CREATIVE WRITING

I write contemporary poetry which explores identity, pop culture, and the Pasifika diaspora. My work features te reo, surrealism, Internet slang, tino rangatiratanga and be/longing.

My poetry is forthcoming in a number of journals and anthologies, and you can read a selection of my work below.

As a librarian, I also aim to increase visibility and opportunities for Pacific Island writers, and support independent bookstores and vendors. To explore creative writing by Pacific Island authors that is available in the United States, check out my curated lists on Bookshop.org.

PUBLICATIONS

Chapbooks

• Sentimental Value (Ghost City Press), 2023

• Sentimental Value is a series of brief meditations on grief and inherited taonga. Download the micro-chap for free, or contribute a donation. I am donating all funds received for this book to the Maui Strong Fund.

• MĀORI MAID DIFFICULT (Tram Editions), January 2024

• I'm excited to share my debut chapbook, offering poems about Pasifika diaspora life and identity. Order now!

• AGAPE (Rinky Dink Press), January 2024 (AWP Conference)

• Hinting at Decolonization (Kith Books), Spring 2024

• I was a finalist in the Kith Books Speed Run contest in 2023, and they've picked up my manuscript for publication in 2024. In the meantime, check out their contest winner!

Poems

• "Hospitality x COLONIZATION Collab" - Columbia Journal

• "Island Time" - Room

• "Kuaka" - Antipodes

• "Bad Vegans" - tākahe

• "Petrification" - The Global South

• "I Didn't Come Here to Make F.R.I.E.N.D.S" - Many Nice Donkeys

  • Best of the Net Nomination

• "Colonization Via Transcription Algorithm" - Apogee

  • Featured in Poetry Daily

• "Catastrophe with Relish" - The Lickety-Split

• "Unknown Caller" - The Lickety-Split

• "Choose Your Own Adventure" - Yellow Medicine Review

• "Left on Read" - Yellow Medicine Review

• "Self Portrait in The Queue" - Yellow Medicine Review

• "Surgical Notation" - Unstamatic

• "Porotakataka (Circle)" - Sweet Mammalian

• "Whenua" - The Spinoff

• "Negotiating with Ray White" - Cordite Poetry Review

• "High Five" - bad apple

• "Ashes & Afterthoughts" - NAILED Magazine

• "Pikitia for Sad Tamariki" - tākahe

  • Republished in bad apple

Works in Anthologies

• "Now That Dr Ropata is in Guatemala" - Poetry Aotearoa Yearbook 2024 (Ed. Tracey Slaughter)

• "Fractions" - Spoiled Fruit: Queer Poetry from Aotearoa (Eds. Damien Levi & Amber Esau)

• "Pikitia for Sad Tamariki" - Spoiled Fruit: Queer Poetry from Aotearoa (Eds. Damien Levi & Amber Esau)

• "Defense Mechanism" - white-hot heart: The NZPS Anthology 2023 (Eds. Margaret Moores & Janet Newman)

• "Land Ack" - white-hot heart: The NZPS Anthology 2023 (Eds. Margaret Moores & Janet Newman)

• "Ko Karl Tōku Ingoa/My Name is Karl" - Te Kohu: Poems (Ed. Ann-Marie Houng Lee)

• "Unspooling" - Te Kohu: Poems (Ed. Ann-Marie Houng Lee)

CONTESTS & PRIZES

• Best of the Net Nominee (Many Nice Donkeys, "I Didn't Come Here to Make F.R.I.E.N.D.S"), 2024

• Highly Commended ("Land Ack") and Commended ("Defense Mechanism"), NZPS International Poetry Competition, 2023

• Winner, AAALS Indigenous Writers Prize for Poetry, 2023

• 2nd Place, Takahē Monica Taylor Poetry Prize, 2022

• 2nd Place, Kohukohu Library Poetry Prize, 2022

JURIED WORKSHOPS

• Tin House Winter Workshop, 2024

• Kenyon Review Writers Workshop, 2023

• Kearny Street Workshop - Interdisciplinary Writers Lab (IWL), 2023

• Voices of Our Nations Arts Foundation (VONA) - Poetry Winter Intensive, 2023

• Rooted & Written (SF Writers Grotto) - Poetry Fellowship, 2022

• Voices of Our Nations Arts Foundation (VONA) - Summer Memoir Workshop, 2013

MEDIA

• Philly Poetry Chapbook Review: New Poetry Titles (1/16/24)

• HOME MADE at ARTogether: Interview with Nicola Andrews

• The Write Attention Podcast, Episode 10: Mentorship & Community