Wellington-based Samoan student named Emerging Pasifika Writer in Residence

A Wellington-based Samoan student has won a prestigious New Zealand writing award.

Victoria University of Wellington's International Institute of Modern Letters announced Tamara Tulitua as this year's Emerging Pasifika Writer in Residence.

Tulitua traces her lineage through the villages of Lefaga and her writing considers identity and belonging.

The residency will provide her with 15,000 New Zealand dollars over three months and access to a mentor.

She intends to use the residency to work on a collection that mixes prose and poetry as it explores the experiences of tama'ita'i Samoa (Samoan women) in diasporic settings around the world.

     

Photo source kumara vine Caption: Tamara Tulitua