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Jennifer Cheuk
2023 Festival Guest Curator
Jennifer Cheuk is a mixed-Hong Kong Chinese writer, editor, and artist. She is the Founder and Editor in Chief of Rat World, an independent print magazine and collective based in Tamaki Makaurau. Rat World is all about showcasing underground and underrepresented voices in our community. Jennifer is also highly involved in the theatre community as a reviewer, and has just staged a reading of her first script as part of Proudly Asian Theatre’s Fresh Off The Page programme. Her creative work is centred on alternative forms of storytelling, uplifting mixed-ethnicity stories, and small press publishing. Jennifer is currently working on a publication and online archive celebrating the creative work of mixed-heritage artists in Aotearoa.
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Ruby Macomber
Robert Lord Writers Cottage Young Writer in Residence 2023
Ruby Macomber is a fierce fan of fried bread and Pink V. She navigates multiple indigenous and diasporic identities in her whakapapa to Rotuma (Motusa), Taveuni, Ngāpuhi, Scotland and Germany. She is a multi-disciplinary storyteller of te Moana-Nui-a Kiwa. Her mahi features in Landfall, Metro, Pantograph Punch, a fine line, Sweet Mammalian, Auckland Museum online, Starling, Signals, Kete Books, Awa Wāhine, and Poetry Snaps Podcast. She was a recipient of a 2022 NZYWF Starling micro-residency and is a part of the inaugural Youth Movement Fund, People Against Prisons Aotearoa and facilitates Te Kāhui. The kaupapa has engaged over 300 rangatahi in Corrections and communities around the premise that opportunities for creative expression should be equitable and accessible. She advocates for prison abolition, diasporic identity, and Indigenous creative expression. Ruby is currently working on a collection exploring Rotuman diasporic experiences in Aotearoa and interrogates the intersection between arts and activism in the lead-up to the 2023 General Election.
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Abby Howells
Abby Howells is comedian and writer originally from Dunedin. Abby's work as a playwright includes Benedict Cumberbatch Must Die, 28 Days: A Period Piece, Attila the Hun and WHITE MEN. She has received writing commissions from a number of organisations including The New Zealand Science Festival, The Dunedin Arts Festival, Young and Hungry and Radio New Zealand. In 2019 Abby received the Peter Harcourt Award for Most Promising Playwright at the Wellington Theatre Awards and in 2021 her play WHITE MEN received a nomination for ‘Best New New Zealand Play’.
Abby’s solo comedy show HarleQueen premiered at the NZ Fringe Festival and has had subsequent seasons in the Dunedin Fringe, Adelaide Fringe, Little Andromeda, the NZ Comedy Festival and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. The show won the weekly ‘Best Comedy’ award and the ‘Emerging Artist’ award at the Adelaide Fringe, ‘Best Comedy’ at the Dunedin Fringe and the ‘Festival Director’s Choice’ at the 2021 NZ Comedy Festival.
She currently resides in Auckland where she works as a comedian and writer. She has performed on 7 Days, Guy Montgomery's Guy Mont-Spelling Bee and Shortland Street. Abby is the recipient of the 2023 Billy T James award for her show La Soupco.
She currently resides in Auckland where she works as a comedian and writer. She has performed on 7 Days, Guy Montgomery's Guy Mont-Spelling Bee and Shortland Street. Abby is the recipient of the 2023 Billy T James award for her show La Soupco.
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Allan Xia
Allan Xia is a 1.5 generation Chinese New Zealand artist working across illustration, comics, and video games. He is the founder/director of CHROMA, an indie arts label that celebrates original works from Aotearoa and international creators. Since 2013, CHROMA has hosted Chromacon, a biennial festival that celebrates the independent arts through exhibition, awards, symposiums, masterclasses and more.
Over the years, Allan has spearheaded and been a member of various international exchanges to foster collaboration with creative industries and communities globally. His kaupapa lies in uplifting Aotearoa creatives, championing their original independent works to gain recognition and success both in New Zealand and across the globe.
Over the years, Allan has spearheaded and been a member of various international exchanges to foster collaboration with creative industries and communities globally. His kaupapa lies in uplifting Aotearoa creatives, championing their original independent works to gain recognition and success both in New Zealand and across the globe.
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Annabelle Parata Vaughan
Annabelle Parata Vaughan (Kāi Tahu) is an Ōtepoti-based writer, journalist and academic who currently serves as the Culture and Politics Editor for Critic Te Ārohi, alongside being a freelance writer. She holds a Masters of Politics from the University of Otago, and is currently pursuing a second Masters in Media, Film and Communication Studies also at Otago. She is predominantly interested in writing about music and entertainment culture, indigenous affairs, social movements, foreign affairs, and communicating academia to everyday audiences.
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Bronwyn Wallace
Bronwyn is an Ōtepoti based creative, who has been producing theatre for the past thirteen years. She studied Theatre and Gender Studies at the University of Otago before taking on the role of Artistic Director for Dunedin-based Counterpoint Productions. Bronwyn has since travelled overseas to complete a Masters in Event Management. She returned to Aotearoa on the eve of the pandemic and re-connected with Marea Colombo, a previous cast-mate in the Discharge comedy troupe. The pair have since created Late Bloomers, a local award-winning company, and are currently creating their third piece, and prepping a tour to Adelaide Fringe. Bronwyn is passionate about writing, and creating work that prioritises progressive, homegrown stories.
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Claudia Jardine
Claudia Jardine is the author of bestselling poetry collection BITER (AUP, 2023) and the Ōtautahi Poetry Slam champion of 2022. In 2021 she was a creative resident at Te Matatiki Toi Ora and a micro resident at Verb Wellington. Her Master of Arts degree is in Classics, for which she won a Marsden Grant for Masters scholarship and the 2020 Alex Scobie Research Prize for her thesis on intertextuality in the Alexiad. Her first chapbook, The Temple of Your Girl, was published in AUP New Poets 7 (2020). In 2019 she independently released the North EP, and her first single topped the charts on RDU’s Te Ahi Top Ten and hit #3 on The Student Radio Network’s Top 10. Because it's a FIFA World Cup year, she is also going to state that as a teenager she played football at a regional level (one never gets to mention these things at a literary festival).
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Daniel Allan
Dan spent his formative years as a member of the Court Jesters improvisation troupe between 2003 and 2009. He was lucky to take part in the developmental opportunities provided by the Court Theatre, including workshops with Keith Johnstone, Patti Stiles, Miranda Harcourt and Tom McRory. Dan studied with ZenZenZo physical theatre company in Brisbane in 2009. Moving to Nelson in 2010, he and his wife Lisa formed Body in Space theatre company and inaugurated a series of theatrical performances and events, including the Nelson Fringe Festival. For six years, Dan directed the improv wing of Body in Space, which performed regularly with their flagship show The Deep End. Lisa and Dan’s various activities culminated in them winning the 'Nelson Mail: Nelsonians of the Year for Art' in 2015. Dan has taught improvisation skills to a wide variety of groups and ages, from primary students to business leaders in India. He has invented multiple performance formats including Into the Light, The Map, and Masterfool and presented work at the New Zealand Improv Festival seven times. He was the Drama teacher at Garin College between 2015 and 2020. Currently, Dan is a candidate for an MFA at Otago University and is a member of Improsaurus.
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Eamonn Tee
Eamonn Tee is a Auckland based poet and writer of both Cook Island Māori and Pākehā descent. His work has been published by The Spinoff, Phantom Billstickers, and Minarets. In 2023, Eamonn graduated from the University of Auckland with a Masters of Creative Writing, and a BA (Hons) in Media and Communication
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Eleri Harris
Eleri Harris (she/her) is an Eisner award-winning cartoonist, journalist and editor working on Ngunnawal Country in Australia’s national capital. Her non-fiction history, science and reportage comics have been exhibited and published all over the world. For a decade she was Features Editor at US-based comics website and magazine, The Nib. Eleri was proud to be co-director of the Comic Art Workshop when the team received a 2020 Platinum Australian Comic Art Award for outstanding contributions to Australian comics. She loves nerding out over fancy drawings and building sweet comics communities.
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Hailey Xavier
Hailey is a Malayali Queer person based in Ōtepoti. Their trades of choice are pastel, prose/journaling, and occasionally poetry. Hailey advocates for community justice and has a background in climate justice. Recently they contributed to a collective document for InsideOut Kōaro which shaped the respectful relationships programme Aro ki te Hā. They also sit on the Youth Movement Fund Board. Currently, they co-chair an advisory group for the national strategy against family and sexual violence and they study social and community work at Otago university.
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Isla Huia
Isla Huia (Te Āti Haunui a-Pāpārangi, Uenuku) is a te reo Māori teacher, writer and musician. Her work has been published in journals such as Catalyst and Awa Wāhine, and her debut collection of poetry, Talia, was released in May 2023 with Dead Bird Books Publishers. She has performed at the national finals of Rising Voices Youth Poetry Slam and the National Poetry Slam, as well as at Christchurch’s Word Festival. Isla can most often be found writing in Ōtautahi with FIKA Collective, and Ōtautahi Kaituhi Māori.
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Jackson McCarthy
Jackson McCarthy is a poet and musician from Auckland currently studying in Wellington. He was a finalist for the Schools Poetry Award 2021. His work has been published in Starling, Landfall, Sweet Mammalian, Bad Apple, and elsewhere. @jrtmccarthy.
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Jamiema Lorimer
Jamiema Lorimer is a Pākehā Filipino journalist and writer based in О̄tepoti Dunedin. She is a staff writer for Critic Te А̄rohi and has been a contributor to Rat World and Newzician magazines.
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Janaye Henry
Janaye Henry (Ngāti Kahi ki Whangaroa) has been making waves in the comedy scene since 2017. She was in an improv troupe in Wellington for numerous years and self defines as a clown by nature but a comedian by nurture. She has completed three theatre in education tours in schools and is obsessed with using humour to talk about all kinds of kaupapa. She has written for The Spinoff, Have You Been Paying Attention, Ahikāroa and various other kaupapa. She was a 2023 Billy T nominee and curated the first wāhine Māori line up comedy show.
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Jörg Bendt
Jörg is a German immigrant living in Ōtepoti for the past 13 years. He has been involved in various local cultural endeavours over the year. Jörg regularly helps promote local events by putting up posters. He’s also a passionate musician.
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Joshua Santospirito
Joshua Santospirito is a multimedia artist and award winning graphic novelist living in a veggie patch in Nipaluna/Hobart, Lutruwita/Tasmania. He has had comics published in Rat World, Meanjin, Island, The Suburban Review and other magazines. He was a past director of the Comic Art Workshop, has mentored many comic artists in Australia. His third graphic novel The Islands Where We Left Our Ancestors will be coming out through Scribe in mid 2024.
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Josiah Morgan
Josiah Morgan (he/him, Kāi Tahu, Ngāti Maniapoto) is a performer and author based in Ōtautahi. His current practice engages with the relationship between labour and artistic output, though he is also interested in the intersection between identity and action. In Aotearoa, his work has appeared in The Spinoff, Landfall, Out Here, eel magazine, Aotearoa Yearbook, Mayhem, and more. He has appeared in the live poetry performance extravaganza Show Ponies and has performed full-length theatrical adaptations of his works Inside the Castle and Circles at Little Andromeda.
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Kii Small
Kii is a creative entrepreneur who is the co-founder and co-host behind Coalesce and the Unpack podcast. Originally hailing from Kaitaia, Kii's writing focuses on personal essays and vulnerable storytelling. He was first published in Salient Magazine in 2018 and became the co-editor in 2019. Kii was recently named an Obama Leader in 2023 for his work across Aotearoa in the last decade.
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Libby Whittaker
Libby Whittaker is a New Zealand writer and doctor, now living in Ōtepoti (Dunedin) after growing up in Whangaparāoa, Auckland. When she's not at work, she enjoys writing poetry and children's stories. Her more recent work includes a children's picture book (Eye Spyclops, 2023) and a small poetry collection (In the Company of Daisies, 2022).
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Louise Wallace
Louise Wallace is the author of four collections of poetry with Te Herenga Waka University Press. Her most recent book, This Is A Story About Your Mother, was released in May of this year. Louise is the founder and editor of Starling, and was the editor of Ōrongohau | Best New Zealand Poems 2022. She lives on the Otago Peninsula with her family.
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Lucy Pollock
Lucy Pollock (Ōtepoti) is a multifaceted musician who performs as the alter-egos beet-wix and sir queen. beet-wix is an electronic project consisting of songs written on a Nintendo DS, contrasted with sir queen where Lucy presents a more typical songwriting approach, merging elements of classical piano and folk guitar. Lucy has also been on two nationwide tours fronting the bands Porpoise and RIOT GULL, whose music you can listen to on bandcamp or Spotify.
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Marea Colombo
Marea Colombo has been making things up for as long as she can remember. In 2014, she discovered that she could capitalise on this skill and become an improviser. She has been Improvising with Improsaurus for over 10 years and is currently the Artistic Director of the troupe. Colombo has taught improvisation extensively throughout New Zealand and has used her skill in the area to work with medical doctors, museum guides and consulting firms to find ways non-improvisers can use these skills to thrive in their day-to-day life. Marea finished her PhD in social psychology in 2018 and can academically confirm that all humans can and should improvise. In addition to improvisation, Colombo is the co-founder of the production company Late Bloomers with Bronwyn Wallace. Together, the pair have developed new works that have received extensive praise including winning Best Emerging Company, NZ Fringe Tour Ready Award and Best Performer. Colombo truly believes that improvisation is at the heart of all that is fun and joyous in the world.
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Naomii Seah
Naomii Seah (she/they) is a writer, poet and creative from Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland. Her words have appeared in Starling, Overcom, Takahē, The Spinoff and The Pantograph Punch, among others.
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Neal Curtis
Neal Curtis is Professor of Media and Screen Studies in the Faculty of Arts at The University of Auckland. He has published widely in the areas of critical theory, political theory and comics studies. His last book was Hate in Precarious Times: Mobilising Anxiety from the Alt-Right to Brexit (IB Tauris, 2021). He is currently writing a book called Comics and Communication: Graphic Storytelling from Activism to Science. He now primarily considers himself a comics scholar with an interest in everything from superheroes to Graphic Medicine.
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Olivia Wright
Olivia Wright is a postgraduate MBChB student at the University of Otago who enjoys oversharing. She contributes creative non-fiction pieces to Rat World magazine and sometimes picks up an anatomy textbook. If you don't find her reading or writing, she's probably procrastinating either of the two.
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Piupiu Maya Turei
Piupiu Maya Turei likes to have fun making things with sweet people. Sometimes it’s making music with GJvB in E-Kare, sometimes it’s making exhibitions at her gallery space Tini Whetū Project Space, sometimes entirely different! Regardless, she lives her life actively exploring Te Ao Māori.
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Sam Brooks
Sam Brooks is an award-winning and prolific playwright and journalist, noted for his queer and political work. He won the Bruce Mason Playwriting Award, New Zealand's most prestigious award for playwriting, and his plays include Burn Her, Riding in Cars with (Mostly Straight) Boys and Wine Lips. Most recently, he completed a residency at the Michael King Writers Centre to complete a first draft of his new work, This is My Story of Us, and won the Dean Parker Adaptation Award at the Adam Awards for his queer adaptation of Jane Austen’s Emma, Em. As a journalist, he is currently the Staff Feature Writer at The Spinoff, covering topics as diverse as arts and culture, gaming, entertainment and politics.
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Sara Hirsch
Sara Hirsch is a London-grown poet and educator now based in New Zealand. A former UK Slam Champion, winner of the European Slam in Madrid and BBC Slam Finalist, Sara regularly performs and teaches poetry around the world. Their debut poetry collection Still Falling was published in 2016 with Burning Eye Books and they have since released a second collection Louder Than Words, with their imprint, BX3. Sara’s poetry has been published in four continents - in journals such as Poetry New Zealand, The Shanghai Literary Review, Magma and Takahē and in anthologies from The Emma Press, Spoken Word London and Burning Eye Books. Sara is a TEDx speaker, was third ranked in the world poetry slam championships and is the co-founder of Motif Poetry. www.sarahirsch.co.uk @sarsbars89
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Shima Jack
Shima Jack is the founder and one of the coordinators of the Dunedin Youth Writers Association. She has placed nationally in poetry and short-story competitions, including the Secondary Schools Division of the Sargeson Short Story Prize in 2021 and 2022. She is passionate about building a space for art created by the young people of Dunedin.
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Thabiso Sibanda
Born in Zimbabwe and raised in the UK and Aotearoa, Thabi combines his commerce and science degrees with a passion for creative storytelling. After spending two years in consultancy at Deloitte, Thabi left to pursue his creative passions - co-founding Coalesce - a storytelling production company. Through Coalesce, he co-hosts Unpack (dissects culture and history through the comment section on social media), and produces PhD: Unpacked (making academic research more accessible by interviewing PhD authors). Recently, Thabi was nominated for Wellingtonian of the Year in the Education category, after PhD: Unpacked was nominated for podcast of the year in the Education Category in 2022.
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Vira Paky
Vira Paky is a first-generation Congolese-Kiwi storyteller, raised and based in Tāmaki Makaurau. She is a Community Engagement specialist with extensive engagement experience in mental health and civics advocacy, and refugee youth support. She continually works alongside NGOs, local and central government with the overall focus to strengthen and amplify the voices of young people. However, her true calling lies in storytelling, where she acts as an emerging poet, playwright, and arts programmer.
Currently, she serves as the Programming Co-ordinator at Basement Theatre where she curates and fosters a platform for artistic expression that resonates with diverse creative communities within Tāmaki Makaurau. Her belief in the profound power of art for driving transformative social change fuels her work as a politically engaged storyteller. Through her art and advocacy, she weaves together the threads of creativity, compassion, and activism, leaving an indelible mark on the local communities that she engages with.
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Will Pudney
Will Pudney is a postgraduate student at Otago Medical School who spends all of his free time writing absolute nonsense. Stories, poems, songs, and most recently the skits/storyline for the Med Revue 2023 stage production
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Xiaole Zhan
Xiaole Zhan is a Chinese-New Zealand writer and composer currently based in Naarm where they are completing their third year of university studies in music composition. They are the winner of the 2023 Landfall Young Writers’ Essay Competition and they were the winner of the National Schools Poetry Award 2019 and the first-equal winner of the 2019 Secondary Schools Division of the Sargeson Short Story Prize. Their musical works have debuted in Canada by the Vancouver Chamber Choir and in London as the Winner of the 2020 Commonwealth International Composition Award. Their name in Chinese, '小乐', means 'Little Happy' but also be read as 'Little Music'.