Selina Tusitala Marsh
Selina Tusitala Marsh is a poet and academic, and was the New Zealand Poet Laureate for 2017–2019.Biography
Marsh was born in 1971 in Auckland, New Zealand. Through her mother, Sailigi Tusitala, Marsh is of Samoan and Tuvaluan ancestry and through her father James Crosbie she is of English, Scottish and French descent.
Marsh grew up in Avondale, Auckland, New Zealand and resides on Waiheke Island. She gained her doctorate from the University of Auckland in 2004. Marsh is an Associate Professor in the English, Drama and Writing Studies Department at the University of Auckland where she teaches Creative Writing, and Pacific Literature.
Marsh has edited the Pasifika poetry section of the New Zealand Electronic Poetry Centre.
In 2015 Marsh won the Literary Death Match for poets at the Australia and New Zealand Literary Festival in London.
In 2016, Marsh composed and performed the poem "Unity" for Queen Elizabeth II at Westminster Abbey on Commonwealth Day Observance.
In August 2017 Marsh was named the New Zealand Poet Laureate for 2017–2019. Her collection, Tightrope, also made the long-list for the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards for Best Book of Poetry 2018.
In the 2019 New Year Honours, Marsh was appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to poetry, literature and the Pacific community. In 2019, she was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand.
