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Alice Te Punga Somerville (Te Āti Awa, Taranaki) is a poet, scholar and irredentist. Dr Te Punga Somerville is the author of Once were Pacific: Māori connections to Oceania which provides the first critical analysis of the disconnections and connections between 'Māori' and 'Pacific'. Her research work delves into texts by Māori, Pacific and Indigenous peoples that tell Indigenous stories in order to go beyond the constraints of the limited stories told about them. In 2023 she won New Zealand's top award for poetry, the Mary and Peter Biggs Award for Poetry, for her collection Always Italicise: How to Write While Colonised.

Academic career

Since 2021, Te Punga Somerville is Professor of English and of Critical Indigenous Studies at the University of British Columbia. From 2017 to 2021, Te Punga Somerville was Associate Professor and Associate Dean of Faculty of Māori and Indigenous Studies at University of Waikato. Her previously held academic posts have been Senior Lecturer in the School of English at Victoria University of Wellington (2005–2012), Associate Professor Department of English University of Hawai'i at Manoa (2012–2015) and Senior Lecturer Department of Indigenous Studies at Macquarie University 2015 – 2017. Te Punga Somerville completed a Master of Arts in English at the University of Auckland. She then completed her PhD in English and American Indian Studies at Cornell University in 2004.

Awards

• Fulbright Graduate Award recipient to study at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY
• Recipient of a Marsden Fast Start Grant ($140,000) for 'Once Were Pacific'
• Awarded Best First Book from the Native American & Indigenous Studies Association in 2012, for 'Once Were Pacific'
• S.W. Brooks Fellowship 2016, University of Queensland, Australia
• Recipient of Marsden Research Grant ($642,000) for the project 'Writing the new world: Indigenous texts '1900–1975'
• Winner, Mary and Peter Biggs Award for Poetry for Always Italicise at the 2023 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards

Publications / works

• Te Punga Somerville, Alice. Once were Pacific: Māori connections to Oceania. University of Minnesota Press. 2012.

• Te Punga Somerville, Alice. Two Hundred and Fifty Ways to Start an Essay about Captain Cook. Bridget Williams Books. 2020.
• Te Punga Somerville, Alice. Always Italicise: How to write while colonised. Auckland University Press. 2022.

Work appears in

• Rakuraku M. & Manasiadis V. 'Tātai Whetū: Seven Māori Women poets in translation'. Seraph Press. 2018.
• Alison J. & Hoskins T. Critical Conversations in Kaupapa Māori. Huia Publishers. 2017.
• Anderson W., Johnson M. & Brookes B. 'Pacific Futures: Past and Present' . University of Hawai‘i Press. 2018.
• Wendt, Albert; Whaitiri, Reina; Sullivan, Robert, eds. (December 2002). Whetu Moana: Contemporary Polynesian Poetry in English. Auckland Univ Press. ISBN 9781869402730.
• Whaitiri, Reina; Sullivan, Robert, eds. (September 2014). Puna Wai Kōrero: An Anthology of Māori Poetry in English. Auckland: Auckland University Press. ISBN 9781869408176.
• Ruru J. & Nikora L. 'Ngā Kete Mātauranga: Māori Scholars at the Research Interface'. Otago University Press. 2021.

References

1. "Alice Te Punga Somerville – BWB Bridget Williams Books". www.bwb.co.nz. Retrieved 24 May 2021.
2. Suzuki, Erin (2013). "Once Were Pacific: Māori Connections to Oceania by Alice Te Punga Somerville (review)". The Contemporary Pacific. 25 (1): 207–210. doi:10.1353/cp.2013.0008. ISSN 1527-9464. S2CID 161593421.
3. "Alice Te Punga Somerville – Māori and Indigenous Studies: University of Waikato". www.waikato.ac.nz. Retrieved 24 May 2021.
4. ^ "Catherine Chidgey wins major prize at 2023 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards". Radio New Zealand. 17 May 2023. Retrieved 17 May 2023.
5. "Dr Alice Te Punga Somerville – Macquarie University". www.mq.edu.au. Retrieved 24 May 2021.
6. Somerville, Alice Te Punga (3 April 2021). "OMG settler colonial studies: response to Lorenzo Veracini: 'Is Settler Colonial Studies Even Useful?'". Postcolonial Studies. 24 (2): 278–282. doi:10.1080/13688790.2020.1854980. ISSN 1368-8790. S2CID 233986515.
7. "Alice Te Punga Somerville – Māori @ Waikato: University of Waikato". www.waikato.ac.nz. Retrieved 24 May 2021.
8. Somerville, Alice Te Punga (2012). Once Were Pacific: Māori Connections to Oceania. University of Minnesota Press. ISBN 978-0-8166-7756-6. JSTOR 10.5749/j.ctttt8gw.
9. "Two Hundred and Fifty Ways to Start an Essay about Captain Cook – BWB Bridget Williams Books". www.bwb.co.nz. Retrieved 24 May 2021.
10. Te Punga Somerville, Alice (2022). Always italicise : how to write while colonised. Auckland, New Zealand. ISBN 978-1-86940-976-0. OCLC 1336986543.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
11. "Seraph Press -Tātai Whetū: Seven Māori Women Poets in Translation, edited by Maraea Rakuraku and Vana Manasiadis". Seraph Press. Retrieved 24 May 2021.
12. "Huia | Critical Conversations in Kaupapa Māori". huia.co.nz. Retrieved 24 May 2021.
13. "Pacific Futures: Past and Present". UH Press. 20 July 2020. Retrieved 24 May 2021.
14. Wendt, Albert; Whaitiri, Reina; Sullivan, Robert, eds. (December 2002). Whetu Moana: Contemporary Polynesian Poetry in English. Auckland Univ Press. ISBN 9781869402730.
15. Whaitiri, Reina; Sullivan, Robert, eds. (September 2014). Puna Wai Kōrero: An Anthology of Māori Poetry in English. Auckland: Auckland University Press. ISBN 9781869408176.
16. Press, Otago University (31 August 2020). "Ngā Kete Mātauranga: Māori scholars at the research interface". University of Otago. Retrieved 24 May 2021.

• Living people
• Te Āti Awa people
• Taranaki (iwi)
• Cornell University alumni
• New Zealand poets
• Academic staff of the University of British Columbia
• Academic staff of the University of Waikato
• Academic staff of Victoria University of Wellington
• University of Hawaiʻi faculty
• Academic staff of Macquarie University
• University of Auckland alumni