Tina Makereti is a New Zealander of Te Ātiawa, Ngāti Tūwharetoa, Ngāti Rangatahi-Matakore and Pākehā descent. She writes novels, short fiction and creative non-fiction. Her first novel, Where the Rēkohu Bone Sings (Vintage, 2014), has been described as a New Zealand classic and ‘a remarkable first [book that] spans generations of Moriori, Māori and Pākehā descendants as they grapple with a legacy of pacifism, violent domination and cross-cultural dilemmas.’ It was longlisted for the Dublin Literary Award 2016 and won the 2014 Ngā Kupu Ora Aotearoa Māori Book Award for Fiction. Her short story collection, Once Upon a Time in Aotearoa (Huia Publishers 2010), which combines mythological and contemporary stories, also won the Ngā Kupu Ora Māori Book Award for Fiction in 2011. Her story Black Milk won the 2016 Commonwealth Writers Short Story Prize for the Pacific Region.

Tina’s second novel, The Imaginary Lives of James Pōneke, is about a young Māori man who was exhibited in the Egyptian Hall in London in the 1840s. It was published by Penguin Random House New Zealand in 2018, with a UK edition following in 2019. Her new novel, The Mires, sold at auction to Ultimo Press in ANZ for publication in July 2024, and is also forthcoming in the US from HarperVia (2025).

Twitter: @TinaMakereti

Website: tinamakereti.com

Photo credit (c) Lisa Gardiner 

‘The Mires is about the monsters we’ve created and the power we have to stop them. A truly magnificent novel.’ – Shankari Chandran, author of Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens, winner of the Miles Franklin Award

‘As both a writer and a refugee, this book resonates with my experiences, skilfully addressing the link between refugee lives, colonialism and climate change.’ – Behrouz Boochani, author of No Friend but the Mountains

‘An immersive, unnerving novel about the hatred that can rise up out of the locked, curtained rooms in our neighbourhoods, and the comfort that can be found in another’s home. A story about people and the land they share. The memories stored in the water and peat. I read this book with equal measures of worry and hope.’ – Becky Manawatu, author of Auë

‘Made streets I’ve walked a thousand times seem new and strange’ – Damian Barr

‘Like the magical lanterns one of the characters in the novel makes, Makereti beckons her readers through an enchanted doorway into another world, its glimmerings filtered through the marvelling eyes of James Pōneke.’ – New Zealand Book Lovers

‘This book works on many levels – it is a historical love letter to London and to newly-colonised New Zealand, it is a coming of age story, it is a love story. More, as a Pākehā (white) woman, I understood something new about racism and othering, as a queer person I felt myself known. Do yourself a favour, read it.’ – Stella Duffy