Luminescent
by Nina Mingya Powles

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 I have collected up so many astonishing objects
that I have nowhere to put them down.
 
A brilliant and unique debut collection from one of the most exciting young voices in New Zealand poetry. 
 
The five colourful chapbooks that make up Luminescent are intended to be read in any order and are gathered together in a cover folder evocative of the night-sky. Each section loosely explores the life and context of a New Zealand woman, from the famous, such as celebrated writer Katherine Mansfield (Sunflowers) and cosmologist Beatrice Tinsley (The Glowing Space Between the Stars), to the possibly fictional school ghost ((Auto)Biography of a Ghost); in between is early settler and whaler’s wife Betty Guard (Whale Fall), and ill-fated dancer Phyllis Porter (Her and the Flames), who died after her dress caught fire onstage at Wellington’s Opera House. 
 
Whaling, astronomy, dance, haunting and art are all turned to poetic purpose; an autobiographical voice weaves in and out, and connections and resonances draw the parts of Luminescent into a powerful whole. This poetry is both intellectual and moving; utterly contemporary, with a deep connection to the past.

Download a sampler of poems from Luminescent (PDF, 567KB)

About the author

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Nina Mingya Powles is a poet, non-fiction writer and zinemaker from Wellington. She is half Malaysian-Chinese, half Pākehā. Nina has an MA in creative writing from Victoria University of Wellington and won the 2015 Biggs Family Prize for Poetry for the first draft of Luminescent. She is the author of the chapbook Girls of the Drift (Seraph Press, 2014) and several poetry zines.

​Buy Luminescent

​Pay by credit card or PayPal. Postage free within New Zealand. If you want to pay by direct credit, email [email protected] and we'll sort you out.
Title: Luminescent
Author: Nina Mingya Powles
Category: Poetry
ISBN: 978-0-9941345-5-4
Format: Five 20-page chapbooks in a cover folder, 210mm (tall) x 142mm (wide)
RRP:  $35
Publication Date:  August 2017
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Trade price $18.26
Orders are ordinarily firm sale, but sale or return terms are available on request.
Contact Helen Rickerby, managing editor, Seraph Press, PO Box 25239, Wellington 6146, New Zealand
email: [email protected]
phone: (04) 385 7119

Also by Nina Mingya Powles

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Seraph Press on Facebook

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Seraph Press on Twitter
Visit Nina's website
​Read an interview with Nina in the Atticus Review
Read an interview with Nina on Speaking of Marvels
Listen to Nina talk to Pip Adam about Luminescent on the Better Off Read podcast
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Magnolia 木蘭
​Shanghai, Aotearoa, Malaysia, London—all are places poet Nina Mingya Powles calls home and not-home; from each she can be homesick for another. A gorgeous bittersweet longing and hunger runs through the poems in this new collection from one of our most exciting poetic voices.  More...
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Girls of the Drift
This debut chapbook features poems about real and fictional women from New Zealand history and literature, including Katherine Mansfield and some of her creations, the first permanent lighthouse keeper, the daughter of a whaler, poets Jessie Mackay and Blanche Baughan, and a school ghost. More...