Simon Robert Armitage is an English poet, playwright, musician and novelist. He was appointed Poet Laureate on 10 May 2019. He is professor of poetry at the University of Leeds.
Charles Eugene Fager, known as Chuck Fager, is an American activist, author, editor, publisher and an outspoken and prominent member of the Religious Society of Friends or Quakers. He is known for his work in both the Civil Rights Movement and in the Peace movement. His written works include religious and political essays, humor, adult fiction, and juvenile fiction, and he is best known for his 1974 book Selma 1965: The March That Changed the South, his in-depth history of the 1965 Selma Voting Rights Movement which led to the passage of the Voting Rights Act.
Kimo Leopoldo, or simply Kimo, is an American retired mixed martial artist and actor. He made his MMA debut at UFC 3 in 1994 losing to Royce Gracie by submission. A professional from 1994 until 2011, he also competed in the PRIDE Fighting Championships, Cage Rage, and the World Fighting Alliance.
Kauraka Kauraka was a Cook Islands writer. He was born in Avatiu on Rarotonga, the main island of the Cooks, and educated at the University of the South Pacific in Suva, Fiji, and the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. He published six collections of poems in the English and Rarotongan languages. When Kauraka died in 1997, he was buried on the atoll of Manihiki, northern Cooks. He was the brother of artist and writer Tepaeru Tereora.
James West, also known as Jim "Kimo" West, is a Canadian guitarist best known for working with "Weird Al" Yankovic. He auditioned for Yankovic after being introduced by Steve Jay and the two have worked together ever since. West can be heard and seen on all of Yankovic's videos, albums, and concerts since 1983.
Edward Armitage was an English Victorian-era painter whose work focused on historical, classical and biblical subjects.
Sia Figiel is an American contemporary Samoan novelist, poet, and painter.
Albert Tuaopepe Wendt is a Samoan poet and writer who lives in New Zealand. He is one of the most influential writers in Oceania. His notable works include Sons for the Return Home, published in 1973, and Leaves of the Banyan Tree, published in 1979. As an academic he has taught at universities in Samoa, Fiji, Hawaii and New Zealand, and from 1988 to 2008 was the professor of New Zealand literature at the University of Auckland.
Tales That Witness Madness is a 1973 British anthology horror film produced by Norman Priggen, directed by veteran horror director Freddie Francis, written by actress Jennifer Jayne.
Samoan literature can be divided into oral and written literatures, in the Samoan language and in English or English translation, and is from the Samoa Islands of independent Samoa and American Samoa, and Samoan writers in diaspora. Samoan as a written language emerged after 1830 when Tahitian and English missionaries from the London Missionary Society, working with Samoan chiefly orators, developed a Latin script based Samoan written language. Before this, there were logologo and tatau but no phonetic written form.
Ronald Gordon Crocombe was a Professor of Pacific Studies at the University of the South Pacific. His reputation was such that he was described as the "father of Pacific Studies".
Robert Sullivan is a Māori poet, academic and editor. His published poetry collections include Jazz Waiata (1990), Star Waka (1999) and Shout Ha! to the Sky (2010). His books are postmodern, explore social and racial issues, and explore aspects of Māori culture and history.
Rodney Morales is an American fiction writer, editor, literary scholar, musician, and Professor in the Creative Writing Program of the Department of English at the University of Hawaii. In both his creative and critical writing, he is concerned with contemporary multi-ethnic Hawaii society, particularly social relations between its residents of Native Hawaiian, Japanese, Caucasian, and Puerto Rican descent; the 1970s "Hawaiian Renaissance" movement and the disappearance of its legendary cultural icon George Helm of Protect Kaho'olawe Ohana (PKO); and the postmodern juxtaposition of popular artistic forms with high literature. Shaped by genre fiction of the postwar period, his regional stories influenced that of Generation X/millennial authors such as Chris McKinney and Alexei Melnick, "urban Honolulu" novelists known for their gritty, realistic approaches to depicting crime, drugs, and lower-class life in the islands.
Serie Barford is a performance poet from Auckland, Aotearoa.
Shirley Yeta Horrocks is a New Zealand documentary filmmaker, specialising in social and art topics. She was appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to documentary filmmaking, in the 2019 New Year Honours. The citation notes that "Horrocks is a leader in documentary films on the arts in New Zealand and has directed and produced documentaries for 35 years".
Momoe Malietoa Von Reiche is a Samoan poet, artist, sculptor, photographer.
Eti Saaga, also spelled Eti Sa'aga, was a Samoan-born American Samoan poet, writer, journalist, press officer, television and radio host, and producer. His most well-known poem, "Me the Labourer", is studied as part of the curriculum at universities throughout Oceania, including Fiji, New Zealand, and his native Samoa. Saaga, who emigrating from Samoa to American Samoa in 1978, also served as a speech writer, press officer and translator for the late U.S. Congressman Eni Faleomavaega for more than 20 years.
Lilia Wahinemaikaʻi Hale was a Kanaka Maoli educator, musician, and prominent champion of ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi during the Hawaiian Language renaissance through her role as a kumu ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi, author, and as a mānaleo at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.
Alice Te Punga Somerville is a poet, scholar and irredentist. Dr Te Punga Somerville is the author of Once were Pacific: Māori connections to Oceania which provides the first critical analysis of the disconnections and connections between 'Māori' and 'Pacific'. Her research work delves into texts by Māori, Pacific and Indigenous peoples that tell Indigenous stories in order to go beyond the constraints of the limited stories told about them.
