Majella Cullinane: 2021, 2025

Majella writes poetry, fiction and essays. Her 2018 debut novel The Life of De’Ath was shortlisted for the NZSA Heritage Book Awards and longlisted for the 2019 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards for Fiction. She has published two poetry collections Guarding the Flame, Salmon Poetry, Ireland 2011 and Whisper of a Crow’s Wing, Salmon Poetry and Otago University Press, 2018. The latter was chosen as The NZ Listener’s Top Ten Poetry Books of 2018.  

Majella was the 2014 Robert Burns Fellow at the University of Otago, and has also held residencies at the Pah Homestead, Auckland, the Caselberg House, Dunedin, and was joint Dan Davin Writer in Residence at Yule House in Invercargill. In 2020 she was awarded a Copyright Licencing New Zealand Grant for a non-fiction project, and in 2021 received the Auckland Research Museum & Residency Grant at the Michael King Centre in Auckland. She has a PhD in Creative Practice from the University of Otago and lives in Port Chalmers with her partner Andrew and their son, Robbie. 

*Majella died on the 29th of September 2026 – she will be deeply missed by many. RIP Majella.