A Marton student is one of four young people selected to participate in this year’s New Zealand Society of Authors’ Youth Mentorship Programme. When Siti Nur Aina Binti Mohd Nazlee, who is a student at Nga Tawa Diocesan School, applied to the mentorship programme she was not sure she would hear back at all – let alone being told she was selected. “I was fully certain I wasn’t going to hear back – so it was definitely a happy surprise.
” The programme offers four young writers the chance to be mentored by a successful Kiwi writer. In Siti’s case, she will be mentored by poet Kiri Piahana-Wong whose poems have appeared in more than 50 journals and anthologies including Landfall , Poetry NZ , Essential NZ Poems and Puna Wai Kōrero . Siti said she had a video call with Piahana-Wong which was their first time meeting, and she was super excited to be working together.
“It’s wonderful to be paired with someone who understands the importance of cultural diversity and its implications on one’s understanding of the world. Hopefully, our mentorship will even influence areas of my life outside the written scope.” Like Piahana-Wong, Siti is also interested in poetry.
“I found beauty in the way people used it as a medium to speak from their hearts, thoughts and memories. It simultaneously protects the writer from over-exposing themselves while, in the same breath, showcases these unsaid words in an art form.” Siti said she liked poetry because it reminded her t.
