A Pōneke Poetry Showcase

Pictured L-R.

Nick Ascroft is the author of many poetry collections with Te Herenga Waka University Press. He has nearly won the Kathleen Grattan Prize four times, the most anyone has nearly won it. Living in Wellington, he is a public servant advising on digital publishing (and indoor soccer). His latest book of poetry is It's What He Would've Wanted (2025).

Robert Sullivan (Ngāpuhi, Kāi Tahu) is the author of nine books of poetry as well as a graphic novel and an award-winning book of Māori legends for children. He co-edited, with Albert Wendt and Reina Whaitiri, the anthologies of Polynesian poetry in English, Whetu Moana (2002) and Mauri Ola (2010), and an anthology of Māori poetry with Reina Whaitiri, Puna Wai Kōrero (2014), all published by Auckland University Press. Among many awards, he received the 2022 Lauris Edmond Memorial Award for a distinguished contribution to New Zealand poetry. He is associate professor of creative writing at Massey University and has taught previously at Manukau Institute of Technology and the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. His most recent collection is Hopurangi—Songcatcher: Poems from the Maramataka (2024). In 2025 Robert was announced as Aotearoa’s poet laureate 2025–2027.

Jordan Hamel is a writer from Timaru, Aotearoa. He holds an MFA from the University of Michigan and currently acts as Director of Featherston Booktown. His debut poetry collection, Everyone is Everyone Except You, was published in New Zealand by Dead Bird Books in 2022 and by Broken Sleep in the UK in 2024. He is the winner of the 2023 Sonora Review Poetry Prize, and the 2023 New Writers UK Poetry Prize. He was the runner-up in the 2023 American Literary Review Poetry Prize and a finalist for the 2024 Oxford Poetry Prize, the 2024 BOMB Poetry Contest, amongst others. Recent work can be found or is forthcoming in POETRY, Poetry Daily, Electric Literature, Kenyon Review, North American Review, The Adroit Journal, FENCE, and elsewhere.

Arihia Latham (Kāi Tahu, Kāti Māmoe, Waitaha) Is a writer, cultural advisor and rongoā practitioner. She is the author of the poetry collection Birdspeak and has had her work anthologised widely. She lives with her whānau in Te Whanganui a Tara.

Rebecca Hawkes is a queer painter-poet from rural Canterbury. Her first book was Meat Lovers (AUP), finalist for the Lambda Literary Awards in the US and winner of a Laurel Prize for ecopoetry in the UK. Her chapbooks are Softcore Coldsores (AUP New Poets) and Hardcore Pastorals (Cordite). She is lead editor of NZ poetry journal Sweet Mammalian and co-edited the Pacific climate poetics anthology No Other Place to Stand. Rebecca recently completed an MFA in yearning (and, to a lesser extent, poetry) at the University of Michigan in the USA, where her poems have won prizes from Palette Poetry, Salt Hill, Yes Yes Books, the Hopwood Awards, and the Academy of American Poets. Her chapbook HIDE is forthcoming from Ngā Pukapuka Pekapeka, and her next collection will be published by Yes Yes Books and AUP.

Matariki Bennett is a 23 year old award-winning Slam Poet and Filmmaker. She released her first pukapuka, e kō, nō hea koe in May 2025. She is a founding member of Ngā Hinepūkōrero, a bilingual Wāhine Māori Slam Poetry Collective, who in 2021, were honoured with the Creative New Zealand Ngā Manu Pirere Award, recognising outstanding emerging Māori artists. In 2023, Matariki was the Wellington Poetry Slam Champion. Matariki co-wrote and co-directed, 'Te Kohu' (2022) and directed the short documentary, 'Wind, Song and Rain’ (2022). Whakapapa, Te Reo Māori and Hītori are the tūāpapa of Matariki’s storytelling.

Amber Esau is a Sā-Māo-Rish (Ngāpuhi / Manase) writer from Tāmaki Makaurau. She is a poet, storyteller, and professional bots. She co-edited the queer poetry anthology Spoiled Fruit. Always vibing at a languid pace, her work has been published both in print and online.