New book available now.
Giving Birth to my Father makes the 2026 Ockham longlist
Tusiata discusses her new book in The Press
Harry Ricketts reviews Giving Birth to My Father on RNZ
Gina Cole reviews Giving Birth to My Father at Kete Books
Giving Birth to My Father is a Top 10 selling book, Newsroom
One of the best books of the year, says The Spinoff and Nick Ascroft at Newsroom
Where to buy
Tusiata Avia is an award-winning poet, writer and performer from Ōtautahi Christchurch.
Her latest poetry collection, Giving Birth to My Father, is available now.
Tusiata Avia is a Samoan New Zealand poet, writer and performer. Raised by a Samoan dad and Pākehā mum, her roots are both coloniser and colonised.
In her work, she explores racism, hatred and colonisation with vulnerability and unflinching honesty. Confrontational and entertaining, raw and lyrical, disarming and thought-provoking, her poetry speaks from scars and wounds and rage. She has published 5 books of poetry, 5 children’s books, short films, radio documentaries and plays.
“I think it's good for white people to sit and squirm a bit. I mean, we're [brown people] squirming all the time.”
Tusiata Avia
Upcoming Shows
TBC
Frank Sargeson Memorial Lecture
Waikato University
Hamilton
20 September
Performance
Office Bar
Newtown, Wellington
TBA
TBA
TBA
TBA
3 August, 12:15pm
IIML Writers on Mondays: Poetry—What's It For?
Te Papa Tongarewa
Wellington
More Information
Join Tusaita on Substack
“I write about everything, but I also write about the same things again and again: colonisation, racism, being a woman of colour in a world seething with white privilege, being from two very different cultures, the weirdness, beauty and horror of the human condition.”
View the world through the eyes of Tusiata, while supporting her as a writer and creative. Subscribe to her Substack.