Courtney Sina Meredith

Courtney Sina Meredith (born 1986) is a New Zealand poet, playwright, short story author, and for-purpose leader. She has held executive director roles at organisations such as Tautai Pacific Arts Trust, RainbowYOUTH, and the Publishers Association of New Zealand.

Background Born in 1986, Meredith grew up in Glen Innes and is of Samoan, Cook Island and Irish descent. She attended Ponsonby Primary School, Ponsonby Intermediate School, and Western Springs College, her mother Kim Meredith is also a poet. Meredith studied English and Political Studies at the University of Auckland. She has also published Brown Girls in Bright Red Lipstick, a book of poetry, and Tail of the Taniwha, a collection of short stories and poetry. Her work has been translated into Italian, German, Dutch, French, Spanish and Bahasa Indonesia. What's Poetry? and Ika. and Edinburgh International Book Festival.

Her children and young persons book The Adventures of Tupaia co-authored with Mat Tait came out in 2019 and is about Tupaia, a navigator from Tahiti, who sailed to New Zealand with Captain Cook on board the Endeavour. In 2021 the poetry book by Meredith Burst Kisses on the Actual Wind was published by Beatnik Publishing.

Awards

Meredith received a grant from Creative New Zealand to develop her collection of short stories, Tail of the Taniwha. Following this residency, she was writer in residence at the Island Institute in Sitka, Alaska. She has also held a residency at the Sylt Foundation. The same year it won the Aotearoa Pasifika Play Competition.

Tail of the Taniwha was longlisted for the 2017 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards for the Acorn Foundation Fiction Prize.

In 2021 she was awarded the University of Auckland’s Young Alumna of the Year