Auckland poet Selina Tusitala Marsh has won the First Book of Poetry prize at the National Poetry Awards. Fast-talking PI is a collection of poems put together over a long period of time and launched last year at the University of Auckland’s Fale Pasifika. Selina is the first Pacific Islander to graduate with a PhD in English at the University of Auckland. The book reflects her own focus on issues affecting Pacific communities in New Zealand. “I was getting frustrated with all this negative coverage of Pacific Islanders and wanted to show that we’re not all dole-bludging and underachieving,” she says. “Our community is so much more than that.” Selina has spent the last year encouraging young PIs to get involved with poetry. As the Million Poems for Matariki poet, she has been working with five Otahuhu schools, helping the kids to unleash their own creativity by writing and performing their own poems. The Million Poems for Matariki project culminated in a mass reading by young poets at the Auckland Central Library on National Poetry Day, 30 July 2010. (Story and image adapted from Spasifik Magazine.)
