Māori Maid Difficult by Nicola Andrews

“He karanga: poems that call out to those who understand and have been yearning to hear a
voice meant for them. He wero: poems that call out those who get in the way. Ancestors,
family, language and land are everywhere – invoked, described, present, pulsing, overlapping – in this stunning collection that speaks from, about, to, and towards Aotearoa. In so many ways Māori Maid Difficult is a first yet it brings to mind generations of Māori poets who have gone before. Smart, sharp, funny, brittle, supple. Giving and refusing. Irreverent and sensitive. Vulnerable and mysterious. Aroha and hahaha and hā. All at the same time. All in the best ways.”

-Alice Te Punga Somerville, winner of the Mary and Peter Biggs Award for Poetry 

Cover image: “Te Arero” by Hiria Anderson
Oil on canvas, 2021
Courtesy the artist and Tim Melville Gallery
Photo: Kallan MacLeod

Nicola Andrews (Māori, Pākehā) is a member of the Ngāti Paoa iwi currently living on Ramaytush Ohlone territory. Their writing practice has been supported by communities including the Kearny Street Interdisciplinary Writers Lab, Kenyon Review Writers Workshop, Rooted & Written, and the Voices of Our Nations Arts Foundation. In 2023, they were awarded the University of Washington Information School Graduate of the Last Decade (GOLD) Alumni Impact Award, and won the AAALS Indigenous Writers Prize for Poetry. Their micro-chap SENTIMENTAL VALUE was published in the 2023 Ghost City Press Summer Series, and their work is forthcoming in several anthologies. In their spare time, they watch dinosaur documentaries with their cat.