Editors

Carrie Rudzinski has performed her work over the past 17 years in six countries and has been featured in Bustle, HuffPost and Teen Vogue. She ranked 4th in the world at the 2014 Women of the World Poetry Slam, won the 2019 Pussy Riot Award at Auckland Fringe Festival, and co-founded Auckland’s JAFA Poetry Slam. Her poems have been published in Landfall, The Spinoff, Stasis Journal, Catalyst and Muzzle, among others. She is the author of seven books and five spoken word albums, and from 2016–2020 she taught the only spoken word course offered at a tertiary level in Oceania at Manukau Institute of Technology. Carrie is the co-creator of three poetry theatre shows – How We Survive (2019), The Bitching Hour (2023) and Hysterical (2022) – the latter of which won Best New Aotearoa Play at the Wellington Theatre Awards and Outstanding Performance Poetry at Auckland Fringe Festival.

Grace Iwashita-Taylor, breathing bloodlines of Samoa, England and Japan, is an artist of upu/words on the page, digital storytelling and live performance, and is dedicated to carving, elevating, and holding spaces for storytellers of Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa. She is a recipient of the CNZ Emerging Pacific Artist 2014 and the Auckland Mayoral Writers Grant 2016, and highlights of her work include holding the visiting international writer in residence at the University of Hawaiʻi in 2018, and being a co-founder of the first youth poetry slam in Aotearoa, Rising Voices (2011–2016) and the South Auckland Poets Collective. She has published two collections, Afakasi Speaks (2013) and Full Broken Bloom (2017) with ala press, is the writer of My Own Darling commissioned by Auckland Theatre Company (2015, 2017, 2019), and curator of UPU (Auckland Arts Festival 2020 & Kia Mau Festival 2021). Alongside Dr Lana Lopesi, she is co-director of Flying Fetu Festival, dedicated to building abundant futures for Moana artists of upu/word. Grace is currently working on her next body of work, ‘Water Memories’.

Contributors

Andy Coyle
Tusiata Avia
Mohamed Hassan
Nafanua Purcell Kersel
For My Wairua
Nathan Joe
Dominic Hoey
Eliana Gray
Ria Masae
Natalya Tongotea and Kat Taufalele
Olivia Hall
Penny Ashton
RikTheMost
Simone Kaho
Zech Soakai
Jai Ngaranoa Selkirk
Shania Pablo
爱华 ไอวา Aiwa Pooamorn
Jessie Fenton
Hadassah Grace
Takunda Muzondiwa
Abby Irwin-Jones
Dan Goodwin
Kyla Dela Cruz
Ngaio Simmons
Vex Chat-Blanc
Zephyr Zhang 张挚
Te Kahu Rolleston
Ken Arkind
Maggie Leigh White
Hala Nasr
Kiri Piahana-Wong
Rosanna Raymond a.k.a. Sistar S’pacific
Daren Kamali
Jess Holly Bates
Ben Fagan
Doc Drumheller
Ben Brown
Marcus Mackenzie
Matilda Clack
Joy Holley
Freya Daly Sadgrove
Liz Breslin
Laura Borrowdale
Steph Julian
Lily Holloway
Ila Selwyn
Alina Siegfried a.k.a. Ali Jacs
Selina Tusitala Marsh
Alfred Lee
Tamara Tulitua
Michelle Bolton
Ryan Gordon Teura a.k.a. Lazy Eye
Ricky Day
Tim Heath
John Allison
Clémence Williams
Cassandra Barnett
Amber Esau
Stevie Davis-Tana
Arihia Latham
Dietrich John Soakai
Miriam Barr
Aiga Tupulaga Poementary | Mokos Wilco Strickson-Pua, Jayda Pocock, Cheden Ah Yek Strickson-Pua
and Papa Mua Strickson-Pua
Laura Williamson
Mark Raffills
Rose Northey
Redwood Reider
Ray Shipley
Jordan Hamel
Eric Soakai
Kasi Valu
Moefiainu Feagai Fenunuivao Daisy Lavea-Timo a.k.a. Daisy Speaks
Ruby Lupe Ah-Wai Macomber
Renee Liang 梁文蔚
Marina Alefosio
Rex Letoa Paget
Jessica Arcus
Henrietta (Etta) Bollinger
Sara Hirsch
David Eggleton
Jennifer Rockwell
Jahra Wasasala
Danielle O’Halloran-Thyne
Nadine Anne Hura
Sheldon Rua
Michael Moore
Ngā Hinepūkōrero | Manaia Tuwhare-Hoani, Terina Wichman-Evans, Arihia Hall and Matariki Bennett