Karlo Estelle Mila was born on 1974 and is a New Zealand writer and poet of Tongan, Palagi and Samoan descent.
19 Facts About Karlo Mila
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Karlo Mila has subsequently published two further poetry collections, A Well Written Body and Goddess Muscle, the latter of which was longlisted for the Mary and Peter Biggs Award for Poetry.
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Karlo Mila was born in 1974 in Rotorua, New Zealand and grew up in Palmerston North.
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Karlo Mila wrote her first poem at the age of eight, about seeds, while attending Highbury School in Palmerston North, and went on to win her first poetry competition.
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Karlo Mila attended Tonga High School for six months in 1996 before moving back to New Zealand to complete her studies.
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Karlo Mila began her tertiary studies at Massey University in 1995, where she completed her BA in Anthropology, Masters in Social Work.
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Karlo Mila subsequently moved back to Tonga for a period where she taught at Halafo'ou National Form Seven School.
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Karlo Mila then went on to contribute to anthologies such as Whetu Moana, Niu Voices, and Short Fuse: The Global Anthology of New Fusion Poetry.
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Karlo Mila's second poetry collection, A Well Written Body, was a collaboration with German-born artist Delicia Sampero.
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In 2010, Karlo Mila graduated with a PhD in Philosophy.
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Karlo Mila established the Mana Moana leadership programme based on her research.
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Karlo Mila's work was described by reviewer Nicky Pellegrino as "poetry [that] speaks to the soul".
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Karlo Mila is interested in the idea of literary Whakapapa, dedicating entire sections to it in Dream Fish Floating.
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In 2011 the first ever Pacific literature conference in New Zealand was held in Wellington at Victoria University, where Karlo Mila was a keynote speaker alongside other widely celebrated writers in the Pacific region such as Patricia Grace, Albert Wendt and Reverend Strickson-Pua.
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Karlo Mila was then selected as the Tongan Pavilion at the world poetry summit olympiad event at the Southbank Centre in London, in 2012.
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In 2019, Karlo Mila was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for her contributions to the Pacific community and as a poet.
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Poetry by Karlo Mila was included in UPU, a curation of Pacific Island writers' work which was first presented at the Silo Theatre as part of the Auckland Arts Festival in March 2020.
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Karlo Mila's poetry extends into her advocacy surrounding issues of climate change and women reflected in her work "Global Line Up", written in Jamaica at the climate crisis conference.
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Karlo Mila has worked as a columnist for the Dominion Post.