Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington’s International Institute of Modern Letters (IIML) is delighted to announce the appointment of Talia Marshall as its inaugural Emerging Māori Writer in Residence.

Talia (Ngāti Kuia, Ngāti Rārua, Rangitāne o Wairau, Ngāti Takihiku) is an essayist and poet whose work appears on Newsroom, The Spinoff, Pantograph Punch, Takahē, and in North & South magazine. She has written on a diverse range of subjects, including care work in rest homes, Janet Frame, James Baldwin, her father, and the Mervyn Thompson Affair. Her penetrating and often witty analyses of human behaviour and the richness of her reflections on Māori life and history have won her a cult following.

Talia says, “Thank you to the University, the IIML, and Creative New Zealand for the generous stipend and the opportunity; it will change my writing life.

“I’m a bit embarrassed to have been awarded the residency because I’m 41 which is fairly late to be considered emerging and there is so much talent among the new generation of younger Māori writers. I spent my twenties looking after my son so maybe this is my time and I should be less whakamā about claiming it—I’m working on just being grateful.”

Professor Damien Wilkins, Director of the IIML, says, “When Talia Marshall publishes a piece online, you don’t save the link to read later, you proceed immediately to ‘go’. She’s an astonishing voice in essays and poems, and she’s only just begun to get the attention she deserves.”Talia will receive a stipend of $15,000 to write and research a new prose work for three months.

The Emerging Māori Writer’s Residency joins the Emerging Pasifika Writer’s Residency in the IIML’s range of residencies, further enhancing the range of diverse new talent emerging from the programme.

Te Herenga Waka —Victoria University of Wellington: