Book Giveaway | Beyond the Border

BEYOND-THE-BORDE
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We’re excited to be giving away two copies of Beyond the Border by Owen Marshall to our GrownUps members!

To be in the draw, simply make sure you’re a GrownUps member, signed up to our newsletter, and fill in your details at the bottom of the page.

BEYOND-THE-BORDEAbout Beyond the Border

This first collection of Owen Marshall’s poetry in many years will be welcomed by many readers

Content in wide, accustomed landscapes
I hear the same wind songs there and bird calls
too.
My wanderings have brought me home, a closing
spiral towards the centre of everything I’ve known.

A new poetry collection from master writer Owen Marshall is always to be celebrated, bringing the welcome promise of the same wisdom, subtlety and wit that have won him such admiration for his award-winning short fiction and novels.

Beyond the Border is no exception. These are poems about the loss of close friends, poems full of memory – and sometimes of regret, poems marked by wry humour and rueful self-deprecation. Many are rich in colour and sensation and close observation of the natural landscape. Many speak of the lasting consolations and pleasures of marriage and family, and of both the vicissitudes of old age and its unexpected joys. There is a deeply elegiac quality here, but there is also hope, acceptance and contentment in a life widely and thoughtfully lived, and the recognition that what lasts, and what means most, is love.

‘I said in reading Marshall, there was always a sense of moral commitment and part of the literary excitement in reading him was that this was  inseparable from aesthetic choices.’ – Sir Vincent O’Sullivan

‘They are an exquisite marriage of musicality, observation, elegance and economy. Certain words stand out in his lines like the glint of light on wet ground.’ – Paula Green

‘The virtues of Owen Marshall’s poems are similar to the virtues of  his fiction: felicitous phrasing, wry wit, high intelligence, shrewd observation and vivid imagination.’ Iain Sharpe

About the Author

Owen Marshall is an award-winning novelist, short story writer, poet and anthologist, who has written or edited over 35 books, including the best-selling novel, The Larnachs.

He held the Katherine Mansfield Memorial Fellowship in Menton in 1996 and won the Montana New Zealand Book Awards Deutz Medal for Fiction in 2000, the same year in which he was made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit. He was made a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2012 and, in 2013, received the Prime Minister’s Award for Literary Achievement in Fiction.

Three of his works have been adapted for film: The Philosopher, The Rule of Jenny Pen and Coming Home in the Dark, which premiered at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival.

Owen Marshall graduated with an MA (Hons) in history from the University of Canterbury, which in 2002 awarded him the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters, and in 2005 appointed him an adjunct professor.

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Terms and conditions

    1. You must be a GrownUps member and subscribed to our newsletter to be eligible to enter.

    2. The competition closes on 3rd June 2026. Winners will be notified via email by 4th June 2026.

    3. It is your responsibility to provide a correct New Zealand postal address for prize delivery. GrownUps is not responsible for prizes sent to incorrect addresses.

    4. Winners will be drawn at random by the GrownUps administration team.

    5. GrownUps employees and their immediate families are not eligible to enter.

    6. By entering, you agree to GrownUps using your name on social media as a winner of the competition.

    7. One entry per household.

    8. The prize is non-transferable and cannot be exchanged for cash or other items.

    9. You must reside in New Zealand, as the prize can only be delivered within New Zealand.

    10. You must be over 50 years of age to enter. Please ensure your membership details are up to date in your dashboard.