James Norcliffe is an award-winning poet, novelist and short story writer with work appearing in journals world-wide and translated into several languages. He has published ten collections of poetry, most recently Deadpan (Otago University Press, 2018) and Letter to ‘Oumuamua (Otago University Press, 2023), more than a dozen novels for young people, including the Mallory, Mallory series (Penguin, 2020 and 2021), and a novel, The Frog Prince (Penguin Random House, 2022). His flash fictions have been included in Flash Fiction International (W. W. Norton, 2015) and Breach of All Size(The Cuba Press, 2022). His junior novel The Crate, a ghost story set on New Zealand’s West Coast (Quentin Wilson Publishing) was published last year and the same publisher will bring out Lost City in 2024.

Besides his long list of publications, he was also poetry editor for the Christchurch Press. Many readers will know him from his long-time involvement in takahē magazine. As an editor, he worked with Harry Ricketts and Siobhan Harvey as editor of the major anthology Essential New Zealand Poems – Facing the Empty Page (Godwit/Random, 2014), and he co-edited Bonsai: Best small stories from Aotearoa New Zealand (Canterbury University Press 2018), Ko Aotearoa Tātou | We Are New Zealand, (Otago University Press, 2020) and the annual ReDraft anthology of youth writing (Clerestory Press). He also serves on the Central Committee of National Flash Fiction Day.

In 2022, James was awarded the Prime Minister’s Award for Literary Achievement in Poetry, and in 2023 he was awarded the Margaret Mahy Medal.

His website and blog is here

 

 

Mikaela Nyman is an award-winning poet, fiction and non-fiction writer who writes in English and Swedish. Born in the autonomous, demilitarised Åland Islands in Finland, she now lives in Taranaki. Collaboration across borders of language, ethnicity, geography and time excites her. She was awarded a major literature prize by the Swedish Literature Society of Finland in 2024 for her second poetry collection För att ta sig ur en rivström måste man röra sig i sidled (2023), and was also nominated for the Nordic Council Literature Prize 2024.

Mikaela’s novel Sado (2020), a climate fiction novel set in Vanuatu in the aftermath of the 2015 tropical cyclone Pam, was followed by Sista, Stanap Strong! A Vanuatu Women’s Anthology (2021), a ground-breaking anthology of writing by three generations of women, which she co-edited with Rebecca Tobo Olul-Hossen. Both books were published by Te Herenga Waka University Press. In 2023, she was the poetry judge for the Ronald Hugh Morrieson Literary Prize and co-judge of Micro Madness with Kathy Fish, and she organised Taranaki’s first official Flash Fiction Day. Her micro fiction is forthcoming in Te Moana Reo | The Language Ocean from The Cuba Press in 2024.

She is a keen podcaster and host of the Sugar Loafing Arts Cast on Access Radio Taranaki 104.4FM. She is the 2024 Robert Burns Fellow.

Vaughan Rapatahana commutes between Hong Kong SAR, Philippines and Aotearoa New Zealand. He is widely published across several genres in Māori, English and other languages, and his work has been translated into Bahasa Malaysia, Italian, French, Mandarin, Romanian and Spanish. He was poetry editor of the Māori and Indigenous Review Journal until 2011, and his ten poetry collections have been published in Hong Kong SAR, Macau, Philippines, USA, England, France, India, Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand. Atonement (UST Press, Manila) was nominated for a National Book Award in Philippines (2016); he won the inaugural Proverse Poetry Prize the same year; and was included in Best New Zealand Poems (2017). He also writes short fiction and has had two novels published.

Rapatahana is one of the few World authors who consistently writes in and is published in te reo Māori (the Māori language). It is his mission to continue to do so and to push for a far wider recognition of the need to write and to be published in this tongue. His latest poetry collection is written exclusively in te reo Māori (with English language ‘translations’) is titled te pāhikahikatanga/incommensurability and was published by Flying Islands Books in Australia, 2023. His current anthology projects are also connected with language: a two-volume follow up to Witi Ihimaera’s seminal Te Ao Marama titled Te Awa o Kupu and Ngā Kupu Wero (Penguin Random House), an anthology of Pacific-Oceanic English language poetry, Katūīvei (Massey University Press), an anthology of short pieces written 40 tongues, titled Te Moana Reo | The Language Ocean (The Cuba Press). More works are forthcoming in 2024, including anthologies from Anahera Press and Cold Hub Press. More at his New Zealand Book Council page. 

 

Rachel Smith writes prose and poetry in Ōtautahi, Aotearoa New Zealand. She has been widely published in journals and anthologies including Landfall, Best Small Fictions and Best Microfiction. She was fiction editor for takahē in 2017-18 and contributing editor for Best Microfiction 2021, and writes for Bergman Gallery, Cook Islands.

Rachel placed second in NZ National Flash Fiction Day in 2017 and has been shortlisted for Bath Flash Fiction Award, Reflex Fiction and TSS Flash Fiction 400. She was a recipient of the NZSA Complete MS Manuscript assessment in 2021 for an adult novel. She is scriptwriter for feature film, Stranded Pearl, to be released in Aotearoa in May 2024 and is currently working on a collection of flash fiction. Her book reviews have appeared in takahē and Landfall Online Review.

Find Rachel’s writing here. @rachelmsmithnz1

 

Iona Winter is a widely published and internationally anthologised author, with work spanning genre and form. Her preference is writing poetry, hybrid fiction and scribbling ideas on recycled bits of paper. Iona’s most recent publications include In the shape of his hand lay a river (Elixir & Star Press, 2024) and Gaps in the Light (AdHoc Fiction, 2021).

In 2022, she was awarded the CLNZ/NZSA Writers’ Award for A Counter of Moons, a non-fiction book about the aftermath of suicide bereavement, due for publication with Steele Roberts Aotearoa in 2024.

Iona founded Elixir & Star Press in 2023, and edited the inaugural publication, a liminal gathering, that included over 100 multidisciplinary responses to grief. Elixir & Star Press is a dedicated space for the creative expression of grief in Aotearoa New Zealand.

You can find Iona at ionawinter.com or outside in the māra.

 

Proofreader / copy editor

Lynne Hector has worked in administration for the last 25 years. Now that she and her husband have sold their business and moved to Glenorchy, it is time to take on a new challenge. Lynne graduated with Excellence in Proofreading and Editing from the New Zealand Institute of Business Studies and intends to make this her new career.