Nina Mingya Powles in Conversation with Grace Yee

Grace Yee is the author of Chinese Fish (Giramondo, Australia; Akoya, UK), winner of the Victorian Prize for Literature and the Victorian Premier's Award for Poetry in Australia, and the Mary and Peter Biggs Award for Poetry at the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards. Her work has been widely published, appearing in The Shanghai Literary Review, The Guardian, Heat, Meanjin, Southerly, Evening Odessa (Ukraine), Poetry New Zealand Yearbook and Best of Australian Poems, among others. Her second collection Joss: A History (Giramondo) was released in 2025. She was born in British Hong Kong, grew up in Aotearoa New Zealand, and now lives in Melbourne, Australia, on Wurundjeri land. Nina Mingya Powles is a writer and poet from Aotearoa New Zealand currently based in London. She is the author of a food memoir, Tiny Moons, and a collection of essays, Small Bodies of Water. Her debut poetry collection Magnolia was a finalist for the Ondaatje Prize, the New Zealand Book Awards, and the Forward Prize for Best First Collection. Her most recent poetry collection, In the Hollow of the Wave, was published in 2025. She is currently working on a book about fabric, sewing and memory.