Mikaela Nyman, poet, novelist and non-fiction writer from the autonomous, demilitarised Åland Islands in Finland, is taking up residency in Manawatū this month as Massey University's visiting artist for 2021.
Massey creative writing lecturers Dr Thom Conroy and Dr Laura Jean McKay selected Nyman from a shortlist of international and national writers.
Nyman, currently based in New Plymouth, will dedicate her time in Manawatū to two projects: her first poetry collection in English, and editing a memoir by a Vanuatu writer. The poetry collection is tentatively entitled The Anatomy of Sand, while the memoir offers "a rare woman's perspective to existing historical and colonial accounts of Vanuatu".
An anthology of Vanuatu women's writing, Sista, Stanap Strong!, which she co-edited with Rebecca Tobo Olul-Hossen, will be published this year. The book arises out of Nyman's long-standing collaboration with ni-Vanuatu writers.
Nyman draws on life-changing experiences for her writing, including a four-year stint living in Vanuatu where she survived a cyclone, and the impact of a sister's death. Set in 2015 in Port Vila, Vanuatu, her novel Sado narrates a moving and courageous story in the wake of the category-5 Cyclone Pam that caused widespread destruction.
