AUP New Poets 11

Memoir, myth and
critical theory weave through Xiaole Zhan’s essay-poem ‘Arcadiana’ as they
explore their Pakeha-Chinese family. Meanwhile, Margo Montes de Oca’s
‘intertidal’ combines rich, elemental imagery – water, light, colour – with a
world of feeling and poetic homage. In an affecting conclusion, J. A. Vili’s
‘Poems Lost During the Void’ pays tribute to family and friends, reaching out
beyond grief to show the beautiful intensity of community and connection.



AUP New Poets 11 introduces three
distinctive and compelling voices to contemporary poetry.

Xiaole Zhan is a Chinese-New Zealand writer and composer based in Naarm. They are the recipient of the 2024 Kat Muscat Fellowship. Awards include the Kill Your Darlings Creative Non-Fiction Essay Prize and the Charles Brasch Young Writers’ Essay Competition. Their work has appeared in Island, The Suburban Review, Landfall, Cordite Poetry Review, Going Down Swinging, Starling and Sweet Mammalian. Their name in Chinese means ‘Little Happy’ but can also be read as ‘Little Music’.

Margo Montes de Oca is a poet and researcher of Mexican and Pakeha descent living in Te Whanganui-a-Tara. She holds degrees in English literature and in ecology and biodiversity. She was a 2024 Starling writer-in-residence at the New Zealand Young Writers Festival, and her poetry has been published in issues of Starling, Sweet Mammalian, bad apple, Minarets and Mayhem Literary Journal.

J. A. Vili is an Auckland-based poet of Samoan descent whose poetry often advocates for suicide prevention and mental illness support. He dedicates poems to friends and to his children who lost their mother at a young age. Vili holds a bachelor of creative writing. His poems have appeared in Ika journal and Katuivei: Contemporary Pasifika Poetry from Aotearoa New Zealand (Massey University Press, 2024).

Format: Paperback
Pages: 104
Imprint: Auckland University Press
Publication date: 08/05/2025
Series: AUP New Poets