essa may ranapiri

Guest writer

essa may ranapiri (Ngaati Raukawa, Te Arawa, Ngaati Pukeko, Clan Gunn) is a poet who lives on Ngaati Wairere whenua. Author of ransack (VUP, 2019) and ECHIDNA (THWUP, 2022). Co-editor of Kupu Toi Takataapui | Takataapui Literary Journal with Michelle Rahurahu. They have a great love for language, LAND BACK and hot chips. They will write until they’re dead.

Joshua Whitehead and Essa Ranapiri (Image: Tina Tiller)

Essa Ranapiri and Joshua Whitehead: a kōrero of Indigiqueer proportions

From Keri Hulme to Denny's, writing styles to book recs: settle in for an epic conversation between two poets across land and sea.

By essa may ranapiri | 17th May, 2023

Photo: © The Trustees of the British Museum / CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Erotica in te ao Takataapui is a tradition as old as time

'Erotica is powerful and important because it allows us to imagine ourselves in ways so often denied to us.'

By essa may ranapiri | 10th November, 2022

Image: Archi Banal

Making love with the land: Three new queer Indigenous poetry collections

essa may ranapiri responds to HOW|HAO, Ask the Brindled and how to make a basket.

By essa may ranapiri | 9th October, 2022

When Harry Met Sally, the carpool scene. Number one on ScreenRant.com’s ‘Top 10 Rom-Com Meet-Cutes’.

The Friday Poem: Māui & Prometheus Have a Meet-Cute

it’s not that pottery scene from Ghost / or the sweaty handprint on glass in Titanic

By essa may ranapiri | 6th May, 2022

Whiti Hereaka as Kurangaituku (Photo: Tabitha Arthur; Design: Tina Tiller)

Transformation: a takatāpui response to Whiti Hereaka’s novel Kurangaituku

Kurangaituku, the bird-woman, shows essa may ranapiri a new way to stand tall.

By essa may ranapiri | 25th January, 2022

A kelp forest (Photo: Steven Trainoff Ph.D/Moment via Getty)

An extraordinary, tender response to Witi Ihimaera’s memoir Native Son

Poet essa may ranapiri says this review is one of the hardest things they've written.

By essa may ranapiri | 6th January, 2021

Seagulls at Raumati Beach, Kāpiti (Photo: Joao Inacio via Getty)

Light, air, water: A celebration of Māori poetry in lockdown

The poetry which pulled essa may ranapiri through a traumatic year.

By essa may ranapiri | 5th October, 2020

HM Bark Endeavour and Captain Cook setting out on his voyage in 1764. Image: Wellcome Collection

The Friday Poem: Hook & Cook by essa may ranapiri

A poem from essa may ranapiri's chapbook Polemic.

By essa may ranapiri | 4th September, 2020

An image from the book Te Manu Huna A Tāne (Photo: Jenny Gillam)

What the kiwi can teach us: A review of the brutal, radiant Te Manu Huna A Tāne

A diminutive book that thrums with power.

By essa may ranapiri | 8th June, 2020

A kelp forest (Photo: Steven Trainoff Ph.D/Moment via Getty)

An extraordinary, tender response to Witi Ihimaera’s memoir Native Son

Poet essa may ranapiri says this review is one of the hardest things they've written.

By essa may ranapiri | 9th February, 2020