What if you could go to a writing event and leave knowing your work could be published? Or go home with pieces to craft later? These are not rhetorical questions. This collection of work is unique. The theme was a shared and unifying experience, and the dream was for the people who attended to publish after the hui. The dream became a reality. You are about to read it. The Anthology opens and closes with excerpts from two of Witi Ihimaera's upcoming books, Plume of Pareārau a sci-fi offering, and The Swimmer, a memoir to be published in 2026 about Witi's time at Takiura. There is an original story from Paula Morris, plus Shelley Burne-Field, and R. de Wolf. Poems from Sir Haare Williams, Tania Roxborogh, Taranga Kent, Nadia Solomon, Aaron Compton and Gillian Moon. A traditional Māori mōteatea was written by 15-year-old Kahukura Iosefa with an accompanying video link. Discover the dawn of new writers, nestled beside trailblazers, giants and rising stars. You will find values reflected in words: ragged honesty, rage and pain offloaded, cohabiting with imagination, speculation and outfit-changing love. The book incubated at writing events in Tairāwhiti from the 9th to 19th of October 2025, with the fabulous people, from all over Aotearoa, who attended the hui. The whakapapa of this book is a collaboration between the Tairāwhiti Writers' Hub Collective, publisher of the Kaituhi Rawhiti Anthologies, TaiTech Writers and Te Kāhui Ngā Kaituhi Māori. Ngā Kaituhi Māori is publishing Rewa Rise from its second hui in Motueka 2024 and this book from the third hui in Tairāwhiti 2025. Many participants entered the hui as one person but left nurtured, grown and evolving. AHI Dawn of Words - from the first fire in the east.
