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Āria

nā Jessica Hinerangi

Ngāpuhi, Ngāruahine, Ngāti Ruanui
Written in English
Published by: Auckland University Press
Drawing moko kauae on Barbies. Reading Ranginui Walker in rāhui. Spitting on the statue of Captain Cook. Āria is a first collection of poems by Jessica Hinerangi in which the author reconnects with her tūpuna and with te ao Māori.

Birdspeak

nā Arihia Latham

Kāi Tahu, Kāti Mamoe, Waitara/Kāti Huirapa
Written in both te reo Māori and English
Published by: Anahera Press

Arihia Latham’s debut collection of poems, birdcall resounds through poetry that is both personal and political, as fierce as it is tender.

‘Birdspeak is a call to and from the wild. It is a call for peace and a call to fight. Latham writes from the mud and moonlight; the caves, craters, and lakes of te taiao. Like the digging bird she uses her pen to claw memories out of the earth -the mundane, the joyful, the worried, the violent, the aching memories – before rinsing them in the awa and holding them up, to make us wonder whose they are; hers or ours.’ – Becky Manawatu

HIDE NO MORE

nā Kamiria Waireti Mullen

Ngāti Toa Rangatira, Ngati Awa
Written in English
Published by: Empower Leaders Publishing

HIDE NO MORE fearlessly explores intergenerational trauma, delving into the impact of colonisation on Māori language, culture, mental and physical health. Unveiling wounds of incest, sexual abuse, multiple personality disorder, drug use, suicide, language loss and cultural identity struggles, her powerful verses inspire hope and healing. This transformative collection sparks vital conversations and calls for embracing personal and cultural identity.

HIDE NO MORE comes with a warning to those who have experienced trauma, as it requires self-care and mindful reading. HIDE NO MORE celebrates the strength within every survivor.

Hopurangi—Songcatcher: Poems from the Maramataka

nā Robert Sullivan

Kāi Tahu, Ngāpuhi
Written in English
Published by: Auckland University Press
After rejoining social media, Robert Sullivan wrote and posted a poem a day over two and a half months – the poems collected in Hopurangi– Songcatcher. Inspired by the cyclical energies of the Maramataka, these poems see the poet re-finding himself and his world – in the matauranga of his kuia from the Ngati Hau and Ngati Kaharau hapu of Ngapuhi; in his mother’ s stories from his Ngati Manu hapu at Karetu; in the singing and storytelling at Puketeraki Marae, home of his father’ s people of Kati Huirapa, Kati Mamoe, Waitaha and Kai Tahu Whanui in Te Tai o Araiteuru; and in the fellowship of friends on Facebook. Tihei mauri ora!

i'm still growing

nā Josiah Morgan

Kāi Tahu, Ngāti Maniapoto
Written in English
Published by: Dead Bird Books

After publishing his first four books in the United States, i’m still growing brings the poetry of Josiah Morgan into print in Aotearoa for the first time. i’m still growing is a book of identities that shape-shift among the darkening landscape of mundane, suburban New Zealand. It pairs violence with sexuality, and sexuality with catharsis. This book is a eulogy to dead friends, a eulogy to a dead self, and a promise of what is to come.

Māori Maid Difficult

nā Nicola Andrews

Ngāti Paoa
Written in English
Published by: Tram Editions

“He karanga: poems that call out to those who understand and have been yearning to hear a voice meant for them. He wero: poems that call out those who get in the way. Ancestors, family, language and land are everywhere – invoked, described, present, pulsing, overlapping – in this stunning collection that speaks from, about, to, and towards Aotearoa. In so many ways Māori Maid Difficult is a first yet it brings to mind generations of Māori poets who have gone before. Smart, sharp, funny, brittle, supple. Giving and refusing. Irreverent and sensitive. Vulnerable and mysterious. Aroha and hahaha and hā. All at the same time. All in the best ways”. – Alice Te Punga Somerville

Plastic

nā Stacey Teague

Ngāti Maniapoto, Ngāpuhi
Written in English
Published by: Te Herenga Waka University Press

In Plastic, Stacey Teague reaches beyond the frame of her known world to find a way back to te ao Māori. Hers is a complicated, joyful route, full of conversations with ancestors, old places and herself. In form these poems range from plain-speaking prose and concrete poetry to odes and spells; in mood they are just as restless, taking in those times when life feels as big as a movie screen and times when it is more like ‘a loose stone to kick down the path’.

Gathered here are names that travel through time, failed photos of the moon, and love like a feather in the throat. There are encounters with Hine-te-iwaiwa, the bird-woman Kurangaituku, Hine-nui-te-pō, and Hinemoana as she erodes the land with her wildness. This whole-hearted collection shows us how many ways there are to search for one’s bones and at last get to know them.

Poūkahangatus

nā Tayi Tibble

Te Whanau a Apanui, Ngati Porou
Written in English
Published by: Knopf, Penguin UK

These are warm, provocative, and profoundly original poems, written by a woman for whom diving into the wreck means taking on new assumptions—namely, that it is not radical to write from a world in which the effects of colonisation, land, work, and gender are obviously connected. Along the way, Tibble scrutinizes perception and how she as a Māori woman fits into trends, stereotypes, and popular culture. With language that is at once colorful, passionate, and laugh-out-loud funny, Poūkahangatus is the work of one of our most daring new poets.

Rangikura

nā Tayi Tibble

Te Whanau a Apanui, Ngati Porou
Written in English
Published by: Knopf, Penguin UK
At once a coming-of-age and an elegy to the traumas born from colonisation, especially the violence enacted against indigenous women, Rangikura interrogates not only the poets’ pain, but also that of her ancestors. The intimacy of these poems will move readers to laughter and tears. Speaking to herself, sometimes to the reader, these poems arc away from and return to their ancestral roots to imagine the end of the world and a new day. They invite us into the swirl of nostalgia and exhaustion produced in the pursuit of an endless summer.

Tidelines

nā Kiri Piahana-Wong

Ngāti Ranginui
Written in english
Published by: Anahera Press
Tidelines interweaves the poet’s own life with the tragic story of Hinerangi, who lived at Karekare in the distant past. These are poems of Auckland’s west coast, reflecting the steady rhythms of daily existence, alongside grief, mental unwellness, disintegration and resolution.