Receiving the 2026 Springboard Award – Mentored by 2024 Katherine Mansfield Menton Recipient Selina Tusitala Marsh

Isla Huia (Te Āti Haunui a‑Pāpārangi, Uenuku) is a te reo Māori teacher and kaituhi from Ōtautahi. Her debut collection of poetry, Talia, was released in May 2023 by Dead Bird Books, and was shortlisted for the Mary and Peter Biggs Award for Poetry at the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards 2024. Her work was also featured in the International Institute of Modern Letters’ Ōrongohau Best New Zealand Poems in both 2023 and 2024, and has been published in journals and anthologies throughout Aotearoa as well. 

Most recently, she has had work included in Shot | Poto (Michelle Elvy and Kiri Piahana‑Wong, Massey University Press), Bulletin 214 (Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū), Takahē Magazine, PŪHIA ii, and Catalyst Literary Journal. In 2025, she was the Writer in Residence at Adelaide City Libraries and Adelaide Context Writers Festival, the Emerging Writer in Residence at the Michael King Centre in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland, and the Te Pane Kākā o Tuwhare Writer in Residence with the Hone Tuwhare Trust in Kākā Point. 

Huia is also a proud member of the team behind Ngā Pukapuka Pekapeka, a small chapbook press based in Ōtautahi that provides publication and performance opportunities for local writers. She is currently working on her second collection of poetry, also to be published by Dead Bird Books in 2026. 

Panel Statement: “Isla is a rare talent – a poet, musician and te reo Māori teacher who is a captivating live performer of her work. Her mesmerising poetry debut Talia is a tribute and tohu to her friend – the artist Natalia Saegusa – who passed away tragically young. Huia’s voice on the page is dexterous, authoritative, funny, wise, and winding. Her poems always convince. Huia has enormous potential; this is just the beginning.”