Authors

Thomasin Sleigh is a writer and editor living in Te Whanganui-a-tara Wellington. She has a background in art history and her essays and art criticism have been published widely by galleries, newspapers, and magazines. She has published two previous novels with Lawrence & Gibson, Ad Lib (2014), and Women in the Field, One and Two (2018), both of which look at the way images reflect and contest wider hierarchies and power structures, particularly how women are depicted and understood through art and film.

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Roimata Smail (Ngāti Maniapoto, Tainui, England, Scotland, Ireland) is a lawyer specialising for two decades in Te Tiriti o Waitangi She represented lead claimants in the Waitangi Tribunal inquiry that led to the watershed Hauora Report and the establishment of Te Aka Whai Ora, the Māori Health Authority She also acted on claims about Māori in prison, pēpi and children removed by Oranga Tamariki and the Crown response to Covid-19 as well as representing the first iwi to receive an offer of Customary Marine Title from the Crown From a family of teachers, she has a passion for education, running workshops on Te Tiriti (treatytraining.com) and creating an online resource for schools on Te Tiriti, New Zealand History, te Reo Māori and financial literacy (waiako.com)

Anna Smaill is the author of The Chimes, which was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize and won best novel in the World Fantasy Awards in 2016, and the poetry collection The Violinist in Spring (2005). Born in Auckland, she has spent several years in Japan and the United Kingdom and holds a PhD from the University of London. She lives on Wellington’s south coast with her husband, novelist Carl Shuker, and their two children. Bird Life is her second novel.

Carin Smeaton (Māori, Moana, Hurai, Scots) is a poet living in Tāmaki Makaurau with whānau. She has pubished 3 hybrid poetry collections with Titus Press - Tales of the Waihorotiu (2017), Hibiscus Tart (2024), and Death Goddess Guide To Self Love (2025). Hibiscus Tart was longlisted in the 2025 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards.

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Mark Smith

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Sam Smith is a bestselling writer, comedian, and former-dentist. He pivoted from dentistry to comedy after a MS diagnosis caused him to partially lose his vision. He is a head writer for the TV show 7 Days, creates the tasks for Taskmaster NZ, and wrote for Wellington Paranormal. He is the go-to audience warm-up act for many shows including Dancing With the Stars, The Project, Have You Been Paying Attention? and Patriot Brains.