Pacific Literature Archives

Today I am happy to share that my book AFAKASI WOMAN is now available in paperback print format from our Tala Samoa store. I only recently got all my rights back for this book and it’s a huge relief to be able to be the #BigBoss of this collection.

I spent the last week working on the print layout and cover design, and marveling all over again at the stunning artwork of Nikki Mariner. It’s a real gift and privilege for me to be able to know an artist like Nikki who lives and creates right here in Samoa, and who is willing to let her paintings be used for a book cover. I love that this collection is 100% Samoan and #madeInSamoa, by Samoan women, right from all the words to the layout formatting, to the gorgeous cover art.

It’s been quite a journey getting here with this book. The fifteen stories were woven together over many years as I worked as a school teacher, raised our five children, then left teaching to be a fulltime stay-home mum and homeschooler, then moved into working as a sort-of ACEO for Young Steel – all while I blogged, wrote books and stories in my ‘spare time’.

I first put a bunch of my stories together back in 2010 to submit to the USP Press writing competition, organized out of Fiji. That first collection was called ‘Sleepless in Samoa’ which was the name of my blog, and it won the prize for Fiction. I then renamed it A REAL SAMOAN WOMAN, and published it in 2012 through Amazon as an ebook only. I never got around to making a paperback version or getting books printed. I was too busy writing more books and stories! In 2018 I signed a contract with a publisher in New Zealand, giving them, giving them the worldwide distribution print rights only, for the collection. I added a bunch more stories to it, titled it AFAKASI WOMAN, and asked my friend Nikki if we could use her painting ‘Paddle Me Tausi’ on the cover. The final product was beautiful. In 2019, the collection won a Storylines NZ Notable Book Award and it was shortlisted in the 2020 NZ Book Awards for Young Adult Fiction.

Ongoing challenges with the publisher though, meant that I really wanted all the rights to my books back. Thanks to assistance from great legal counsel, I am now back in charge of ALL the rights for ALL my books. It’s a good feeling. I learned a lot from the experience though, including that I will never sign a contract with a publisher ever again! It’s certainly helped re-spark my writing fire as I remember why it is that I loved writing books AND publishing them myself.

To celebrate AFAKASI WOMAN going out into the world (again), Tala Samoa is having a celebration sale. Now is the best time to grab a print paperback copy of the collection. Use the discount code FIAFIA at the Tala Samoa checkout – and get 10% off your purchase!

Get Afakasi Woman Paperback version with 10% discount on limited time only!

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PRINT BOOKS

Afakasi Woman – Print Book, Paperback

Author: Lani Young

Highlights:

Only $18 USD (approx currency conversion). Postage included.

The joys, trials, tragedies, and the sensibilities of being a woman of Samoa are highlighted in this superb collection. Afakasi Woman is a collection of 15 short stories, written by 2018 Pacific Laureate Lani Wendt Young. Originally released as a digital collection that won the University of the South Pacific fiction prize, this revised edition includes previously unpublished stories.Each story is brimming with emotion, offering a unique, engrossing glimpse into the lives of women of the Pacific, as Wendt Young takes readers from tears of laughter to tears of sorrow from one story to the next.

A 2020 winner of a Notable Book Storylines Award and shortlisted in the 2020 New Zealand Book Awards (NZCYA).

T49.95

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Audrey was born on the island of Rarotonga in the Cook Islands. Her Mum and Dad were factory workers, who raised her in South Auckland with her sisters. Adopted as a baby, her birth parents were students at the University of the South Pacific in Fiji. A graduate of Auckland University and the National University of Samoa. She is the published poet of three poetry collections and contributor to several anthologies.

Where is your favorite place to write?

I don’t have a favourite place – I can write anywhere and often do. I like to write when I am alone with music around me.

Favorite writing snack?

Dark chocolate and coffee

Why poetry?

Why not!

A poem that had a big impact on you and why?

To be honest it was contemporary Pacific art that had the biggest impact on informing my poetry. Artists such as Fatu Feu’u and Lily Laita who I studied as a high school student at Epsom Girls Grammar. Their work. The colour. The patterns. Movement, expression and form!

Share about the first time you read poetry by a Pacific Islander.

I didn’t read any Pacific island poetry until I was at university. The first ones would have to be Alistair Teariki Campbell and Albert Wendt.

Favorite book when you were a teenager? why?

I grew up in New Zealand so for me it was Alex by Tessa Duder. Accessible. Easy to read. Alex as a character is strong and wilful. An individual who is not a conventional beauty, but nonetheless beautiful. I was never a swimmer, but as a reader I was swimming in those heats with Alex, cheering her on to win.

Your answer/advice to someone who says, ‘Poetry is too hard to understand’

Poetry comes in all forms, so find what suits you. I think of art and music as poetry. In multiple forms that can transcend words on the page.

Whats your writer dream goal?

Answer: So many!
To write more poetry as digital art in moving images with sound and voice that feature in art galleries and in the virtual world. To write a novel, a feature film and a book of poetry that are biographies of people I want to celebrate.

Buy Audrey’s a – wake – (e) nd ebook

Audrey Brown-Pereira

Vaivase Street,
Apia,
Samoa, Samoa
7634778

Tag Archives: Pacific Literature

Today I am happy to share that my book AFAKASI WOMAN is now available in paperback print format from our Tala Samoa store