Kids books for Christmas reviewed.

Siobhan Harvey reviews recent poetry books and picks favourites from the year.

Auckland's acting community recognises outstanding achievements at annual awards.

Greg Fleming reviews the latest crop of crime fiction and points out some of the year's best reads.

Sunday's German Christmas concert triumphantly signed off another successful year for Bach Musica NZ.

COMMENT: You want uplifting, pure unadulterated joy and access to your inner mind? Listen to Chopin.

The Ministry of Social Development is awaiting sentencing on breach of health and safety legislation after the 2014 Ashburton Work and Income office killings.

Billy Macfarlane has gone from living in a million-dollar Bay of Plenty mansion to the back room of his mother's house. Now he's waging war on P.

The beauty and mystique of Māori musical instruments were almost lost to the world. But Napier man Layton Robertson is playing his part to help revive them. Made with funding from NZ On Air.

Veteran actor Rawiri Paratene will join the cast for Pop-up Globe's 2017 season.

Artists and actors are joining forces to raise funds for animal sanctuary Paws Awhile.

Commonwealth writers have no chance of beating US 'big hitters', claims 2011 Booker winner Julian Barnes.

"Essentially you breathe life into something that is dead material" Puppeteer Norbert Hausberg exhibits his lifelong passion. Made with funding from NZ On Air.

Briefs is perfect pre-Christmas cabaret for grown-ups.

Acclaimed author and illustrator Donovan Bixley shares tales of the books that inspired him.

The ukulele is bigger than you might think, especially with kiwi kids.

Ballet's former bad boy has turned his life around. Sergei Polunin talks to Helen Barlow

Johnny Marr: I'm not going to have my life story sullied by some bullshit agenda. I'll tell it really how it was.

See this street ballet and you'll never look at a supermarket shopping trolley the same way again.

A stark image of three cows stranded on an island created by the 7.8 magnitude earthquake near Kaikoura captured global attention last week.

The Manukau Symphony Orchestra prepares to farewell a difficult 2016.

First-time author Jonothan Cullinane puts the 1951 Waterfront Strike front and centre of his critically acclaimed crime novel

Comedy troupe the Improv Bandits celebrate 19 years.

Joe Goldberg's your average, cantankerous New York rare books seller. He's also an accomplished serial killer. When we meet him

Musician Tigilau Ness won this year's Vodafone NZ Music Awards roots reggae award. The 61-year-old father of singer Che Fu is a political activist.

Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra's final town hall concert was a grand occasion with a near capacity audience warmly applauded by CEO

This successful, uber-stylish nightclub musical from Wellington's Tawata Productions feels like a dreamy album-length live music video.

There is an eerie prescience in the decision to stage Vernon God Little just as America succumbs to the belief that the frontman for

The echoes of the Dunedin sound debate have faded with the decades but a new book hears them reverberating louder.

Following their dreams sees two ballerinas on a global dance.