Nina Mingya Powles

Nina Mingya Powles is a poet, writer and zinemaker. Based between London and Aotearoa, Powles' writing often uses nature and food motifs to explore questions of belonging. She has been published widely and has received multiple literary awards, including the UK Women’s Poets Prize (2018) and the Nan Shepherd Prize for Nature Writing (2019).

Born in Te Whanganui-a-Tara, Powles spent most of her childhood relocating to different cities — a byproduct of her parents’ careers as diplomats. The experience of living between cultures, cities and languages had a profound impact on Powles, and her writing is often rooted in these ideas: “I guess I’m always writing in some way about longing and about multiplicity and in-betweenness”. This tenison is reflected in Powles’ use of form and structure — she deliberately blurs the line between prose and poetry, lyricism and essay, echoing the central theme of “in-betweenness”.

Powles’ first full-length poetry collection, Magnolia 木蘭 (Seraph Press, 2020) explored her experiences navigating language and culture as a mixed-heritage individual. The collection was shortlisted for the 2020 Forward Prize for Best First Book of Poetry and the 2021 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards. Aotearoa writer Renee Liang praised Powles' debut, referring to her writing as “subtle, visceral and gently powerful”.

Magnolia 木蘭 also solidified Powles’ reputation as a skilled nature writer, and she is now particularly known for her use of nature motifs and ecopoetics to excavate personal struggles around home and belonging. The Scotsman referred to her 2021 book of essays, Small Bodies of Water, as “nature writing at its living, breathing best”. In this book, Powles deliberately shapes her prose to mimic the movement of natural phenomena: “The ebb and flow of particular kinds of physical pain is what led me to the language of waves and the language of fragments. I couldn’t find a way to fit pain into regular prose; it had to be flowing, irregular, cyclical”.

Zinemaking and small press publishing are also important aspects of Powles’ writing practice. In her 2019 e-zine, Paper Cuts, Powles expressed her love for the medium and refers to zinemaking as a “radical act”. Her zines are often handbound and explore themes of food, heritage and travel. Powles is also known for Bitter Melon苦瓜 — a small press that aims to "make beautiful, handmade poetry books by Asian poets”. Bitter Melon苦瓜 publications have been met with positive and critical acclaim — Jay G Ying’s poetry pamphlet Wedding Beasts was shortlisted for the 2019 Saltire-Calum MacDonald Award and mentioned in Camille Ralph’s feature on poetry pamphlets and small presses in the Times Literary Supplement. The press is currently on hiatus.

Powles currently lives in London where she runs writing workshops and seminars. She also writes a monthly newsletter on cooking, memory and comfort called Crispy Noodles.

Nina Mingya Powles — website

Academy of New Zealand Literature profile

Small Bodies of Water interview — North & South

Small Bodies of Water review — The Spinoff

Tiny Moons: A Year of Eating in Shanghai - RNZ interview

2021 — Small Bodies of Water, Allen and Unwin

2020 — Magnolia 木蘭, Seraph Press

2020 — Tiny Moons: ​A Year of Eating in Shanghai, The Emma Press

2017 — Luminescent, Seraph Press

2014 — Girls of the Drift, Seraph Press

2019 — Nan Shepherd Prize for Nature Writing

2019 — Landfall Essay Prize: joint winner

2018 — UK Women’s Poetry Prize

2018 — Jane Martin Prize for Poetry

2015 — Biggs Prize for Poetry