Grace Iwashita-Taylor

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Taylor, Grace Teuila Evelyn [Grace Iwashita-Taylor] is a poet and performer, and a strong contributor to the New Zealand and Pacific poetry community. Her mixed heritage – Samoan and English – and her search for cultural identity have informed much of her work. She has worked extensively as a youth development worker and in facilitating and producing spoken word poetry events, workshops and programmes.

In 2008 she co-founded the South Auckland Poets Collective, an organisation that promotes spoken word poetry as a powerful tool for social change. In 2011 she co-founded the Rising Voices Youth Poetry Slam, providing the opportunity for young poets to perform and develop their work in a supportive environment. This is now an annual Auckland event. In 2013, with partner Daren Kamali, she established Niu Navigations, an organisation that is committed to encouraging the publication and performance of Aotearoa and Pacific poetry.

Iwashita-Taylor has performed her poetry widely and published individual poems with Blackmail Press and in the Hawaii Review (issue 79). Her first published collection of poetry, Afakasi Speaks, was released in 2013 (Ala Press, Hawaii). Paula Green reviewed the collection (NZ Poetry Shelf, 2 Dec 2013), describing it as ‘tender, strong and essential’ and concluding that ‘This debut collection is an important entry on the New Zealand poetry landscape. The poems are strong, with wings set to fly and lead us out of misplaced preconceptions into revitalising connections.’

Iwashita-Taylor was winner of the Auckland Readers and Writers Festival Poetry Idol in 2008 and a Vodafone Foundation World of Difference Recipient in 2012. She has an MA in Youth Development from Auckland University of Technology.

Iwashita-Taylor was the recipient of the Emerging Artist award at the 2014 Creative New Zealand Arts Pasifika Awards.

From https://www.linkedin.com/in/gr... :

Senior Advisor - Commissioning at Ministry for Pacific People | Co-Director of Flying Fetu | Freelance Upu/Word Artist | Storyteller | Arts Producer & Curator | Programme Manager | Project Manager | Voice Artist

From January- June 2018 Grace held the International Writer in Residence at the University of Hawaii at Manoa which was a lecturer role in the literature and linguistics department, teaching two undergraduate poetry courses during the spring semester.

Iwashita-Taylor is also the co-director of Moana literature company Flying Fetu with Lana Lopesi, which is committed to building abundant futures for artists of upu (word). 2022 saw the debut of the first Moana
writers festival, Flying Fetu Festival, and the Flying Fetu writer’s labs and short writer’s residencies.