‘A stunning debut, threading land, ocean and heart together in an expansive Māori tapestry that speaks to our present, shared moment. METTLE is alive with ancient knowing, breathing possibilities into every line. An outstanding read.’ —Leanne Betasamosake Simpson

‘Poems born from that painful place between death and rebirth, telling their truth “slant”, allowing reader and writer to understand how resiliency arrives gradually.’ - Sandra Cisneros

‘This is heartbeat poetry, the kind of collection that changes the reader with salt and fire and mettle. Magnificent.’ - Jazz Money

‘METTLE: of courage and grit, of pluck and resolve. This is sitting around the kitchen table, two hands smoothing out the ‘good’ or ‘day to day’ tablecloth with instinct and deliberation. This stunning debut is straight out nana-talk, poetic memoir, and weaving all the tiny-big things, all longing and heart and of the earth.’ - Natalie Harkin

‘As well as vividly poetic storytelling, the humour here is mordant – “i recite a karakia for my brothers / they would prefer kebabs” – and in the best spirit of a bustling, diverse Indigenous poetics it excels in the most tuneful, colloquial, ‘high and low’ voices of another poet from Northland, Hone Tuwhare, and that most spiritual and earthy poet of the south, Keri Hulme.’ - Robert Sullivan

Order METTLE here - https://www.uqp.com.au/books/mettle

Gadigal Sydney Launch - Better Read Than Dead - 14 May - Tickets here