“He karanga: poems that call out to those who understand and have been yearning to hear avoice 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 Nicola Andrews Softcover, 46 pp.
