About

THE MĀORI LITERATURE HUB

Wharerangi is a Māori literature hub, with updated information for and about contemporary Māori writers of poetry, fiction and nonfiction.

Paula Morris

MANAGING EDITOR

Paula (Ngāti Wai, Ngāti Manuhiri, Ngāti Whātua) is an award-winning fiction writer, essayist and editor, and the founder of the Academy of New Zealand Literature. The director of the Master of Creative Writing programme at the University of Auckland, Paula also teaches in schools and community projects and has mentored for the NZSA and Te Papa Tupu programme. Paula was the 2019 Katherine Mansfield Menton Fellow, the 2020 NZSA President of Honour and spent five years on the Māori Literature Trust and NZ Book Awards Trust. Her novel Rangatira, fiction winner of the 2012 New Zealand Post Book Awards and Ngā Kupu Ora Book Awards, has been translated into te reo for the Kotahi Rau Pukapuka initiative, to be published in 2022. Currently she is editing an anthology of short stories by contemporary Māori writers.

Hēmi Kelly

TE REO CONSULTANT

Hēmi (Ngāti Maniapoto, Ngāti Tahu–Ngāti Whāoa) is an author, licensed translator, content creator and teacher of te reo Māori who is involved in Māori language planning and revitalisation initiatives in a number of organisations. In 2017, Hēmi translated Witi Ihimaera’s novella Sleeps Standing (Moetū) and the internationally acclaimed novel The Alchemist (Te Ruānuku) by Paulo Coelho in 2020. He is the author of A Māori Word a Day (2018) and A Māori Phrase a Day (2020). Hēmi is the director of Tautika Ltd, a Māori language consultancy, and the creator of Everyday Māori, a social media platform and podcast that shares te reo Māori learning content and offers online classes.

Shelley Burne-Field

RESEARCHER AND WRITER

Shelley (Ngāti Mutunga, Ngāti Rārua) is a fiction writer and graduate of both Te Papa Tupu and the MCW at the University of Auckland. Her career includes serving as a Central Hawke’s Bay District Councillor and working as project manager and programme facilitator for numerous government initiatives and agencies. A finalist in the 2021 Voyager Media Awards, Shelley is a regular writer for e-Tangata. Her nonfiction has been published in the anthology Strong Words (Otago University Press 2021) and her short fiction has appeared on Radio New Zealand, the Newsroom site and in various anthologies, including Huia Short Stories 14 (2021).

Colleen Maria Lenihan

RESEARCHER AND WRITER

Colleen (Te Rarawa, Ngāpuhi) is a fiction writer, screenwriter and photographer, and a graduate of Te Papa Tupu and The Creative Hub. Her writing has appeared in Reading Room, The Pantograph Punch, and the New Zealand Herald; and her first short story collection, Kōhine, will be published by Huia in 2022. Colleen has been awarded a number of residencies: Michael King Writers’ Centre Emerging Māori Writer (2019); Newsroom/Surrey Hotel Winner (2019); and the Dan Davin Literary Foundation (2021). After fifteen years in Tokyo and a year in New York City, Colleen returned to Tāmaki Makaurau in 2016 where she is now based. She currently writes for Ahikāroa, a drama on Māori TV, and Shortland Street.