Samoan writer, Nafanua Purcell Kersel, was appointed as the Emerging Pasifika Writer in Residence for 2025.

The Victoria University of Wellington’s International Institute of Modern Letters made the announcement early this week.

Of Samoan heritage and based in Hawkes Bay, Nafanua will use the residency to work on a stage adaptation of her debut poetry collection Black Sugarcane, as well as a new book of poems.

She aspires to create work that creates “More alofa, more creativity, more understanding in our communities and worlds,” said Nafanua.

Nafanua has a background in facilitation and community storytelling, including her role with Nevertheless NZ, where she leads the storytelling programme and runs creative writing workshops with Māori, Pasifika, and Rainbow+ communities. Her creative work includes poetry, theatre and spoken word, often centring on themes of intergenerational memory and Pasifika knowledge systems.

Black Sugarcane, published in 2025 by Te Herenga Waka University Press, grew out of Nafanua’s Master of Creative Writing at IIML, for which she won the 2022 Biggs Family Prize in Poetry. Her poetry has appeared in anthologies and various literary journals including Cordite, Landfall and Turbine l Kapohau.

Nafanua said it was a privilege and an honour to receive this award.

“I admire each of the previous recipients, and feel humbled to have been chosen to follow on from them.

“My wish is to write work which offers an insight into the complexity of community and the subtle work of shared stories, through my own experiences, dreams, and observations. My goal for the residency is to produce work which is mana-enhancing and unapologetic in its cultural depth. Fa’afetai, fa’afetai, fa’afetai tele lava mo le avanoa.”

Damien Wilkins, Director of the IIML, said Nafanua’s wonderful first book of poems shows her to be a highly skilled writer with new things to say.

“We’re excited to see her work develop. The IIML is also very appreciative of the support of the University and Creative New Zealand.”