In the Hollow of the Wave

Nina Mingya Powles is a poet and writer fromAotearoa New Zealand, currently based in London. Her debut poetry collection, Magnolia木蘭, was published in NewZealand, the UK and the US, and was a finalist in the Felix Dennis Prize forBest First Collection and the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards. Powles won theinaugural Women Poets’ Prize in 2018 and the inaugural Nan Shepherd Prize forunder-represented nature writers in 2019. Her resulting book of essays SmallBodies of Water was published in 2021 by Canongate. She has also published ashort food memoir, Tiny Moons: A Year of Eating in Shanghai (The EmmaPress, 2020).

With delicatebeauty and complexity, In the Hollow of the Wave explores thebody and relationships, earthquakes and weather, artworks and craft, as Powlesweaves hybrid identity, memory and dreams across generations, across the globetowards the uncertainty of home. — Alison WongI love the way this collection comes together like aquilt of memories, textures, threads, images, thoughts, ghosts, resonances andfolded language, in a way that is so inviting and so expansive. I found it bothcomforting and exciting to read, and want to reread it over and overagain.  — Anna Jackson