Iona Winter

Tag: Aotearoa

• Anthology Aotearoa Elixir & Star Press grief New Zealand publisher

  Elixir & Star Press is launched today!

  Introducing Elixir & Star Press ~ a small, independent publisher based in Te Wai Pounamu, created in memory of my tama Reuben Winter, and as a dedicated space to explore grief in Aotearoa New Zealand.  After researching (a lot) about grief whilst writing A Counter of Moons, I quickly noticed the dearth…

  January 11, 2023
• Aotearoa CLNZ/NZSA Writers’ Award New Zealand New Zealand Literature Reuben Samuel Winter suicide bereavement

  CLNZ/NZSA 2022 Writers’ Award

  https://www.copyright.co.nz/about/news-and-event/25000-clnz-nzsa-writers-award-awarded-to-otepoti-writer-and-poet-iona-winter My deepest gratitude to Copyright Licensing New Zealand and the New Zealand Society of Authors Te Puni Kaituhi O Aotearoa for the CLNZ/NZSA 2022 Writers’ Award. Thank you for seeing the importance of this mahi, and for facing into the subject matter alongside me. It’s particularly poignant being this…

  September 11, 2022
• Aotearoa creative writing grief loss love mental health New Zealand poetry suicide suicide bereavement

  Rejections and openings

  I’ve come to loathe the 17th each month, being the counter of moons that I am these days. 21 months last week since Reuben took his life, and despite meandering through the day fully aware of it, it wasn’t until I checked messages from him, in the weeks before he…

  June 21, 2022
• Aotearoa chronic pain New Zealand surgical mesh vaginal mesh

  Medical misogyny

  First, do no harm. Isn’t that what medicine dictates? Twelve years ago, I had a TVT-O (transvaginal tape through the obturator region) implanted to assist my bladder, after decades of gynaecological surgeries. Last year the mesh took many hours to be removed by two specialist surgeons.  After a decade of…

  May 30, 2022
• Aotearoa aroha consciousness grief love New Zealand Reuben Samuel Winter social issues suicide bereavement

  Birthing and grieving

  28 years ago I’d already been in labour for a day, then another before my tama ātaahua arrived. In the old days, we both would’ve died in the process. It was arduous to say the least. Yet this miraculous pēpē I was told I couldn’t have (because of cancer) still…

  May 19, 2022
• Aotearoa Dunedin Public Art Gallery Dunedin UNESCO City of Literature poetry

  Art galleries as inspiration

  Last month I was invited to attend a workshop and respond to the Paemanu: Tauraka Toi – A Landing Place, exhibition at the Dunedin Public Art Gallery. Visiting art galleries a fantastic way to gain inspiration, through looking at artworks I’ve not seen before, and because, more often than not,…

  May 12, 2022
• ANZAC Aotearoa peace

  Pacifist

  My annual ANZAC Day toikupu ~ remembering the ancestors, since time began, who fought and died in wars. With Reuben gone, to a different kind of war, I have a sense of what mothers must’ve felt when their babies didn’t return.

  April 25, 2022
• Aotearoa

  Milestones

  2022 blessings to you and your whānau WordPress peeps. Wishing you peace, as we traverse this ever-changing landscape which has become our world. 2022 has seen me complete my latest manuscript, and it’s gone off for some expert eyes to take a fresh look. This collection, started after Reuben’s death,…

  January 3, 2022
• Aotearoa consciousness environment injustice Mother Earth New Zealand social issues social media

  Inhabit

  This post may be seen as contentious, or a myriad of other labelling things. So if you’re someone who thinks that oppression, separatism and exclusion are okay, please feel free to unfollow me. What has become clear is that I can no longer remain quiet, in response to what I…

  November 22, 2021
• Aotearoa

  The abyss of deafening silence

  (CW: suicide bereavement) Five months today, since Reuben died — I have become the mother who counts weeks, moons and months. On days like this, where I’ve had very little sleep, and there are demands upon me that feel irrelevant and unimportant in the face of my grief, I want…

  February 17, 2021