December Poetry Reading with Emma Neale, Majella Cullinane, and Open Mic!

We will run our usual open mic, so please bring one poem if you wish to read, and see Jackson on the night to sign up.

Attendance is FREE, but if you have the means please support our co-hosts by purchasing refreshments during the evening.

We are a hate-free zone and decry any bigotry, hate speech, transphobia, homophobia, or racism - bring only your creativity and community spirit.

Emma Neale is the author of 14 books and a former editor of Landfall, Emma received the Lauris Edmond Memorial Award for a Distinguished Contribution to New Zealand Poetry 2020 and the Janet Frame Prize for 2025.
Her seventh poetry collection, Liar, Liar, Lick, Spit (Dunedin: Otago University Press, 2024) won the Mary and Peter Biggs Poetry Prize at the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards in May this year.
She has a new novel, Maybe Baby, due out from Bateman Books in April 2026.
Emma works as a freelance editor for New Zealand and overseas publishers.

Majella writes essays, fiction and poetry. Her third poetry collection Meantime (Otago University Press, 2024) was chosen as one of the Listener's Top Poetry Books of 2024. Her short story collection Islands Ever After is coming out next autumn. She was recently a visiting writer at the Michael King Centre, Auckland, and a fellow at the Hawthornden Castle Literary retreat in Edinburgh in August/September this year. She lives in Kōpūtai Port Chalmers with her family.

Your Collective committee:
Jackson
Mac MacDonald
Jasmine Taylor
Lee Thomson
Nicola Thorstensen
Sophia Wilson