DAZZLING NEW VOICES
Emma Ling Sidnam, Airana Ngarewa & Colleen Maria Lenihan
Emma Ling Sidnam, Airana Ngarewa and Colleen Maria Lenihan discuss their stunning debut books and reveal what gave them the courage to write. Chaired by Paula Morris.
Join acclaimed author and creative writing teacher Paula Morris in a discussion with the three debut authors she hand-picked as new authors she predicts will change the literary landscape in Aotearoa forever. They are writers you can’t afford not to read.
Emma Ling Sidnam’s debut novel, Backwaters, is a tender, nuanced novel about the bittersweet search for belonging. Airana Ngarewa’s debut novel The Bone Tree is a stunning coming of age story about two brothers who must learn to survive on their own in the world. With gritty lyricism, The Bone Tree gives voice to characters on the margins of society – and it considers the question of how we can best protect the ones we love. Kōhine, the short story collection by Colleen Maria Lenihan (Te Rarawa, Ngāpuhi), juxtaposes Tokyo’s salarymen, sex workers and schoolgirls with rongoā healers, lone men and rural matriarchs of Aotearoa New Zealand.
All pukapuka will be for sale through our Festival bookstore Paper Plus Nelson, both at their shop and at their stall at Pukapuka Talks sessions – your opportunity to meet authors and get your books signed! You can also purchase books from Paper Plus online.
Emma Ling Sidnam
Emma Ling Sidnam is a Wellington-based poet and student. She loves translating life to art and combining wordplay with meaningful messages that connect with people. As a fourth-generation Asian New Zealander, she is passionate about representation and ensuring that all voices are heard. She was awarded the 2022 Michael Gifkins Prize for her manuscript Backwaters, which resulted in a publishing contract with Text and a NZ$10,000 advance against royalties. The annual prize is awarded to an unpublished manuscript by a New Zealand writer, celebrating the life and work of the writer and agent Michael Gifkins.
Airana Ngarewa
Born and raised in Pātea, Airana Ngarewa (Ngāti Ruanui, Ngā Rauru, Ngāruahine) is a writer and a teacher. He teaches at Spotswood College, New Plymouth, and is studying a Master of Teaching and Education Leadership with Ako Mātātupu: Teach first. His writing has appeared in The Spinoff, Newsroom, Headland, Mayhem Literary Journal, Turbine, Takehē Magazine, Huia Short Stories and elsewhere. The Bone Tree is his first novel, and will be published by Moa Press in September 2023.
Colleen Maria Lenihan
Colleen Maria Lenihan (Te Rarawa, Ngāpuhi) is a fiction writer, screenwriter and photographer, and a graduate of Te Papa Tupu and The Creative Hub. After fifteen years in Tokyo and a year in New York City, Colleen returned to Tāmaki Makaurau in 2016 where she is now based. Her writing has appeared in Newsroom’s Reading Room, the NZ Herald and The Pantograph Punch, and Kōhine is her first book. Colleen has been awarded several residencies: Michael King Writers’ Centre Emerging Māori Writer (2019); Newsroom/Surrey Hotel Winner (2019); and the Dan Davin Literary Foundation (2021). Colleen is currently screenwriting for Ahikāroa, a drama on Māori TV and is the International Institute of Modern Letters and Creative New Zealand Emerging Māori Writer in Residence at Victoria University in 2023.
Paula Morris (Chair)
Paula Morris MNZM (Ngāti Wai, Ngāti Whātua, Ngāti Manuhiri) is an award-winning novelist, short story writer, essayist and editor from New Zealand. She holds degrees from universities in New Zealand, the U.K. and the US, including a D.Phil from the University of York and an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. She is the founder of the Academy of New Zealand Literature and Wharerangi, the Māori literature hub, director of the Master in Creative Writing programme at the University of Auckland in New Zealand.
Pukapuka Talks are presented by:
Thank you to:
SUTER THEATRE
Sat 21 Oct | 4pm | 60 min
Pay What You Can (PWYC)
All Ages
Content warnings apply: Mental Illness references
