Poet, fiction writer, critic, essayist, teacher and academic, C.K. Stead has made his mark on all these disciplines. While he has already written or edited over fifty books, there is no sitting on his laurels for this nonagenarian. Instead, he wore them as New Zealand Poet Laureate from 2015–2017 and has continued to celebrate poetry and poets through blogs, reviews and essays. He has also returned to his exploration of the life and work of Katherine Mansfield, and to writing and revisiting short fiction as well as an ‘approximation’ of a play first written in French by Racine. Combining this eclectic material into one fascinating collection, this prize-winning wordsmith continues to provoke, delight and stimulate.