Alice Te Punga Somerville Photo: supplied
Photo: supplied
Māori writer and scholar Alice Te Punga Somerville has launched her first poetry collection from her new home - in Canada.
She has several academic books to her name but Always Italicise - How to write while colonised is a personal account of racism experienced in and out of academic institutions, and her fears for her baby daughter being brought up in Aotearoa.
'Always italicise foreign words', was advice from a friend, and you'll find that in Alice's poems, English is in italics, Māori is not.
Alice talks to Lynn Freeman about the collection, inspired by an experience she had at a writer's festival.
Always Italicise - how to write while colonised by Alice Te Punga Somerville is an Auckland University Press publication.
