Robert Sullivan (Ngāpuhi, Kāi Tahu, Irish) is the author and editor of 15 books—mainly poetry, as well as a graphic novel, Maui Legends of the Outcast, illustrated by Chris Slane, and Weaving Earth and Sky, a New Zealand Post Children's Book of the Year, illustrated by Gavin Bishop. He co-edited, with Albert Wendt and Reina Whaitiri, the anthologies of Polynesian poetry in English Whetu Moana and Mauri Ola, and an anthology of Māori poetry with Reina Whaitiri, Puna Wai Kōrero. He coedited with Janet Newman Koe: An Aotearoa ecopoetry anthology (Otago University Press, 2024). He co-edits The Journal of New Zealand Literature with Dr. Erin Mercer, is president of the NZ Poetry Society, and has served on many literature advisory and judging panels. His most recent book is Hopurangi / Songcatcher, published by Auckland University Press in 2024. His most recent work is published in Landfall 248 and forthcoming in issue 7 of Peripheries (Harvard University Press), guest-edited by Jessica Wilkinson.
Sullivan comments: 'Hopurangi / Songcatcher, the collection in which this poem appears, was written over three months of the Maramataka or traditional Māori lunar calendar. Each day of the month has a separate name. Hoata is in a group of days associated with the new moon. I noted the energy associated with each day below the poem titles, and so Hoata has a medium energy.'
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