Tayi Tibble (Writing for the Page, 2017)

I learnt to listen to criticism with humility, to trust the intelligence and generosity of my classmates and to have faith in the work and my skill as a writer.

Tayi writes: 'The year was amazing. It was hard and it made you feel stupid and crazy every second week, but every alternate week it was an absolute pleasure and a privilege. It was just so fun getting to hang out with other literary types and talk and gossip and complain seriously about writing and literature for a whole year.

'And my writing developed so much during the course. Early on…my course convener Chris Price said that this course was less about strengthening your voice and more about extending what you could do. So I took that very seriously and tried hard and conscientiously to push myself and extend my craft. I learnt quickly to listen to criticism with humility, to trust the intelligence and generosity of my classmates and to have faith in the work and my skill as a writer. I think in the end it was developing this willingness to experiment, and in return learning to be okay with writing some dodgy embarrassing poems in the process, that resulted in a successful year.'

(excerpted from 'A kind of imaginary collective'; an interview with five writers in Starling #5, with thanks. Read the full interview)

Bio: Tayi Tibble (Te Whānau ā Apanui/Ngāti Porou) was awarded the 2017 Adam Foundation Prize in Creative Writing for the best manuscript in the MA Writing for the Page cohort. That manuscript became her first poetry collection Poūkahangatūs; published by Te Herenga Waka University Press in 2018. It won the Jessie Mackay  Best First Book of Poetry Award. Her second collection, Rangikura, was published by THWUP in 2021 and was shortlisted for the Mary and Peter Biggs Award for Poetry. Both collections have since been published internationally.

Her poetry has appeared in Starling, Landfall, Sport, Pantograph Punch, The Spinoff, Poetry Magazine, The Wireless, and the anthology The Friday Poem: 100 New Zealand Poems (edited by Steve Braunias). In 2023 she became the first Māori poet to be published in The New Yorker.

Read more:

Te Herenga Waka University Press

'Identity Politics' (Poetry Magazine)

'For a cigarette and a blanket' (The Wireless)

'Blood pacts' and 'Kaleidoscopes' (Starling #1 and 2)

'Hoki mai' (The Spinoff)

'Creation Story' (The New Yorker, 3 July 2023)