Tusiata Avia

Tusiata Avia travelled the world performing her one-woman poetry show based on her first collection, Wild Dogs Under My Skirt. 17 years after its debut, it is a six woman award-winning play, most recently garnering the 2019 Outstanding Production of the Year at Off-Broadway Theatre Soho Playhouse, New York City. Tusiata has held residencies including the CNZ Fulbright Pacific Writer’s Fellowship at University of Hawai’i and the Ursula Bethell Writer in Residence at University of Canterbury and been the recipient of the Janet Frame Literary Trust Award. Tusiata’s other poetry collections are Bloodclot (2009) and Fale Aitu │ Spirit House, short-listed for the 2017 Poetry Award at the Ockham NZ Book Awards. This year Tusiata received a Member of the NZ Order of Merit for services to poetry and the arts, and she is launching her new collection, The Savage Coloniser Book, at WORD.