Helen Waaka
Helen Margaret Waaka (Ngāti Whātua, Ngā Puhi, Ngāti Torehina) completed a Graduate Diploma in Creative Writing at Whitireia in 2011. She won the Pikihuia short story award in English in 2011 with her short story’ Hineraumati’. Her stories have featured in the Huia 9,10, 11 and ‘Ngā Hau e Wha - Stories on the Four Winds’ anthologies. Her debut collection of interconnected short stories ‘Waitapu’, published in 2015 by Escalator Press was a finalist in the Te Tuhinga Auaha category of the Ngā Kupu Ora Māori Book Awards in 2016. Helen was awarded a Michael King emerging Māori writer’s residency in 2018 where she completed the first drafts of a novel and sequel to ‘Waitapu.’ Many of her stories draw on her time spent working in Women’s Health exploring issues such as the intergenerational impact of family violence. She currently works part time as a nurse in Tamatea ki Te Matau-a-Māui. She won a CompleteMS Assessment from NZSA in 2021 which she will use to progress her novel. Her days off are spent gardening, reading, biking and spending time with her mokopuna.
Genre:
- Adult Fiction
Skills:
- Public Speaking
- Readings (adults)
- Short Story Writing
Branch:
Central Districts
Location:
Waipukurau
Publications:
Waitapu
In the small rural town of Waitapu, sisters Rowena and Ruby reconnect, Mereata feels the breath of her tipuna by the river and Harriet goes missing from the rest home. 'Waitapu' cracks open the surface of rural tranquility to reveal the heartbreak and kindness underneath. It reveals the small but significant ways we have an impact on each other but it is also about survival and the triumph of kindness. 'Waitapu' is about the neighbours we think we know and takes us inside their lives.
'Waitapu' a collection of interconnected short stories was published in 2015 by Escalator Press
'Real, authentic, close to the bone' - Reina Whaitiri