So good to hear Stella Duffy championing Patricia Grace and Māori writers on Open Book. As someone who has published many authors from New Zealand, and Australia, I know how hard it is to get them noticed here – and indigenous writers from there are rarely published in the UK.

Seriously, if bookshops were still open I reckon you'd struggle to find any Maori or Pasifika authors on the shelves. If you did you could certainly count them on the fingers of one hand. Bet you a tenner.

Have a look at your own bookshelves. How many indigenous writers from Oceania are represented? You'd have to work really hard as a UK reader to have sought them out, and well done if you have.

But why is this the case? Stella was forthright in her views on Open Book. Partly racism, partly an arrogant and outdated attitude to New Zealand. I couldn't agree more, but there are also other more practical reasons.

UK publishers and media think NZ is too far away and it is too much effort to support authors on the other side of the globe. This baffles me. When every second interview on the radio is via Skype, these days, the interviewee could be anywhere in the world – it matters not.

And we are in an industry actively trying to be more diverse and to bring writers of colour to the fore. Just not if they are from Oceania. There seems to be little desire to explore the amazing literature being created by an array of indigenous authors.

So, what can be done about it? Well, Stella was on Open Book to talk about Potiki, a novel by Patricia Grace that Penguin have recently reissued. You could start there, and any indie bookshop will be able to get hold of it for you.

And Stella also raved about The Imaginary Lives of James Pōneke by Tina Makereti, a book I am proud to publish.

'A fantastic novel, with a Māori character, set in London.'

And it is only 99p on ebook at the moment: https://amzn.to/2RWLhI8 

Got to be worth a try, surely?

This is a great resource from the Academy of New Zealand Literature. 'Why Aren't You Reading Brown?' recommends 21 Maori and Pasifika authors you should be reading. https://www.anzliterature.com/feature/arent-reading-brown/

Lots of great NZ books are available on ebook over here as the home publishers, not finding a home for the print editions, have released them on Kindle.

Here are some links to a few that I highly recommend:

https://amzn.to/2VO8nBL 
https://amzn.to/2S0g7zl 
https://amzn.to/2xTQDNp 

MeBooks is a relatively new website that sells New Zealand books on ebook. It also has regular free downloads of classic NZ titles. https://mebooks.co.nz/ 

And finally, at E&L we have put together an amazing Antipodean bundle with almost £100 worth of books by Australian and Kiwi authors for just £50. Get stuck in.

http://eye-books.com/books/lightning-antipodean-bundle

Oh, and I should mention that UK festivals have actually been very supportive of NZ authors. Tina Makereti, Whiti Hereaka and Sarah Laing have all been at Edinburgh, and Sarah at Cheltenham too, despite their books not being published in the UK at the time.