruby Solly / That / 53
Sid Khanzode / Inflicted, they took me to ... / 55
Fiona Stevens / Beholder's Eyes / 57
Isaac Brodie / coming back. / 61
Matt Kelly / untitled / 63
Cassandra Barnett / Pitter patter, Papa-tū-a-nuku / 66
Harvey Molloy / Overburden - Return - Aiutaki Installation / 76
Stephanie Christie / Our Oasis / 81
Robert Kempen / mild weather in near winter / 84
John Adams / A buzzer sounds - Bonsai swimmer / 85
Richard Taylor / from On the Face of The No One / 89
Mary Cresswell / Three Poems / 96
Jack Ross / Brothers / 99
Janet Newman / Tamariki - lemon love / 105
Stu Bagby / Because I once went there - Inland forecast / 109
Sean Redmond / The Love Particles of Eye Tracking / 111

REVIEWS
Michael Onslow-Osborne / Stephanie Christie, Carbon Shapes and Dark Matter / 121
Olivia Macassey / Roger Horrocks, Song of the Ghost in the Machine / 125

Contributor bios / 130


















Issue 53 (November 2015)



[cover image: Alex Wild]

brief
Editor: Alex Wild / Poetry Editor: Brett Cross
Number 53 (November 2015]):






Alex Wild / Birthday Editorial (Party World) – Anniversary Editorial (Straight) / 3
Erin Doyle / Epidermis / 5
John Geraets / thirty2 (own) – thirty5 / 10
Ted Jenner / Meadowbank, One Evening / 13
Mark Young / Five poems / 17
Kate Davis / Property Values / 22
Carin Smeaton / Five poems / 30
Jun Moungboon / Benzo & Bunny / 39
Murray Edmond / Four poems / 44
Isobel Cairns / To know a place or a person / 50
Nick Ascroft / Shortcuts to the Art / 52
Stephanie Christie / Ambiviolence – Cure a Casino / 53
Keith Nunes / The World as Pirated by Limousine Jones / 55
Zarah Butcher-McGunnigle / Three poems / 57
Fresh and Fruity / Fresh and Fruity manifesto volume i: Fresh and Fruity is a sexy new look / 58
Richard Taylor / I Am Become Death the Destroyer of Worlds / 66
Jack Ross / Leaves from a Diary of the End of the World / 80
Olivia Macassey / Your eyes are like the stars – The Burnt Hotel / 98
Geum Hye Kim / S/he / 102
Vaughan Rapatahana / Three poems / 105
Rachel Fenton / Through That Which Is Seen: Small Scale Replica of a Scene / 109
Joel Chace / Mouth Pieces 5-9 / 115
Sugu Pillay / Pohara Beach, Golden Bay / 118
Harvey Molloy / At the Armageddon Expo – Grand Theft Aotearoa / 120
Sarah Bogle / 0 >0 / 122
Manon Revuelta / i-vi / 124
Sid Khanzode / Imperfect from the Start / 126
Richard von Sturmer / Ten Days up North / 127

REVIEWS
Richard Taylor / K. M. Ross, The Blinding Walk / 132
John Geraets / Edward Jenner, The Gold Leaves / 144

Contributor bios / 147














Saturday

Issue 52 (January 2015)



[cover image: Alex Wild]

brief
Editor: Alex Wild
Number 52 (January [March] 2015]):







Alex Wild / Editorial / 3
Rae Joyce / Flip Flop and Try / 5
Daniel Larsen / Ubiquitin – Main-Stream Tele-Media / 9
Iain Britton / 5th Symphony – In Totem – Risk Anything / 11
Florence Wild / Looking for the hook / 26
Geum Hye Kim / Ghost of Victorian Flat / 27
Robin Murphy / The Afton Arms / 31
Cameron Ah Loo-Matamua / Self-portraits / 36
Owen Connors / Descent / 38
Schaeffer Lemalu / In / 59
Angela Chirnside / Arch Hill Kitchen, 10 am Wednesday, 3 flatmates waiting for the jug on the windowsill to boil / 60
Florence Wild / Roy Orbinson’s types of dreams / 62
Michael Morrissey / On the difficulty of meeting Susan Sontag / 64
Berengaria Burns / Thesis Submission 2014 – The Blackening – A Bit Shit-house / 80
John Geraets & Alex Wild / an excerpt from Quite little ones / 85
Doc Drumheller / Sing / 90
Keith Nunes / Breathless among the beatless / 91
Richard Taylor / And – Drawing–A Sequence Poem – Repetition is truth – Eye / 93
Bill Direen / A free-roam / 107
Alex Wild / April 2014 / 109
Rae Joyce / Warkworth / 113

Alex Wild / Print News / 114
Contributor bios / 116