Sapa'u Ruperake Petaia (born 11 April 1951) is a poet and writer from Samoa. His poem Blue Rain became the title of a collection of his poems first published in 1980 with later editions in the 1990s. The collection included the satirical poem Kidnapped (1974) which explores themes about the loss of traditional Samoan knowledge. Like other Samoan writers such as Albert Wendt, Petaia's work explores themes about the effects of colonialism and Western influences on Samoan culture and society. [1]
Petaia was born in Samoa. He attended Samoa College and worked as a clerk in the Public Service Commission in 1973. In 1978 he won a government scholarship to study at the University of the South Pacific in Fiji. [2] In 1980, he graduated with a B.A. in Public Administration and Economic Geography. He returned to Samoa where he has since continued to work in the public service in management roles.
In 1992, his poetry Patches of the Rainbow was published in the Samoa Observer. [3]
Petaia witnessed the 1994 two-wheeled landing of Polynesian Airlines Flight PH844 at Faleolo International Airport , and wrote The Miracle [4] based on a number of passenger accounts of the event.
René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke, known as Rainer Maria Rilke, was an Austrian poet and novelist. Acclaimed as an idiosyncratic and expressive poet, he is widely recognized as a significant writer in the German language. His work is viewed by critics and scholars as possessing undertones of mysticism, exploring themes of subjective experience and disbelief. His writings include one novel, several collections of poetry and several volumes of correspondence.
Edward James "Ted" Hughes was an English poet, translator, and children's writer. Critics frequently rank him as one of the best poets of his generation and one of the twentieth century's greatest writers. He was appointed Poet Laureate in 1984 and held the office until his death. In 2008, The Times ranked Hughes fourth on its list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945".
David Herbert Lawrence was an English novelist, short story writer, poet, playwright, literary critic, travel writer, essayist, and painter. His modernist works reflect on modernity, social alienation and industrialization, while championing sexuality, vitality and instinct. Three of his most famous novels — The Rainbow, Women in Love, and Lady Chatterley's Lover — were the subject of censorship trials for their radical portrayals of sexuality and use of explicit language.
Horatio Alger Jr. was an American author who wrote young adult novels about impoverished boys and their rise from humble backgrounds to middle-class security and comfort through good works. His writings were characterized by the "rags-to-riches" narrative, which had a formative effect on the United States from 1868 through to his death in 1899.
Robert Elwood Bly was an American poet, essayist, activist and leader of the mythopoetic men's movement. His best-known prose book is Iron John: A Book About Men (1990), which spent 62 weeks on The New York Times Best Seller list, and is a key text of the mythopoetic men's movement. He won the 1968 National Book Award for Poetry for his book The Light Around the Body.
Samoa Airways, formerly Polynesian Airlines, is the flag carrier of Samoa.
Edmund Wade Davis is a Canadian cultural anthropologist, ethnobotanist, photographer, and writer.
Le Mamea Matatumua Ata was one of the framers of the Constitution of Samoa. He held senior positions under the German colonial government of Samoa, New Zealand Trusteeship of Samoa and in the Independent State of Samoa.
José Antonio "Tony" Burciaga was an American Chicano artist, poet, and writer who explored issues of Chicano identity and American society.
Faleolo International Airport is an airport located 40 kilometres (25 mi) west of Apia, the capital of Samoa. Until 1984, Faleolo could not accommodate jets larger than a Boeing 737. Services to the United States, Australia, or New Zealand, could only land at Pago Pago International Airport in American Samoa. Since the airport's expansion, most international traffic now uses Faleolo.
Papalii Sia Figiel is an American contemporary Samoan novelist, poet, and painter.
Faleasi'u is one of the largest village settlements on the island of Upolu in Samoa. It is located on the northwestern coast of the island and has a population of 4177.
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.
Stevan Treleaven Eldred-Grigg is a New Zealand author of thirteen novels, eleven history books and various essays and short stories. His works of fiction and non-fiction explore the West Coast, Canterbury, the wider South Island and the whole of New Zealand. He also writes about Samoa, Shanghai, Germany, and Australia.
Sitakant Mahapatra is an Indian poet and literary critic in Odia as well as English. He served in the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) from 1961 until he retired in 1995, and has held ex officio posts such as the Chairman of National Book Trust, New Delhi since then.
Emelihter Kihleng is a Micronesian poet. She is the first ever Micronesian to publish a collection of poetry in the English language, and is one of few published Micronesian poets.
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.
Dan Taulapapa McMullin is an American Samoan artist, known for their poetry, visual art and film. Their major themes are their indigenous Samoan heritage and their fa'afafine gender identity. McMullin has been creating literary and artistic works for over 35 years, and has received numerous awards, fellowships, and grants. They work in a variety of literary styles and visual art modes. In their adult life, they have spent time in Los Angeles, and now live with their partner in Laguna, California, and Hudson, New York.
Mischa Willett is an American poet and essayist best known for his work in the poetic elegy and for his academic championship of the Spasmodic poets.
Michael Harlow is a poet, publisher, editor and librettist. A recipient of the Katherine Mansfield Menton Fellowship (1986) and the University of Otago Robert Burns Fellowship (2009), he has twice been a poetry finalist in the New Zealand Book Awards. In 2018 he was awarded the Prime Minister's Award for Literary Achievement, alongside playwright Renée and critic and curator Wystan Curnow Harlow has published 12 books of poetry and one book on writing poetry.