Majella was the author of five books, including her debut novel The Life of De'Ath, which was longlisted for the 2019 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards for Fiction and shortlisted for the Dundee International Prize. She was a valued member of the Aotearoa New Zealand book world.

Born in Ireland, she moved to Aotearoa in 2008 and completed a PhD in creative writing at the University of Otago. She was active in the literary community in Ōtepoti Dunedin and across the country, giving workshops and readings, and teaching at the University of Otago.

Her second poetry collection Whisper of a Crow's Wing was selected as one of The New Zealand Listener's Top Ten Poetry Books of 2018, and her recent short story collection, Islands Ever After, was published earlier in 2026.

In 2024, we spoke to Majella about her poetry collection Meantime: on memory, grief, lockdowns and whether writing can be catharsis or not. She kindly allowed us to feature a poem from the collection which in included in the interview.

Kete was also delighted to be able to publish an extract from Islands Ever After, published earlier in 2026 by Quentin Wilson Publishing. You can read the piece from 'Falling softly' here.

We have pulled together Majella's body of work into the below reading list.