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Favourite Monsters is a book of many voices, and of subjects ranging from politics to parenthood, art to religion. Full of stories, jokes and stolen lines, it confirms James Brown's position at the forefront of New Zealand poetry.
'The James Brown of New Zealand poetry.' —Dr Ernest M. Bluespire
'The shock of discovery, the surprises Brown has in store for readers, the choices he allows them to make about what he might mean, all these cumulate in the poems and present themselves as fun, as challenges, and ultimately as intimate weapons of communications. His words get under your skin.' —Penelope Beider, NZ Herald
'This little book has plenty of guts and an interesting cover.' —Hamesh Wyatt, Otago Daily Times
'Favourite Monsters continues to build Brown's profile as one of New Zealand's most adventurous and culturally savvy poets.' —Mary Macpherson
'Best of all is his love for language. He plays with it, rolls in it.' —Robin List, Wairarapa Times-Age
'Brown is ever intent on disrupting the reader's expectations, on offering something unexpected. He wants to convey a sense of shock, surprise, discovery. He's out to show how ambitious language can be as a form of communication.' —David Eggleton, Sunday Star-Times
James Brown lives in Wellington with his partner and two daughters. He has held the Louis Johnson New Writers Bursary, the Sargeson Fellowship, and the 2001 University of Canterbury Writer in Residence Fellowship. His first book of poetry, Go Round Power Please, was shortlisted for the 1996 Montana New Zealand Book Awards and won the Best First Book Award, and his second, Lemon, was published to acclaim in 1999.
