Of Samoan, Tuvaluan, English and French descent, Selina Tusitala Marsh was the first Pacific Islander to graduate with a PhD in English from the University of Auckland and is now a lecturer in the English Department, specialising in Pasifika literature. Her first collection, the bestselling Fast Talking PI (Auckland University Press), won the New Zealand Society of Authors Jessie Mackay Award for Best First Book of Poetry in 2010. Marsh represented Tuvalu at the London Olympics Poetry Parnassus event in 2012. Her work has been translated into Ukrainian and Spanish and has appeared in numerous forms in schools, museums and parks, on billboards, and in print and online literary journals. ‘Page 11’ is from her most recent collection, Dark Sparring.

Marsh comments: ‘“Page 11” plays about with the “what ifs” that invariably haunt those left behind by loved ones who have died. “What if I'd stayed?” “What if I'd not said...” “What if I'd only said...” Like a macabre melody playing in A minor, these lines carry the heavier weight of guilt and regret and longed-for fantasy. What if life was like a child’s adventure story, with many different endings, many different options, and you get to choose? What if you could turn back the page?’