Gail Ingram writes from the Port Hills of Christchurch, author of Contents Under Pressure (Pūkeko Publications 2019) and the editor of two anthologies The Unnecessary Invention of Punctuation (NZPS 2018) and after the cyclone (NZPS 2017). Her work has been widely published and anthologised in journals such as Poetry New Zealand, Landfall, The Spinoff, Cordite Poetry Review, Fib Review and Best Small Fictions. She won the Caselberg Prize in 2019 and NZ Poetry Society International Poetry Competition in 2016 and has been finalist for several other international awards, including Poets Meet Politics UK 2018, Flash Fiction Day NZ Micro Madness and the Fish Short Story Competition.

As well editing for Flash Frontier, Gail is managing editor for a fine line, the flagship magazine for NZ Poetry Society. She teaches at Write On: School for Young Writers and holds a Master of Creative Writing (Distinction). More at: https://www.theseventhletter.nz/

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), 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). Forthcoming in 2022 is a junior novel The Crate, a ghost story set on New Zealand’s West Coast (Quentin Wilson Publishing).

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.

His website and blog is here

Vaughan Rapatahana commutes between Hong Kong SAR, Philippines and Aotearoa New Zealand. He is widely published across several genres in Māori, English and other languages, and his work has been translated into Bahasa Malaysia, Italian, French, Mandarin, Romanian and Spanish. Though perhaps best known for his poetry, Vaughan’s bibliography also includes prose fiction, educational material, academic articles, philosophy and language critiques. He experienced a varied career before becoming a writer, working as a secondary schoolteacher, housepainter, storeman, freezing worker, and special education advisor. He was poetry editor of the Māori and Indigenous Review Journal until 2011.

He was a semi-finalist in the Proverse Prize for Literature in 2009 and highly commended in the 2013 erbacce poetry prize (from 6000+ entrants). He won the inaugural Proverse Poetry prize in 2016, the same year as his poetry collection Atonement was nominated for a National Book Award in Philippines. His work has also been featured in Best New Zealand Poems 2017 and Bonsai: Best small stories from Aotearoa New Zealand (2018).

His recent collections of poetry include ināianaei/now (Cyberwit) and mō taku tama (Kilmog Press, Dunedin). This year, Vaughan is working on a new anthology of translated and translingual micros (edited with Michelle Elvy).

More at his New Zealand Book Council page. You can also find him interviewing poets and reviewing new work at jacket2.

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 2020 and Best Microfiction 2019. She was fiction editor for takahe in 2017-18 and contributing editor for Best Microfiction 2021 and writes for Bergman Gallery, Cook Islands.

Rachel placed second in NZ National Flash Fiction Day in 2017 and has been short listed for Bath Flash Fiction Award, Reflex Fiction and TSS Flash Fiction 400. She was a recipient of the NZSA Complete MS Manuscript assessment in 2021 for her novel-in-progress, and more recently has been working on a collaborative film script. Her book reviews have appeared in takahē and Landfall Online Review.

Find Rachel’s writing here. @rachelmsmithnz1 

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Proofreader / copy editor

Lynne Hector has worked in administration for the last 25 years and now that she and her husband have sold their business, they are moving to Glenorchy to live amongst the natural beauty there. Lynne graduated from the New Zealand Institute of Business Studies with a Diploma in Proofreading and Editing and intends to make this her new career. Welcome, Lynne!