JANUARY / CHRIS TSE is the author of three poetry collections published by Auckland University Press, the most recent of which is Super Model Minority. In 2022 he was named the 13th New Zealand Poet Laureate.
FEBRUARY / RENAE WILLIAMS is an Aotearoa writer and performer with roots stretching from Taranaki, through to Horowhenua and Wellington. She published a book of poetry called Butter on Toast the Next Morning with 5ever Books in March 2023, has a few poems hanging from the walls at cafes, and claims to know the secret to a perfect hash brown.
MARCH / RICHARD VON STURMER is a New Zealand writer. His most recent book is Walking with Rocks, Dreaming with Rivers: My Year in the Waikato (Titus Books, 2023). He is well-known for writing the lyrics of ‘There is No Depression in New Zealand,’ which has become the country’s alternate national anthem.
APRIL / CRAIG FOLTZ has tasted the thickness of clouds and gravitates towards places where the small things live.
MAY / DAVID MERRITT is a poet with a broad, strong back, well suited for gardening, driving old Landrovers and reinventing the economics of poetry. He makes publications of poems from recycled Readers Digest Condensed Books covers and banana box cardboards, often in public places on a footpath benchseat or from the back of his car.
JUNE / ANA ITI (Te Rarawa, Pākehā) is a visual artist currently based in Te Matau-a-Maui Hawkes Bay. She works across sculpture, video, and text.
JULY / HERA LINDSAY BIRD is a poet and writer currently based in Dunedin.
AUGUST / CADENCE CHUNG is a poet, student, composer, and musician from Te-Whanganui-a-Tara, currently studying at the New Zealand School of Music. Her debut poetry book anomalia was published in April 2022 with Tender Press. She can be found weeping in antique stores.
SEPTEMBER / AMBER ESAU is a Sā-Māo-Rish (Ngāpuhi / Manase) writer of things from Tāmaki Makaurau. She is a poet, storyteller, and professional bots. Always vibing at a languid pace, her work has been published in print and online.
OCTOBER / DOMINIC HOEY is a poet, author and small dog owner in Tāmaki Makaurau, Aotearoa. He’s released two best selling novels and written a million love poems. Through his Learn To Write Good writing course, Dominic has taught thousands of students how to think dyslexic. He also works with rangatahi through the Atawhai program.
NOVEMBER / REBECCA HAWKES is a precocious princelet among painter-poets. Her first book Meat Lovers (2022) remains on the menu, with chapbook sides of Softcore Coldsores (AUP New Poets 5, 2019) and Hardcore Pastorals (Cordite 2021). She would love to read your poems too—send to Sweet Mammalian when subs are open.
DECEMBER / YA-WEN HO is a letterpress printmaker, graphic designer and poet living in Matairangi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara. A Taipei-born New Zealander, she works bilingually between Mandarin and English, merging the two languages in performance.