Honoured to read my villanelle, Foehn, at the launch of Michelle Elvy`s new poetry collection, Motion Sickness, available at At the Bay I te Kokoru. Readers included NZ`s wonderful Poet Laureate Robert Sullivan; former PL @DavidEggleton; Diane Brown; and Jenny Powell. It was held at the premises of @AlexanderPianos in Mosgiel. Photos are by Jill Bowie of @dunedinpubliclibrariesnz and include Michelle reading, and her book signing afterwards.

This Sunday in Dunedin, NZ, I`m reading at the book launch of Michelle Elvy`s poetry collection, Motion Sickness, published by At the Bay/Te Kokoru. Honoured to be in this line-up and to see this amazing book launched into the world.
Michelle (originally from Chesapeake Bay, US) is best-known as a writer and editor, but she has this incredible background: for many years she lived on a boat, sailing between Mexico, Hawaii, Asia, and Africa, sometimes with two young children.
Michelle is also a guest poet tonight at the Octagon Collective`s monthly gathering at the Athenaeum, which is open to all. @dunedinathenaeumlibrary @octagoncollectivepoetry @otagosouthlandnzsa

A flurry of snow flakes as I went to collect the mail - even though I am on the coast at sea level. I collected Poetry Aotearoa Yearbook 2026 in which I have a poem, At the Tide’s Edge We Touch the Universe. published by @masseyuniversitypress and edited by Tracey Slaughter. It is set in Aramoana and was the result of a workshop by @dunedincityoflit #poetry @malpixo @otagosouthlandnzsa

`Galloping at the Estuary` is an essay by me in the latest issue of NZ`s @headland_journal. So happy to share with you the wisdom of horses, and horsewoman Shirley Sheat, of east Otago, and how horses connected with our daughter, Victoria McLeod. Photos by @malpixo: Shirley, Vic and me riding; with horse Hannah six weeks after Vic died. Link to essay in comments. @nickypinz @bluetree_poet @factionpress @lani_grace_writer @shazzm @claire.beynon #LossAdjustment

Academy of American Poets has put up this wonderful Stevie Nicks poem by @michaelmontlack. New York-based Michael is mentor of my collection, Sign Language for the Death of Reason (Math Paper Press, 2021) and remains an incredible influence. Sign Language received good reviews in the UK (Olivia Tuck, Tears in the Fence), Singapore (QLRS) and in Landfall online. If you`d like a free copy, DM me or @lindacollinswriter.com.

Today marks 12 years since our daughter, Victoria McLeod, died. There are always new things to remember. Her enigmatic smile. Singing in the school choir. She loved to sing. Eating cupcakes.
And a photo of a text, with lists of snacks. Lists are a poem.
RIP, precious human.

This amazing gift arrived in the post from a friend in Australia. It`s the award-winning debut collection, Dropbear, by Goorie and Koori poet Evelyn Araluen. She`s in the news as her second book, The Rot, has just won the Victorian Premier’s Literary Prize.
I`ve been wanting to read Dropbear for ages, and it doesn`t disappoint. Really interesting combination of poetry and what is described as essays, the latter reminiscent of some of Tayi Tibble`s prose poetry in their contemporary urgency, but without the virgule self-consciousness.
Love `To the Poets`, the use of `you` to address white settlers, to explore parallel loss through indigenous eyes. Baob, the amazing unexpected line break, `whole / the bracelet` ... that break and the contrast of brilliant imagery with a sort of live-streaming consciousness (echoes of early essa may ranapari). And the subversive intertextual interplay of colonial scholarly text and poet Banjo Patterson in The Last Bush Ballard, wow (reminds me of Singapore`s Hamid Roslan and his parsetreeforestfire). Thanks, @livtuckreadsandwrites @theherbarium_welly @uqpress

I`ve got a review up of Jac Jenkins` wonderful collection, `Moon too Heavy`, in the NZ Poetry Society`s magazine, `a fine line`. @theherbarium_welly @bluetree_poet @pavlovapress @nzpoetrysociety cipdesignstudio @nzsocietyofauthors @sam_duckor_jones @paniaofthekeef @gail_zing_poet @_claireoloughlin

I`ve put the link in comments, but if you can`t access my review, I`ve put the tantalising opening pars below.

I first read Jac Jenkins’ poetry when we both did an MA in Creative Writing in 2017. The course combined poets and non-fiction writers. I was writing a grief memoir, and had not studied poetry formally. This was a class that included now-critically acclaimed young poets who took this nonfiction writer’s workshop critiques in good heart, though my feedback mostly comprised feelings, and recollections of the 70s poets of my youth – a drawling Sam Hunt, and David Mitchell introducing me to the lower case ‘i’. There were some emerging poets in my class closer to my age, and they included Jenkins. We nonyoung ones often found ourselves doing the washing up after workshop afternoon tea on Wednesdays. There, in the cramped kitchen in Bill Manhire House, up to our elbows in soap suds or wielding teatowels, talk turned from writing to our domestic lives; children, husbands, houses; the cosy murmur of women doing household tasks together. How ironic that years later I encounter Jenkins again in another domestic setting, this time one evoked in her debut collection, Moon too Heavy.

A few days in Sydney: tonight did an open mic slot at a poetry evening in Newtown hosted by @thepoetrynews magazine at @8.52newtown Restaurant Hong Kong, King St. Poets included @jazzi_fizzle and @livtuckreadsandwrites Olivia Tuck. The poetry scene is vibrant & there was even a loyalty card scheme at this open mic. Two other poetry events were on at bars in the same precinct. #sydney #poetry #newtown

The four seasons do not wait on writing, work, sorting out endless tech issues. Plums and apples must be harvested before birds, worms or rain pit them. I’ve made jam and sauce from local plums, frozen my own red plums for use in winter; and stewed apple from old peasbody & Hawthorne varieties gifted to me. A neighbour carved me a jam pan handle out of Hawthorne wood. And we had firewood delivered for colder autumn days ahead. #cottage core #kakanui

Went to the Dunedin launch of the NZ Poetry Society’s new anthology, There are Rabbits Here, on Thursday. Lovely poets including Poet Laureate Robert Sullivan, @liz_breslin & @thewriterjackson, who was an amazing emcee. Plus a new generation of exciting poets, some of whom I recognised from the 2025 @nzyoungwritersfest.
And away in a quiet corner I was introduced to the acclaimed US-based Australian author, lawyer & academic @davidfranciswriter whose novels include The Great Inland Sea (which has a cover endorsement by Jane Smiley). David kindly gave me copy, & signed it. Could not believe my luck. What an evening. @nzpoetrysociety, @dunedincityoflit @otagosouthlandnzsa #poetrynz #novels

If you want a signed copy of my book, Loss Adjustment, last chance to enter this draw that closes this mint (February) run by acclaimed fiction writer @miafarlane.writer
Details are in Mia`s newsletter, but here`s the entry form (with added sentence `check inbox for confirmation email`, thanks to advice from her latest newsletter subscriber): https://miafarlane.com/news/loss-adjustment-by-linda-collins Thanks, Mia #lossadjustment #suicideprevention #memoir @awapress @otagosouthlandnzsa @gs.moc.oohay@oxiplam @theherbarium_welly

This piece by me about my late daughter and her cat, Angie, who is still alive and a source of connection, is in @straits_times newspaper in Singapore today, in its excellent Finding Joy series. Coincidentally, today would have been Victoria`s 29th birthday. Pets are an incredible source of comfort to those of us who have lost a loved one.
My daughter definitely knew this - for my birthday 12 days before she died, she gave me a book by NZ writer Helen Brown on her son dying in a car accident, and how a cat guided her in grief. @malpixo @val.lim.lee @chyelattte @ethosbooks @factionpress @livtuckreadsandwrites @sarahcrowe65 @theherbarium_welly #findingjoy

Here`s the link, sorry but it`s paywalled, you`ll get the idea:
https://www.straitstimes.com/opinion/angie-our-cat-connects-me-with-victoria-my-late-daughter