Britomart.
Week One.

In this poem, commissioned by Britomart and entitled In This Place, Wellington-based writer Ruby Solly (Kāi Tahu) – she’s also a music therapist and taonga puoro practitioner who has played with artists including Yo-Yo Ma, Trinity Roots and Whirimako Black – contemplates the solitude of self-isolation.

Writer Gina Cole won the Best First Book Award at the 2017 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards for Black Ice Matter, her short story collection. She’s also an Honorary Fellow in Writing at the University of Iowa. In this story, entitled A Mask of Isolations and commissioned by Britomart, she contemplates self-isolation, shopping for her parents, and the comforting sounds of a city gone quiet. 

essa may ranapiri (Ngāti Wehi Wehi, Ngāti Takatāpui, Clan Gunn) is a poet based in Kirikiriroa whose first collection of poems, Ransack, was longlisted for the 2020 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards. This poem, commissioned by Britomart and written in response to the state of lockdown, is entitled Take. 

Carl Shuker is the author of A Mistake, a finalist in the fiction category of this year’s Ockham New Zealand Book Awards. In this fragment from an unpublished novel, the staff of a London medical journal ponder an unspecified social disruption that requires them to work from home. The story is entitled The office was empty.

Writer and poet Tayi Tibble (Ngāti Porou/Te Whānau ā Apanui) won the Best First Book of Poetry Award at the 2019 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards for her collection of poems, Poukahangatus. In this poem, entitled Te Whānau, she ponders the sense of separation that kicked in when some of her iwi decided to close their tribal lines in response to Covid-19.

Rose Lu is a Wellington-based writer and software developer who released her debut collection of essays, All Who Live on Islands, last year. This story, entitled Notes from Mandarin Class, was written in response to Britomart’s commission for a story about the Covid-19 lockdown.