'Part oracle, part memoralist, Ihimaera is an inspired voice...'
Metro (NZ)
'A writer just doesn’t come out fully formed. A writer is the result of experiences...'
Witi Ihimaera
'The voice on the page is very much the voice of the man: eloquent, endearing, cheeky, somehow proud and humble at the same time, willing to put it all out there.'
NZ Books
Over the weekend we attended the Booksellers Conference and Award Ceremony
Join the kōrero. Two passionate and vibrant anthologies featuring work from some of our finest Māori writers.
As he has been publishing now for 50 years, we emailed some questions about writing to Witi, who answered them on a plane journey.
Writing about the Māori world, both rural and urban, often knocking into the Pākehā status quo, Witi Ihimaera’s writing has always offered a broader view of what New Zealand literature could be – should be – about.
Te Kokorangi is Witi Ihimaera’s lively Matariki story — The Astromancer — translated into te reo Maori by Heni Jacob.
We are proud to present the first of our At Home with Penguin video series, in which we ask some of NZ’s most wonderful authors to talk about life in lockdown – kicking off with Witi Ihimaera on The Whale Rider, neighbourhood walks and why the peace of lockdown might NOT be good for writers’ creativity! With numerous short stories, novels, libretti, plays, memoirs – well over 20 books, plus many more Witi Ihimaera has edited or contributed to – where do you begin? Here is a handy guide from our Fiction Publisher, Harriet Allan: https://bit.ly/3bEL8ks
Witi Ihimaera's Maori Boy takes out the General Non-Fiction Category at the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards
Read the story being discussed on Jesse Mulligan’s show on Radio New Zealand on 26 July 2018