Moata McNamara reads her flash fiction ‘Kahu’ in te reo Māori and English

Sound and Fury: Translating meaning

Moata McNamara (Ngāpuhi) has been gifted two main languages: English, the language of daytime, of Mother, school and neighbours in her younger days. And Māori, the Father tongue of evening, night, adventures. Her dad would tell old stories, sing waiata to put her to sleep. She grew up with a love of languages, of difference. This has carried to an extensive art practice and to writing. After many years in academia she now enjoys a growing writing practice, with recent works published in Flash Frontier and At The Bay/I Te Kokoru.

Ian Wedde reads his poem ‘Tree house’

A Kind of Shelter Whakaruru-taha

Ian Wedde is a poet, fiction writer, critic and art director. His most recent publications are The Reed Warbler (2020) and The Little Ache — a German notebook (2021). He says of his poetry, ‘Most of my poems are concerned with how we live, how we should live, and are political in these senses. At the same time I think I seldom tell; I enquire.’ He lives in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland.

Jana Grohnert reads Anne Weber in German, French and English

Sound and Fury: Translating meaning

Jana Grohnert is a freelance translator from English and German into German and English. She translates fiction for adults and children, and occasionally poetry. She has a Bachelor’s in Linguistics and Spanish from the University of Cape Town, South Africa, and a Master’s in Intercultural Communication and Applied Translation from Te Herenga Waka – Victoria University of Wellington, where she is currently a PhD candidate in Literary Translation Studies. Her current research focuses on bi-directionality in translation and the translation of bilingual literature.

Reihana Robinson reads ‘Inside/ Outside: what to see’

A Kind of Shelter Whakaruru-taha

Following a career in teaching and art education in Wellington, Reihana Robinson threw it all away for a life of homesteading, writing, art and environmental research, and living off grid in the Coromandel. She was the inaugural recipient of the Te Atairangikaahu Poetry Award and was selected for AUP’s New Poets 3 in 2008. Reihana has held artist residencies at the East West Center in Hawaii and at the Anderson Center, Minnesota. Reihana’s published poetry books are Aue Rona (Steele Roberts, 2012), a reimagining of the Māori myth of Rona and the moon; and Her Limitless Her (Mākaro Press, 2018). She is also author of The Killing Nation, New Zealand’s State-Sponsored Addiction to Poison 1080 (Off  the Common Books, 2017).

David Howard reads his poem ‘View finder’

Storytelling outside the square

David Howard is the author of Rāwaho: the Completed Poems (Cold Hub Press, 2022) and the editor of A Place To Go On From: the Collected Poems of Iain Lonie (Otago University Press, 2015). Poems from his last four volumes have appeared in Best New Zealand Poems. In 1989 David co-founded (with the fiction writer Sandra Arnold) the literary quarterly Takahe; in 1990 he co-founded the Canterbury Poets Collective. David is a professional pyrotechnician who has worked as SFX supervisor for acts such as Janet Jackson and Metallica. His personal website is: www.davidhowardpoet.com

Mikaela Nyman reads her poem ’Sen följer tystand’ in Swedish and English

Sound and Fury: Translating meaning

Mikaela Nyman is an editor and writer of fiction, non-fiction and poetry in English and Swedish. Her essay on, and translation of, New Zealand poet Helen Heath’s work was published by Ellips in Finland in 2022. She is widely anthologised, most recently in No Other Place to Stand (2022) and Madness: a world poetry anthology (2023), and was writer in Residence for Massey University and Palmerston North City in 2021. Also in 2021, she was co-editor of Sista, Stanap Strong! A Vanuatu Women’s Anthology (Te Herenga Waka Press). This poem from Nyman’s first poetry collection När vändkrets läggs mot vändkrets (2019), nominated for the Nordic Council Literature Prize 2020. The poet has translated it from Swedish into English. The English version, ‘And then there’s silence’, was published in World Literature Today, Autumn 2021, in a special issue on translation.

Maggie Yang reads her 2023 longlisted story Cherry Red

Youth storytelling around the world

Maggie Yang is eighteen years old and enjoys exploring the vivid, heightened moments of life through stories.

Roberta Beary reads her haibun ‘After a long absence’

Storytelling outside the square

Roberta Beary’s poetry and fiction are widely published and anthologized. Their awards include Bridport Prize for Poetry and Touchstone Award for Individual Haibun. They have published several poetry books, including The Unworn Necklace (Snapshot Press), a haiku best seller and Poetry Society of America finalist, and Deflection (Accents), their prize-winning haibun collection, honored by the Haiku Society of America, the Haiku Foundation, and the Eric Hoffer Awards. They are the longtime haibun editor for Modern Haiku and co-author of the craft book, Haibun: A Writer’s Guide (Ad Hoc). Born in New York City, they divide their time between the USA and Ireland with their husband, Frank Stella.

Anna Foster reads her poem ‘Viola’

Sound and Fury: Translating meaning

Anna Heraskina Foster is a Ukrainian-born poet and author currently living in Auckland. Her work has been published in The New Review (NY), SHO (Kyiv) and SNOB (Moscow). She has been a participant and winner of competitions at literary festivals such as the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival (Bali), Pushkin in Britain,Kyiv Laurels and many others. Together with her husband Alexander Foster she is working on a collaborative project of poetry and painting ‘Across Oceans’.

Ellie Zhou reads her 2023 longlisted story, ‘Homeland’

Youth long-listed readers

Ellie Zhou is a fourteen-year-old St. Andrew’s College student in Christchurch, New Zealand. She loves netball, her guitars, and her friends, and has a deep appreciation for great music.