Additional information
by Selina Tusitala Marsh (Author)
In her bestselling Mophead, poet laureate and fast talking P.I. Selina Tusitala Marsh recounted her experience growing up Pasifika in Aotearoa and realising how her (and your) difference can make a difference. In Mophead Tu, Selina is crowned Commonwealth Poet and invited to perform for the Queen in Westminster Abbey. But when someone at work calls her a 'sellout, ' Selina starts doubting herself. Can she stand with her people who struggled against the Queen...and still serve the Queen? From the sinking islands in the south seas to the smoggy streets of London, Mophead Tu: The Queen's Poem is a hilariously thought-provoking take on colonial histories and one poet's journey to bridge the divide. Selina has to work out where she stands and how to be true to herself. She has to build a bridge from her sinking islands in the south seas to the smoggy streets of London. And she has to write a poem. None of it is easy. All of it is hilarious and moving. Featuring Megan and Harry, piglets, and climate change, Mophead Tu: The Queen's Poem is colonialism 101 for kids. It will make you laugh and make you think.
Author Biography
Selina Tusitala Marsh is an Auckland-based Pacific poet of Samoan, Tuvaluan, English, Scottish and French descent. She was the first Pacific Islander to graduate with a PhD in English from The University of Auckland where she is now an Associate Professor in the English Department, specialising in Pasifika literature. Her first collection, the bestselling Fast Talking PI, won the NZSA 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 live in schools, museums, parks, billboards, as well as print and online literary journals. As Commonwealth Poet (2016), she composed and performed for the Queen at Westminster Abbey. She was New Zealand's Poet Laureate from 2017-2019. In 2019 she was awarded a Humanities Aronui Medal and was elected a Nga Ahurei a Te Aparangi Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand. She won the Margaret Mahy Book of the Year at the 2020 New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults for her first children's book, Mophead: How Your Difference Makes a Difference.
