Compound Press was founded in 2012 after hours in the print room of an unnamed law firm with appropriated materials, the name first appearing on an eclectic array of hyper-limited chapbooks. We maintain a particular though non-exclusive commitment to poetry of the Pacific Region while sea-levels still permit.
We also broadcast Minarets in print and online. Poets should expect to build a relationship with the press through the journal before inquiring about submitting a book-length manuscript.
Inquiries: press [at] compoundpress [dot] org
For retailers: Our titles are distributed in Aotearoa / NZ through Expensive Hobby
Authors
Hana Pera Aoake
Hana (Ngaati Mahuta, Tainui/Waikato, Ngaati Hinerangi) is an artist and writer based in Waikouaiti on stolen Kai Tahu, Kati Mamoe and Waitaha lands. They are keen to restart the land wars and love eating kaimoana and defacing colonial property.
Murray Edmond
Known variously for his work as a poet, playwright and fiction writer, and as an editor, critic and dramaturge. His poetry collections Letters And Paragraphs, Fool Moon, and Shaggy Magpie Songs were finalists in the New Zealand book awards for poetry. Many of his poems have featured in journals and in anthologies. He has worked extensively in theatre as a writer, actor, director and dramaturge, notably for 20 years with Indian Ink’s Jacob Rajan and Justin Lewis on the creation of all that company’s scripts.
Back Before You Know (2019)
FARCE (2022)
Craig Foltz
A writer & visual artist whose work has appeared in numerous journals, anthologies & galleries. He has previously released two books on Ugly Duckling Presse. He currently lives & works in New Plymouth, pinched between the wild & remote west coast & Mt Taranaki. More info at craigfoltz.com
LOCALS ONLY: An Outsider's Insider Perspective on Aotearoa (2020)
Petroglyphs (2024)
Jasmine Gallagher
A poet, essayist, art critic and doctoral candidate at the University of Otago, where she is researching landscape mythology in contemporary New Zealand art and poetry.
Dirge Bucolic (2022)
Alison Glenny
Alison Glenny’s Antarctic-themed collection of prose poems and fragments, The Farewell Tourist, won the Kathleen Gratton award for poetry and was published by Otago University Press in 2018. In 2019 she was an Ursula Bethell writer in residence at the University of Canterbury, working on a project about Edwardian female mountaineers. She lives on the Kāpiti Coast.
Bird Collector (2021)
/slanted (2024)
Schaeffer Lemalu
Schaeffer Lemalu (1983-2021) was a poet and artist from Auckland. He published two chapbooks, Sleeptalker (2018) and Sleeptalker 2 (2020), and exhibited paintings on numerous occasions at Robert Heald Gallery.
David Merritt
David has a broad, strong back, well suited for organic gardening, driving old Landrovers, and reinventing the economics of poetry. He makes publications of poems from recycled Readers Digest Condensed book covers and banana box cardboards, often in public places, on a footpath bench seat or from the bonnet of his car. Using stamp pad alphabet sets, a stapler, glue sticks, a photocopier and a copy left intellectual property model, Landroverfarm Press has now published over 100 distinct titles from unique single page A3 publications to collections, boxsets, #poetryracks, a #poetrybrick and anthologies.
Crisis & Duplication (2017, 2018)
You Sleep Uphill (2022)
Jay Nieuwland
A human being, duh. They are a genderqueer writer, editor, librarian, and woo-girl, born and based in Te Whanganui-a-Tara. They co-founded the reading/zine series Food Court. This isn’t even their final form.
I am a human being (2020)
Masthead
Chris Holdaway
Co-founder and director of Compound Press, founding editor of Minarets journal. Author of Gorse Poems (Titus Books, 2022). Translator of poetry from Spanish, French, and German.
Samuel Carey
Co-founder at-large of Compound Press. Author of A draft of Feltland (Compound, 2013) and Crystal Cosmetic/Enduser (Compound, 2012). Lawyer.