For the first time in the 21-year history of the Prime Minister's Award for Literary Achievement, all three categories were won by women. Lee Murray picked up the fiction award, non-fiction went to Professor Linda Tuhiwai Smith, and Tusiata Avia picked up the poetry prize.
In the second instalment of our conversations with the winners Susana Lei'ataua is in conversation with Tusiata Avia.
Tusiata also treats us to a reading of brand new poem Edict from the Self-appointed Arbiter of All Art Permitted in New Zealand.
You can hear Part 1 of the series featuring Lee Murray here.
New Zealand writer and poet Tusiata Avia Photo: The Arts Foundation Te Tumu Toi