40 books published

Vaughan Rapatahana (Te Ātiawa) commutes between homes in Hong Kong, Philippines and Aotearoa New Zealand. He is widely published across several genre in both his main languages, te reo Māori and English and his work has been translated into Bahasa Melayu (Malay), Italian, French, Mandarin.

Additionally, he has lived and worked for several years in the Republic of Nauru, PR China, Brunei Darussalam and the Middle East.

He earned a Ph. D from the University of Auckland with a thesis about Colin Wilson and writes extensively about Wilson, including his collected works about Wilson, More than the Existentialist Outsider (Paupers Press, Nottingham, UK, 2019.) He is acknowledged as a leading expert as regards the English author, writing several pieces for Philosophy Now, as just one example, and has lectured on him at the biennial Wilson conferences held in the UK. and will do so once more in 2020. He has presented on Wilson at the Australian Existentialist Society in Melbourne.

Rapatahana also has qualifications from several other universities, including in te reo Māori, Education, and Special Needs Resource Teaching.

Rapatahana is a critic of the agencies of English language proliferation and the consequent decimation of indigenous tongues, inaugurating and co-editing English language as Hydra and Why English? Confronting the Hydra (Multilingual Matters, Bristol, UK, 2012 and 2016) as well as several book chapters and academic papers as pertaining. 2019, for example, saw his chapter about the dominant and domineering status of English in Aotearoa New Zealand, published in English in The South (Eduel, Brazil.)

Rapatahana has had two well-reviewed novels published - Toa (Atuanui Press, NZ, 2012) and Novel (Rangitawa Press, NZ, 2018.) He has had several short stories published - in Hong Kong SAR, Thailand, USA, Aotearoa New Zealand.

He is also a poet, with seven collections published in Hong Kong SAR; Macau; Philippines; USA; England; France; India (ngā whakamatuatanga/interludes was published by Cyberwit, Allahabad, 2019) and Aotearoa New Zealand. Atonement (University of Santo Tomas Press, Manila) was nominated for a National Book Award in Philippines (2016); he won the inaugural Proverse Poetry Prize the same year; and was included in Best New Zealand Poems (2017.)

He has been highly placed and shortlisted in several other poetry and short story competitions, an earlier draft of Novel was longlisted for the inaugural Michael Gifkins Prize, while his poems have been published in a myriad of anthologies (see as just one example Te Puna Wai Kōrero AUP, 2014) journals, magazines et al in several countries globally. He also is a reviewer and critic of both literature and philosophy and has been well-published in these roles in several publications in several countries, from Landfall to Asian Review of Books.

He writes a series of commentaries pertaining to Aotearoa New Zealand poetry for Jacket 2 (University of Pennsylvania, USA): a 2015–2016 series and again during 2018-2019.

Rapatahana was also the first poetry editor for MAI Review Journal; has appeared in several poetry readings both within Aotearoa New Zealand, such as the University of Auckland Lounge readings where he also is MC, and well beyond; and been recorded and interviewed widely, as for example on the NZEPC Six-Pack Sound site; The Guardian newspaper in October 2019 and BBC Radio Four, U.K.; Radio New Zealand (Jesse Mulligan, Kim Hill in November 2019) and so on. His poem tahi kupu anake, was included in a submission to the United Nations Forum on Minority Issues by the pre-eminent indigenous language supporter, Tove Skutnabb-Kangas, also in November 2019.

More, Rapatahana is both an instigator and editor of not only poetry anthologies but is also a poetry teaching resource author. He instigated and edited Under the Canopy, the first English language compilation of poets in Brunei Darussalam in 1998; Outloud Too, a wide-ranging anthology of Outloud performance poets in Hong Kong SAR in 2014, and in 2019, the first ever compilation of Waikato, New Zealand poets entitled Ngā Kupu Waikato.

His poetry teaching resources have been published in Hong Kong SAR, Brunei Darussalam, Australia, and New Zealand, including the first bilingual (Māori and English) such resource in 2011, Teaching Poetry. In 2019, book three of the series Poetry in Multicultural Oceania has been published by Essential Resources, Christchurch, New Zealand - with a new resource for younger students due at the end of 2019 also. It is entitled Exploring Multicultural Poetry. 2019 then, has seen five books published.

In September 2019, he participated in the World Poetry Recital Night in Kuala Lumpur. Malaysia and is included in the subsequent anthology, Puisi Dalam Zaman Tidak Puitas, Poetry in a Non-Poetic Era.

In October 2019, he participated in the Poetry International Festival at The Southbank Centre, London, where the launch of the significant compilation Poems from the Edge of Extinction was held, His work is included in this anthology. He also participated in other presentations while there and his work was recorded for BBC Radio Four.

Rapatahana will be participating in The Foundation and Cultural Organization International Academy Orient-Occident, Curtea de Arges, Romania in July 2020.

He is a constantly requested participant in the Writers in Schools scheme throughout Aotearoa New Zealand.

Rapatahana is often called upon as a translator into te reo Māori, as for example in the recent poetry collection Tātai Whetū (Seraph Press, Wellington.)

Rapatahana is one of the few World authors who consistently writes in and is published in te reo Māori – in all of his books and also poetry publications in Aotearoa NZ (for example, Mayhem, Poetry New Zealand, takahē), USA (Antipodes), Canada (The Capilano Review), Australia (Meniscus), U.K. and so on. It is his mission to continue to do so and to push for a far wider recognition of the need to write and to be published in this tongue.