CONTRIBUTORS

Selina Tusitala Marsh

Selina Tusitala Marsh is of Samoan, Tuvaluan, English and French descent. She was the first Pacific Islander to graduate with a PhD in English from The University of Auckland and is now a Senior Lecturer in the English Department, specialising in Pasifika literature. She is the co-ordinator of Pasifika Poetry Web, a sister-site of the New Zealand Electronic Poetry Centre. Her first collection, the bestselling Fast Talking PI, won the NZSA Jessie Mackay Award for Best First Book of Poetry in 2010. Her work has been translated into Ukrainian and Spanish and has appeared in numerous forms in schools, museums, parks, billboards, print and online literary journals. Her second collection, Dark Sparring, was also published by Auckland University Press in 2013 and is AUP's first enhanced e-book of poetry. She is currently working on a book 'outing' Pacific Literature's worst kept secret - 12 of its first wave Pacific women poets.

Black Stone Poetry: Vanuatu’s Grace Mera Molisa

Posted on February 1, 2014 by Selina Tusitala Marsh

Black stone is both a figurative and literal reference to the (vanua) of Vanuatu, specifically, its black solidified lava base. Like many Pacific Islands, Vanuatu is founded on dormant and live volcanoes that impact upon the daily reality of its inhabitants. This essay examines the poetry of Grace Mera Molisa and how black stone is deployed as a key metaphor in her work as both poet and politician. Like black stone, Molisa has been a foundational creative and critical force in the formation of Vanuatu as a postcolonial nation, one based on an indelible Ni-Vanuatu spirit.

Posted in ESSAYS, SCHOLARLY | Tagged ,

Floating Ribs

Posted on January 31, 2013 by Selina Tusitala Marsh

for Panya Kraitus and Pitisuk Kraitus The bottom ribs On both sides Of the body Are fragile Easily broken They are Floating ribs If struck By a kick with the foot A knee kick down From above A swinging knee …

Posted in SIX SEATER | Tagged ,