Courtney Sina Meredith (1986 –) is a poet, playwright, fiction writer and musician. She describes her work as an 'ongoing discussion of contemporary urban life with an underlying Pacific politique.' She launched her first book of poetry, Brown Girls in Bright Red Lipstick (Beatnik), at the 2012 Frankfurt Book Fair, and has since published a short story collection, Tail of the Taniwha (2016) to critical acclaim. Her play Rushing Dolls (2010) won a number of awards and was published by Playmarket in 2012. She has been selected for a number of international writers' residencies including the prestigious Fall Residency at the University of Iowa where she is an Honorary Fellow in Writing, the Island Institute Residency in Sitka, Alaska, and the Bleibtreu Berlin Writers' Residency in Charlottenburg, Berlin. She holds a degree in English and Political Studies from the University of Auckland, where she also studied Law and co-edited Spectrum 5 (Penguin). In 2018 Courtney launched her first children’s book Secret World of Butterflies with Allen & Unwin and Auckland Museum. She is of Samoan, Mangaian and Irish descent.
Poem notes
This dossier is something of an all sorts party mix, written over a span of twelve years. The first poem ‘Don’t trust a Samoan girl’ is the oldest of the bunch, and the last poem ‘1’ was written a day before the recording. Some of these poems found me overseas while others were not inspired by the external landscape at all, but more so changeable internal weather - love and loss, sense of self, and of place and belonging. For the longest time I’ve wanted my words to simply mirror/ capture how I feel about the world. I think, collectively, these recordings honour that desire. |
Photo credit: Sally Greer