Welcome to The Spinoff Books Confessional, in which we get to know the reading habits of Aotearoa writers, and guests. This week: Nafanua Purcell Kersel, author of new collection of poetry Black Sugarcane.
The book I wish I’d written
I’ve had the feeling of wishing I had written something before, but it’s usually limited to a line, a paragraph, or a witticism. Then I read Bloody Woman by Lana Lopesi. I felt so seen and connected to the work, it felt like something I’d been wanting to write forever. It’s the one and only time I’ve come across a book where I wish I had written every part of it, an exceptional work.
Everyone should read
Out loud to others. It’s such a gift to read something out loud to someone, especially children. When my eldest son was a toddler he would ask “Mummy, read me a story with your mouth”. Seeing and experiencing in real time, the connection people have to a story or a poem is a specific kind of satisfaction and joy.
The book I want to be buried with
My teen diaries, nobody should have to read those without the satisfaction of watching me cringe.
The first book I remember reading by myself
In English – Little Golden Books, probably Mother Goose or Little Red Hen.
The book I wish I’d never read
Diet books, especially the ones disguised as cookbooks or nutritional science. I love cooking and I learnt nothing from diet books except how to feel like I was failing at reaching some morally superior state of being which was completely at odds with my reality.
Utopia or dystopia
Dystopia, always and forever!
Fiction or nonfiction
Poetry, which can be either or both — “Tell all the truth, but tell it slant” Emily Dickinson reckons.
The book that haunts me
Heavy by Kiese Laymon. In this memoir, Laymon offers the simple and sometimes terrifying fact of his life stories and his blackness, with beautiful incisive language, deep reflection and astute socio-political inquiry. The tenuousness of his life is palpable and the experience, as a reader feeling that awareness settle deeply into my mind is what haunts me.
The book that made me cry
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara. I had to pace myself with this book because I cried real tears so often through it.
The book I never admit I’ve read
Fifty Shades of Grey. OK, so it was before the movie came out and the novel was still being hyped. I was shocked to find it on a bookshelf in Samoa, left behind by tourists and curious to see whether it lived up to the hype. I found it very, very mid.
The book character I never believed
Marianne from Normal People. Actually, Connell too.
The book I wish would be adapted for film or TV
The Broken Earth Trilogy by NK Jemisin. This needs to happen asap, please and thank you.
Best food memory from a book
I’ve just finished Butter by Asako Yuzuki. The way that food and eating is described is the shining light through this novel.
Greatest New Zealand writer
Patricia Grace.
Best place to read
Call me old school but I really enjoy the lucky-dip and slight anxiety of waiting room reads, it’s like speed dating but with magazines and journals. I know I’ll likely end up reading something I wouldn’t usually pick up and I’ll read it with high intensity and focus in case my number gets called. I learn a lot, even from the NZ Fishing News at the local takeaways.
What are you reading right now
Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah. It’s dystopia at full volume, Black Mirror vibes, cool, contemporary, and disconcertingly close to home.
Black Sugarcane by Nafanua Purcell Kersel (Te Herenga Waka University Press, $30) is available to purchase through Unity Books.
