Bio

Maris O'Rourke has been writing about 5 years and published in a range of journals in NZ and overseas. She has been well placed in a number of competitions including the Caselberg, Robert Burns, SIWA, the Kevin Ireland and Matariki. Maris has been a guest poet in Poetry NZ and 'a fine line' and her work was included in the play 'Aotearoa Found in Translation'.

Maris's first children's book 'Lillibutt's Big Adventure' was published in 2012 (Duck Creek Press) and her first poetry collection 'Singing With Both Throats' was published in 2013 (David Ling). Her second children's book 'Lillibutt's Te Araroa Adventure' has been accepted for publication in 2014.

Maris has been featured on Radio NZ's Nine to Noon and Arts On Sunday. She has also performed her work widely including at the Fringe Festival's spit.it.out and the 2013 Writers and Readers Festival.

Feral
yellow
lupins strangle
stones, run deep,
entwine roots, eat up sand.
Prowlers darkly explore no-man's land quick-sands
Shadows run across rock facades,
silent, bleak, stark
in trackless
unexplored
deserts.
Saharan
pebbles,
like unstrung
necklace beads, slake
our thirst. Tessellate cave entrances
of pale ecru throw secrets into deepening twilight.