Poetry with Apirana Taylor

Apirana Taylor is a New Zealand writer, poet, actor and storyteller. He has won many awards for his work, such as the Te Ha award for poetry, the I.B.M Young Writers Award. Apirana was also runner up for the Pegasus Book Awards, and was even awarded the residency of Writer in Residence at Massey University. Apirana Taylor has travelled around the world, sharing his poetry and stories with people of all ages and backgrounds- we were lucky enough to meet him!

On Wednesday, Apirana Taylor came to Hornby High School and shared with us some of his many poems and stories; Hinemoa's daughter, Kapiti, Whakapapa, and my personal favourite Aroha- a mix between a story and a song of how his guitar got it's name. I quite enjoyed some of Apirana's stories, songs, and poems, and it was interesting to hear about the backstory's of some of his pieces.

Myself and the rest of the students participating in the English Scholarship Pathways also got the privilege of attendingf a workshop with Apirana after his performance, where he gave us some insight into his writing process, and gave us some interesting, valuable information and tips for writing, along with a quote:

'The most essential gift for a writer is a built-in, shockproof, shit detector'- Ernest Hemingway

I would love to see more performances such as the one Apirana provided for us on Wednesday, and I also really enjoyed the writers workshop we attended late last year, where we heard from some more incredible writers and poets such as Juno Dawson, who gave us a small preview of her book 'Clean', and Hollie Mcnish with her poem about how absolutely f****** delicious her shoulders are :) 

Please note, up until I heard some of her work I didn't really care much for poetry, but she's hilarious.