cover art by Claire Beynon

 

Publication news

Ko Aotearoa Tātou | We Are New Zealand was launched at WORD Christchurch Spring Festival on Friday, 30 October 2020.

 

The starting point for the anthology was the statement by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern after the March Christchurch attacks: ‘Because we represent diversity, kindness, compassion, a home for those who share our values, refuge for those who need it…we will not, and cannot, be shaken by this attack.’

The book includes prose, poetry and visual art that explores, investigates or interrogates life in contemporary New Zealand. A celebration, yes, but also an examination of who we are, with young voices new to publication and well-known poets, storytellers and essayists.  

The editors thank everyone who has been part of this project. We received a wide range of wonderfully crafted responses to the call for submissions, from Kerikeri to Bluff. Some were teenagers still at school; some were in their 80s. Most lived in New Zealand; some were New Zealanders currently living overseas. Submissions roamed from a Chinese restaurant in Christchurch to a fruit-packing factory in Opōtiki to a cemetery under Grafton Bridge in Auckland to a high school in Hastings, and from London to Finland to Vienna to Iran.

The editors also thank the team of consulting editors, without whom we would not have discovered such rich content.

Special thanks to Otago University Press and Creative New Zealand.

For more information please contact:

wearenzanthology[at]gmail[dot]com

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CONTRIBUTORS

Poetry, fiction and creative nonfiction by:

Rahaf Almabaid

Tusiata Avia

Shriya Bhagwat

Jack Remiel Cottrell

Debra Daley

Vera Hua Dong

David Eggleton

Anaru Eketone

Amber Esau

Ezra Feau

Nida Fiazi

Maryana Garcia

Miriama Gemmell

Ghazaleh Golbaksh

David Gregory

Faisal Halabi

Mohamed Hassan

Tamati Hohepa

Victoria Ivashkova

Marissa Johnpillai

Angelique Kasmara

Blaine Kelly 

Sarah Kolver

Miha Kovacevic

Melanie Kwang

Anna Lafaitele

Catarina de Peters Leitão

Lynette Leong

Renee Liang

Fiona Lincoln

Tsitsi Mapepa

Selina Tusitala Marsh

Te Ariki Maunsell

Courtney Sina Meredith

Kim Meredith

Donna Miles-Mojab

Mustaq Missouri

Fardowsa Mohamed

Emma Neale

Mikaela Nyman

Nataliya Oryshchuk

Richard Pamatatau

Aiwa Pooamorn

Hanif Quazi

essa may ranapiri

Sudha Rao

Vaughan Rapatahana

Reihana Robinson

Tania Roxborogh

Ali Shakir

Josie Shapiro

Naomi Simon-Kumar

Neema Singh

Jillian Sullivan

Apirana Taylor

Stacey Teague

Kirsteen Ure

Susan Wardell

Alison Wong

E Wen Wong

Anna Woods

Sigred Yamit

Nidhi Zak/Aria Eipe

Visual art by:

Greta Anderson  

Claire Beynon

Israel Birch

Nigel Brown

Fiona Clark

Barry Cleavin

Dee Copland

Garry Currin

Melanie Dixon

Zena Elliott

Jennifer Halli

Michael Hight

Zainaa Hilal

Penny Howard

Simon Kaan

Yuki Kihara

Alan Leatherby

Andy Leleisi’uao

Kim Lowe

Ewan McDougall

Eddie Monotone

Kim Pieters

Sabine Poppe

John Pule 

Bridget Reweti

Ellie Stiggers

Zulfirman Syah

Mele Siniva Williams

Leafa Wilson

Sophie Yu

Reza Zareian-Jahromi

 

 

 

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