Winner, 2010 NZSA Jessie Mackay Award for Best First Book of Poetry

The judging panel found Marsh's collection exhilarating: "The poems are sensuous but strong, using lush imagery and clear rhythms and repetitions to power them forward."

Touching on the poet's community, ancestry, influences, and history, this debut collection of poetry lives up to the meaning behind the artist's name—“writer of tales.” The featured verse is sensuous but strong, using lush imagery, clear rhythms, and repetitions to power it forward. With a unique Pacific lyricism, this compendium is structured in three sections that showcase different strengths, from personal poems and political and historical verse to those already destined to become classics. Fighting against historical injustices and exploring the ideas of identity and story—especially those associated with the afakasi or half-caste experience in a postcolonial world—this compilation will gratify fans of poetry everywhere.

Selina Tusitala Marsh

Softcover 72 pp.