13 Facts About Tina Makereti

Tina Makereti is a New Zealand novelist, essayist, and short story writer, editor and creative writing teacher.

Tina Makereti's work has been widely published and she has been the recipient of writing residencies in New Zealand and overseas.

Tina Makereti studied in Palmerston North and graduated with a BA Social Sciences and PGDip Maori Studies from Massey University.

Tina Makereti has taught creative writing in The School of English and Media Studies at Massey University, and since February 2020, is Senior Lecturer at Victoria University of Wellington's International Institute of Modern Letters and School of English.

Tina Makereti's writing has appeared in many literary journals, magazines and anthologies including Sport, The NZ Listener, Metro, Huia Short Stories 8, Hue and Cry, JAAM, Turbine, Overland Aotearoa and Landfall.

Tina Makereti has presented her work around New Zealand and overseas in Frankfurt, Jamaica, Taipei, Toronto and the United Kingdom.

Tina Makereti is of Ngati Tuwharetoa, Te Ati Awa, Ngati Rangatahi, Pakeha and, according to family stories, Moriori descent.

Tina Makereti's daughter, Kotuku Titihuia Nuttall, is a writer, whose debut novel Tauhou was published in 2023.

In 2009, Tina Makereti won the non-fiction category of the Royal Society of New Zealand Manhire Prize for Creative Science Writing with her piece Twitch and the Pikihuia Award for Best Short Story Written in English for Skin and Bones.

Tina Makereti was Regional Winner, Pacific, of the 2016 Commonwealth Short Story Prize with her story, 'Black Milk'.

Tina Makereti was the 2014 Randell Cottage Writer in Residence and in the same year she took part in Roadwords, a literary tour of southern South Island towns, with three other writers.

In 2022, Tina Makereti's Lumpectomy won the Landfall Essay Competition.

Tina Makereti's novel, The Mires, was a finalist for the Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction at the 2025 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards.