Q&A: Nicole Titihuia Hawkins

Nicole Titihuia Hawkins (Ngāti Kahungunu ki te Wairoa, Ngāti Pāhauwera) is a writer, avid home-baker and teacher who lives in Pōneke. Her debut poetry collection, Whai, won the Jessie Mackay Prize for best first book at the 2022 Ockham NZ Book Awards. She’s generously allowed one of her poems to be chopped up and reconfigured for our National Poetry Day “magnetic poetry” competition this year. She answers our quick Q&A.

1. How are you and what have you been up to lately?

I’m doing my best to stay well and warm this winter. My main mahi these days is caring for my five-month-old daughter, Mihirangi, and running a small business, Taonga Puāwai, with one of my besties. I’m just starting to get used to using the parts of my brain that help me write and think about things that aren’t pēpi-related.

2. If you were working in a bookshop, how would you hand-sell your book to customers? What would you say to convince them to buy and read it?

I would say that if you’ve ever struggled with Karens, Colonisers and/or fuckbois, Whai is a book you can laugh/ugly cry along with.

3. What books (or other art/media) influenced you while working on this book, or generally in your life?

I’m so lucky to have so many amazing friends that are creatives. Their work is always inspiring and nourishing, but actually it’s the real living breathing versions of the women in my life that really inspired me to write Whai. I want Whai to be a little instax shot of what we were like for the next generation of wāhine.

As always, I’m really loving mahi toi by Sian Montgomery-Neutze and Te Kahureremoa’s album Acts of Service (seriously her track “Bloodmoon” is on repeat in my car - it’s iconic).  

4. What good books have you read lately?

I listened to the audiobook of Coco Solid’s How to Loiter In a Turf War and I absolutely loved it. As well as touching on the mamae and the maddening, it was so funny - I laughed so hard I woke my sleeping baby!

Buy Whai (We Are Babies Press), $25