Through a publishing partnership with Whitireia Publishing, Āporo Press has published Hoods Landing, the debut novel from Laura Vincent (Ngāti Māhanga, Ngāpuhi), in October 2025.
Vincent describes the novel as “a Southern Gothic-via-rural South Auckland anti-tragedy inspired by the works of Robert Altman and David Lynch featuring elderly lesbians, twins who aren’t twins, a 102-year-old tarot reader, people dropping like flies from cancer, several dogs named Roger, and a sexy baptism.”
On working with Āporo Press she says, “This is the place my novel has been waiting for and I’m honoured to have my inaugural novel be theirs too. Āporo Press and bad apple’s community building has been central to my experience as a writer in Tāmaki Makaurau and I have so much trust in their mahi. It’s meaningful to me to be working with a Māori-owned and led press but also one that’s really cool and there are no cooler hands to put my writing in.”
PEOPLE SAY:
LATEST:
- Hoods Landing longlisted for 2026 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards, Jan Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction
- Shot, Sappho x Hoods Landing x bad apple interview
- Pride author talk with Laura Vincent, 21 February
Pip Adam: “Hoods Landing’s exploration of life and death inevitably is also an exploration of time. The past, the present, the future. The work is interested in a system of time that is spiral in nature and, often, Hoods Landing is a place where all times are here, now. This all-times aspect is expertly conveyed in Irene’s tarot, which—in Laura’s hands—sits in the same world as whakapapa and ‘Kia whakatōmuri te haere whakamua’.” | Read full story
Sam Brooks: “It’s a tremendous family drama; operatic in scope, intimately detailed, deeply funny, and so real it scratches a familiar itch….On a scene-by-scene level, Hoods Landing is one of the most intricately crafted debut novels I’ve read recently. ” | Read full story
Mairātea Mohi: “This complex negotiation of identity and family life is mirrored in the reading experience itself. Reading Hoods Landing feels like sliding into the middle seat of a packed van bound for a funeral. Everyone is talking at once, you’re not entirely sure how you’re related to the deceased and love and resentment are fighting for control of the wheel.” | Read full story
Laura Borrowdale: “Vincent’s eye for the sharp detail lifts it sensuously off the page, and as the book centres around various family celebrations, there are many occasions for food to do some of the heavy lifting of the women’s characterisation. The exploration of the domestic and the elevation of the home as a site of something interesting and dynamic is refreshing.” | Read full story
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Laura Vincent, 21st Century Writer 