Claudia Jardine’s Late Night Poetry Hour

Airini Beautrais

Airini Beautrais was born in Auckland in 1982. Her debut work of fiction, Bug Week, won Aotearoa New Zealand’s top fiction award, the Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize, at the 2021 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards. She is the author of four collections of poetry, including Secret Heart (VUP, 2006), which won the Jessie Mackay Award for First Book of Poetry at the 2007 Montana New Zealand Book Awards. In 2016 she won the Landfall Essay Prize. Airini is also a science teacher and dance instructor. The Beautiful Afternoon is her first collection of essays.   Credit: Skye Boniface

Claudia Jardine

Faith Wilson

Faith Wilson is an editor, writer, and publisher based in Auckland. She founded Saufo'i Press in 2021 where she publishes poetry books by Moana Pacific authors in Aotearoa. She currently works as a project editor at Penguin Random House NZ. Faith is a former editor at The Pantograph Punch and Tupuranga Journal. She completed an MA in Creative Writing at the IIML in 2014, and has published poetry in local and international publications since.

Robert Sullivan

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. His new collection, Hopurangi / Songcatcher, was launched in Christchurch this year.

romesh dissanayake

romesh dissanayake is a Sri Lankan and Koryo Saram writer, poet and chef from Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington. His work explores ideas of identity, decolonisation and place. romesh's poetry, fiction and essays have appeared in various print and online publications. His chapbook poetry collection, Favourite Flavour House, is featured in AUP New Poets 10 published by Auckland University Press. His first novel, When I open the shop, was the winner of the 2022 Modern Letters Fiction Prize and is published by Te Herenga Waka University Press.