Out of It - 25th anniversary collector's edition

MichaelO’Leary’s Out of It was first published in 1987.

  Sincethen it has become a NewZealand cultclassic and is possibly the only NewZealand literarycricket novel published here.

  Thenovel conjures a surreal cricket game between NewZealand andan invitation Out of It XI at Eden Park, Auckland,in dadaist and modernist prose in the Irish-Mäori tradition.

  This new 25th anniversary collector’s edition, edited by cricket poetryanthologist and poet Mark Pirie, adds amendments to the first edition alongwith appendices, including a full scorecard of the Out of It innings, notes, aninterview with the author and a bibliography of NewZealand cricketfiction and poetry.

   25years on, Out of It, as Pirie writes in the foreword, ‘remainsa highly imaginative, original and colourful read.’

‘If you are a collector of Bohemian cricketmemorabilia, this book is for your shelf. It is certainly a boon to te kirikitio Aotearoa...’– Rangi Faith

‘O’Leary has ... the demeanour of a cricketumpire – when he says it’s out then it’s out. He can also lob an impressiveball down a pitch as he can play a riff à la Hendrix on any availableinstrument.’ – Gregory O’Brien

Aboutthe Author and Editor

Michael O’Leary (b. 1950) is a wellknown Paekakariki-based bookshop proprietor, publisher, novelist, poet andperformer. His numerous publications include several volumes of poetry fromHeadworX: Toku Tinihanga: Selected Poems 1982-2002, Make Love and War, Soundsof Sonnets (with Mark Pirie) and PanetaStreet. In 2011 his words were set to music bylocal Kapiti Coastmusicians on the CD, Fences Fall. He is publisher for Earl of SeacliffArt Workshop, an established independent publisher of contemporary NewZealand poetry and fiction.

Mark Pirie is a NewZealand poet, editor, writer and publisher. In2010, he edited the anthology of NZ cricket poetry A TinglingCatch and currently writes its offshoot blog TinglingCatch.

Photo of Michael O'Leary by David McGill, 2009"