Join us for an unmissable evening with Tina Makereti in conversation with Tīhema Baker.
Tina Makereti (Te Ātiawa, Ngāti Tūwharetoa, Ngāti Rangatahi-Matakore) is an award-winning writer of novels, essays and short fiction. Her latest novel is The Mires, and her essay collection, This Compulsion in Us, was published this year. She is also author of The Imaginary Lives of James Pōneke, Where the Rēkohu Bone Sings and Once Upon a Time in Aotearoa. She is co-editor of Black Marks on the White Page, an anthology that celebrates Māori and Pasifika writing. In 2016 her story ‘Black Milk’ won the Commonwealth Writers Short Story Prize, Pacific region. Tina teaches a Master of Arts Creative Writing workshop at the International Institute of Modern Letters, Te Herenga Waka Victoria University.
Tīhema Baker (Raukawa te Au ki te Tonga, Ātiawa ki Whakarongotai, Ngāti Toa Rangatira) is a writer from Ōtaki. His writing often explores the complex interactions between and within te ao Māori and te ao Pākehā, based on personal and professional experience. His satirical novel Turncoat was longlisted for the Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction at the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards 2024, and his essay New Zealander of the Year placed second in the Landfall Essay Competition 2023. He is also the author of a young adult novel series and various short stories and essays.
