Author(s): Anahera Maire Gildea

NZ Poetry

Sedition is Anahera's long-awaited first full-length volume of poetry. Comprising a significant body of previously unpublished work, Sedition represents a vital political intervention in the poetic landscape of Aotearoa. 

The work ranges and rages through generations, taking in a mother's anguish and a daughter's hunger for justice. Born of lava, this poetry responds to and resists the commodification of culture and whenua, and the perversity of everyday acts of neocolonisation. 

The waves and howls of Sedition elevate the modern individual and collective experience to the level of the epic. This is poetry that experiences trauma and yet takes the deep time required to untangle its threads. Anahera weaves life anew in a pattern that honours trauma but does not replicate its power. Anahera’s acclaimed poetry, short stories, essays and reviews have been published and anthologised nationally and internationally for nearly two decades. Her work is taught in universities and schools, and she herself is a teacher, mentor and a highly-respected literary reviewer and commentator. Despite interest from publishing houses, Anahera has been resistant to entering the market place. Establishing Taraheke | BushLawyer, with #landbackthroughlit at its core, has opened a pathway that was previously an impasse.  

"Anahera's poetry is a fire that fuels almost everyone she encounters" ―Hinemoana Baker