James Norcliffe is an award-winning poet, novelist and short story writer with work appearing in journals world-wide and translated into several languages. He has published ten collections of poetry, most recently Deadpan (Otago University Press, 2018) and Letter to ‘Oumuamua (Otago University Press, 2023), more than a dozen novels for young people, including the Mallory, Mallory series (Penguin, 2020 and 2021), and a novel, The Frog Prince (Penguin Random House, 2022). His flash fictions have been included in Flash Fiction International (W. W. Norton, 2015) and Breach of All Size(The Cuba Press, 2022). His junior novel The Crate, a ghost story set on New Zealand’s West Coast (Quentin Wilson Publishing) was published last year and the same publisher will bring out Lost City in 2024.

Besides his long list of publications, he was also poetry editor for the Christchurch Press. Many readers will know him from his long-time involvement in takahē magazine. As an editor, he worked with Harry Ricketts and Siobhan Harvey as editor of the major anthology Essential New Zealand Poems – Facing the Empty Page (Godwit/Random, 2014), and he co-edited Bonsai: Best small stories from Aotearoa New Zealand (Canterbury University Press 2018), Ko Aotearoa Tātou | We Are New Zealand, (Otago University Press, 2020) and the annual ReDraft anthology of youth writing (Clerestory Press). He also serves on the Central Committee of National Flash Fiction Day.

In 2022, James was awarded the Prime Minister’s Award for Literary Achievement in Poetry, and in 2023 he was awarded the Margaret Mahy Medal.

His website and blog is here

Rachel Smith writes prose and poetry in Ōtautahi, Aotearoa New Zealand. She has been widely published in journals and anthologies including Landfall, Best Small Fictions, Best Microfiction and Mslexia Best Women’s Short Fiction 2024, and was screenwriter for the feature film, Stranded Pearl (2024).

Rachel was fiction editor for takahē in 2017-18 and contributing editor for Best Microfiction 2021, and her book reviews have appeared in takahē and Landfall Review Online. She placed second in NZ National Flash Fiction Day in 2017, has been short listed in international flash fiction competitions and was a recipient of the NZSA Complete MS Manuscript assessment in 2021.

Rachel lived in the Cook Islands for six years and writes for Bergman Gallery, Cook Islands and Aotearoa New Zealand.

Find Rachel’s writing here and @rachelmsmithwriternz

Mikaela Nyman is an award-winning poet, fiction and non-fiction writer who writes in English and Swedish. In 2024, she was awarded the Robert Burns Fellowship. Born in the autonomous, demilitarised Åland Islands in Finland, she now lives in Taranaki. Collaboration across borders of language, ethnicity, geography and time excites her. She has a long-standing collaboration with writers in Vanuatu. Her two poetry collections in Swedish were nominated for the Nordic Council Literature Prize, in 2020 and 2024 respectively. In 2024, she was awarded a major literature prize by the Swedish Literature Society of Finland for her second poetry collection För att ta sig ur en rivström måste man röra sig i sidled (To get out of a riptide you have to move sideways). 

Mikaela’s novel Sado (2020), a climate fiction novel set in Vanuatu in the aftermath of the devastating Tropical Cyclone Pam in 2015, was followed by Sista, Stanap Strong! A Vanuatu Women’s Anthology (2021), a groundbreaking anthology of writing by three generations of women, which she co-edited with Rebecca Tobo Olul-Hossen. Both books were published by Te Herenga Waka University Press, who are also this year publishing The Anatomy of Sand, Mikaela’s first poetry collection in English. In 2023, she was the poetry judge for the Ronald Hugh Morrieson Literary Prize and co-judge of Micro Madness with Kathy Fish, and she organised Taranaki’s first official National Flash Fiction Day. 

Mikaela is a keen podcaster and host of the Sugar Loafing Arts Cast on Access Radio Taranaki 104.4FM.

Iona Winter is a poet, essayist, storyteller and editor. With four published collections of poetry and hybrid fiction, most recently In the shape of his hand lay a river (2024), she has also seen her work anthologised and shortlisted internationally.  

In 2022, Iona was awarded the CLNZ/NZSA Writers’ Award for A Counter of Moons, due for publication with Steele Roberts Aotearoa in 2025. She is the founder of Elixir & Star Press, an indie press dedicated to the expression of grief in Aotearoa New Zealand.  

Iona’s creative work also includes poems spray-painted on fences, collaborative exhibitions with musicians and mixed-media artists, and performances at numerous festivals locally and abroad. When she’s not writing you’ll probably find her in the garden. Iona lives on Aotearoa New Zealand’s southern West Coast. ionawinter.com

Features Editor

Neema Singh is from Otāutāhi Christchurch and writes poetry and flash fiction. Neema is a first-generation New Zealander of Gujarati Indian descent. Her writing incorporates the use of Gujarati language alongside English. Neema’s work explores themes of identity, culture, language and migration and her writing seeks to shine a light on the ordinary. She is currently developing her first collection of poetry with the working title Hairy Arms.

Neema’s work appears in Te Moana o Reo: Ocean of Languages, edited by Michelle Elvy and Vaughan Rapatahana (2025); Ōtautahi is Flash! (2024); paint me, The New Zealand Poetry Society Anthology, edited by Margaret Moores (2024); white-hot heart, The New Zealand Poetry Society Anthology, edited by Margaret Moores and Janet Newman (2023); A Clear Dawn: New Asian Voices from Aotearoa New Zealand, edited by Paula Morris and Alison Wong (2021); Ko Aotearoa Tātou: We Are New Zealand edited by Michelle Elvy, Paula Morris and James Norcliffe (2020) as well as various work published on NZ Poetry Shelf, edited by Paula Green.

Neema is an experienced secondary school English teacher and is currently Assistant Head of English at Te Aratai College. She is passionate about the power of writing for rangatahi and has established a creative writing programme at Te Aratai College. Neema holds a Master of Creative Writing from the University of Auckland.

Arts Editor

Moata McNamara is a recovering academic, writer and artist living in Whangaparaoa. Coming to creative writing late(ish) in life, her works have been published in Flash Frontier, At the Bay and Best Small Fictions 2023. She also has bilingual works included in Te Moana o Reo | The Language Ocean (The Cuba Press, 2025), and Short!/Poto! (Massey University Press, 2025).

Her artworks have been exhibited in both Aotearoa and Australia and are held in private collections in Aotearoa, France and Italy. She holds a Masters in Art and Design (AUT) and a PhD in Māori Development (AUT).

Having grown up with three languages and a fascination with (mis)translation, Moata continues to write and play with translation between languages, including Te reo Māori and French where they occur, for her, amongst English. Often these decisions are sound driven as she has studied and worked with voice and performance  for over two decades.

Currently Moata is tutoring English and Writing in afterschool classes, working on a hybrid memoir and restricting her art practice to fibre and digital drawing, ‘to avoid accumulating so much stuff’.

Proofreader / copy editor

Lynne Hector has worked in administration for the last 25 years. Now that she and her husband have sold their business and moved to Glenorchy, it is time to take on a new challenge. Lynne graduated with Excellence in Proofreading and Editing from the New Zealand Institute of Business Studies and intends to make this her new career.