AUP New Poets 11 by Xiaole Zhan - ISBN: 9781776711710
Paperback
Three unique poets explore family, grief, and connection with piercing beauty.

$24.00

  • Paperback

    104 pages

  • Release Date

    8 May 2025

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Summary

Memoir, myth, and critical theory weave through Xiaole Zhan’s essay-poem ‘Arcadiana’ as they explore their Pakeha-Chinese family. Meanwhile, Margo Montes de Oca’s ‘intertidal’ combines rich, elemental imagery – water, light, colour – with a world of feeling and poetic homage. In an affecting conclusion, J. A. Vili’s ‘Poems Lost During the Void’ pays tribute to family and friends, reaching out beyond grief to show the beautiful intensity of community and connection.

AUP New Poets 1…

Book Details

ISBN-13:9781776711710
ISBN-10:1776711718
Author:Xiaole Zhan, Margo Montes de Oca, J.A. Vili
Publisher:Auckland University Press
Imprint:Auckland University Press
Format:Paperback
Number of Pages:104
Release Date:8 May 2025
Weight:182g
Dimensions:164mm x 224mm x 8mm
Series:AUP New Poets
What They're Saying

Critics Review

AUP New Poets 11 introduces to the world three new poets whose work offers diverse visions of what poetry can be. Xiaole Zhan’s ‘Arcadiana’ showcases an exciting new voice. Using the hybrid form of essay poetry, Zhan explores their cross-cultural family and childhood, weaving in broader themes including history, religion and music. The innovative and clever poems in Margo Montes de Oca’s ‘intertidal’ return to motifs of water, sleep, dreams, time – including geological and evolutionary time – and engage with the work of other writers, such as Virginia Woolf and Louise Glück. And, finally, J. A. Vili is a refreshing new voice whose poems span years. His heartfelt ‘Poems Lost During the Void’ which deeply explore place and community, are often punning and playful, even while dealing with grief and loss.

– Helen Rickerby

About The Author

Xiaole Zhan

Xiaole Zhan (詹小乐) is a Chinese-New Zealand writer and composer based in Naarm. They are the recipient of the 2024 Kat Muscat Fellowship. Awards include the Kill Your Darlings Creative Non-Fiction Essay Prize and the Charles Brasch Young Writers’ Essay Competition. Their work has appeared in Island, The Suburban Review, Landfall, Cordite Poetry Review, Going Down Swinging, Starling and Sweet Mammalian. Their name in Chinese is 小乐 and means ‘Little Happy’ but can also be read as ‘Little Music’.

Margo Montes de Oca is a poet and researcher of Mexican and Pākehā descent living in Te Whanganui-a-Tara. She holds degrees in English literature and in ecology and biodiversity. She was a 2024 Starling writer-in-residence at the New Zealand Young Writers Festival, and her poetry has been published in issues of Starling, Sweet Mammalian, bad apple, Minarets and Mayhem Literary Journal.

J. A. Vili is an Auckland-based poet of Samoan descent whose poetry often advocates for suicide prevention and mental illness support. He dedicates poems to friends and to his children who lost their mother at a young age. Vili holds a bachelor of creative writing. His poems have appeared in Ika journal and Katūīvei: Contemporary Pasifika Poetry from Aotearoa New Zealand (Massey University Press, 2024).

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