HBRW 2022 - Vā: Stories from the Women of the Moana

This groundbreaking work, compiled and edited by award-winning writers Sisilia Eteuati and Lani Wendt Young, is the first of its kind - an anthology of creative fiction from thirty-eight Oceania women writers, including Wahine Māori.
Sisilia sits down with contributor Nafanua Kersel to talk us through the intrigue, fantasy, humour and magic of these beautiful, strong stories.

Sisilia is an award winning writer and poet whose work has been published in various publications across the Pacific including Landfall, The Sapling, Blackmail Press, Samoa Observer and Samoa Planet. Sisilia Eteuati, her children and her poem Mauga features in Mana Moana: Pacific Voices series to amplify and support the Pacific to drive global action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Sisilia has a Masters of Creative Writing from the University of Auckland where she was the recipient of the Sir James Wallace Scholarship based on the strength of her writing portfolio. To support her writing habit Sisilia currently works as a Chief Legal Counsel in a Government Department in New Zealand and is very grateful to have been able to serve the public as a lawyer in Samoa, Australia and now Aotearoa where she lives with her two children.

Nafanua Kersel, 2020 Hawke’s Bay Poetry Slam Champion, writer, reviewer, poet of power. Pōneke raised, Samoan writer Nafanua Kersel lives in Mangatahi, Hawke’s Bay. Here, she raises three free-roam children, adores her ‘aiga and writes about things and stuff - but mostly arts. She is currently studying a Masters in Creative Writing at the International Institute of Modern Letters, Te Herenga Waka and has been published in Vā: Stories by Women of the Moana and Vines: Hawke's Bay's Literary Journal.

We may take photographs and video that may be used in promotional material.