"Sixty-eight writers and eight artists gather at a hui in a magnificent cave-like dwelling or meeting house. In the middle is a table, the tēpu korero, from which the rangatira speak; they converse with honoured guests, and their rangatira-kōrero embody the tāhuhu, the over-arching horizontal ridge pole, of the shelter. In a series of rich conversations, those present discuss our world in the second decade of this century; they look at decolonisation, indigeneity, climate change . . . this is what they see. Edited by Witi Ihimaera and Michelle Elvy, this fresh, exciting anthology features poetry, short fiction and creative non-fiction, as well as kōrero or conversations between writers and work by local and international artists. The lineup from Aoteraoa includes, among others, Alison Wong, Paula Morris, Anne Salmond, Tina Makereti, Ben Brown, David Eggleton, Cilla McQueen, Hinemoana Baker, Erik Kennedy, Ian Wedde, Nina Mingya Powles, Gregory OBrien, Vincent OSullivan, Patricia Grace, Selina Tusitala Marsh and Whiti Hereaka. Guest writers from overseas include Aparecida Vilaça, Jose-Luis Novo and Ru Freeman. Ihimaera and Elvy have curated a luminous hui, a book to return to time and again."
Witi Ihimaera (Te Whānau-a-Kai, Te Aitanga-a-Māhaki, Rongowhakaata, Ngāti Porou, Tūhoe) has had careers in literature, diplomacy and academia. He was Aotearoa New Zealands first Māori novelist, with his novel Tangi (1973), and works as editor, essayist, filmmaker, playwright and critic. His latest book is Navigating the Stars (2020). He served for 16 years as a New Zealand diplomat, in Canberra, New York and Washington, DC. He is Emeritus Professor of English at the University of Auckland Waipapa Taumata Rau. His international awards include a Premio Ostana, 2010, and a Chevalier de lOrdre des Arts et des Lettres, 2017. He is patron of Kotahi Rau Pukapuka Trust and, in 2022, was made President of Honour of the New Zealand Society of Authors. He lives in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland.
Michelle Elvy is a writer, editor and teacher of creative writing. Her books include the everrumble (2019) and the other side of better (2021), and she has co-edited, among others, the anthologies Ko Aotearoa Tātou
We Are New Zealand (with Paula Morris and James Norcliffe, 2020) and Breach of All Size: Small Stories on Ulysses, Love and Venice (with Marco Sonzogni, 2022). Founder of Flash Frontier: An Adventure in Short Fiction and National Flash Fiction Day, she is also managing editor of the annual Best Small Fictions anthology and is currently editing, with Vaughan Rapatahana, a collection of New Zealand multilingual microfiction. She grew up on the shores of the Chesapeake Bay and now lives in Ōtepoti Dunedin.
