Three strikingly different writers find their voice in AUP New Poets 11.

Memoir, myth and critical theory weave through Xiaole Zhan’s essay-poem ‘Arcadiana’ as they explore their Pākehā-Chinese family. Meanwhile, Margo Montes de Oca’s ‘intertidal’ combines rich, elemental imagery – water, light, colour – with a world of feeling and poetic homage. In an affecting conclusion, J. A. Vili’s ‘Poems Lost During the Void’ pays tribute to family and friends, reaching out beyond grief to show the beautiful intensity of community and connection.

AUP New Poets 11 introduces three distinctive and compelling voices to contemporary poetry.

Endorsements

‘AUP New Poets 11 introduces to the world three new poets whose work offers diverse visions of what poetry can be. Xiaole Zhan’s ‘Arcadiana’ showcases an exciting new voice. Using the hybrid form of essay poetry, Zhan explores their cross-cultural family and childhood, weaving in broader themes including history, religion and music. The innovative and clever poems in Margo Montes de Oca’s ‘intertidal’ return to motifs of water, sleep, dreams, time – including geological and evolutionary time – and engage with the work of other writers, such as Virginia Woolf and Louise Glück. And, finally, J. A. Vili is a refreshing new voice whose poems span years. His heartfelt ‘Poems Lost During the Void’ which deeply explore place and community, are often punning and playful, even while dealing with grief and loss.’

— Helen Rickerby

Poets

Xiaole Zhan (詹小乐) is a Chinese-New Zealand writer and composer based in Naarm. They are the recipient of the 2024 Kat Muscat Fellowship. Awards include the Kill Your Darlings Creative Non-Fiction Essay Prize and the Charles Brasch Young Writers’ Essay Competition. Their work has appeared in Island, The Suburban Review, Landfall, Cordite Poetry Review, Going Down Swinging, Starling and Sweet Mammalian. Their name in Chinese is 小乐 and means ‘Little Happy’ but can also be read as ‘Little Music’.

Margo Montes de Oca is a poet and researcher of Mexican and Pākehā descent living in Te Whanganui-a-Tara. She holds degrees in English literature and in ecology and biodiversity. She was a 2024 Starling writer-in-residence at the New Zealand Young Writers Festival, and her poetry has been published in issues of Starling, Sweet Mammalian, bad apple, Minarets and Mayhem Literary Journal.

J. A. Vili is an Auckland-based poet of Samoan descent whose poetry often advocates for suicide prevention and mental illness support. He dedicates poems to friends and to his children who lost their mother at a young age. Vili holds a bachelor of creative writing. His poems have appeared in Ika journal and Katūīvei: Contemporary Pasifika Poetry from Aotearoa New Zealand (Massey University Press, 2024).