EDITORS’ LETTER
Kia ora! Welcome to Issue 22 of Starling, bringing us into August and through the Aotearoa winter of 2026.
We’re so excited to share this issue with you. It features new work by eighteen writers, all of whom were under the age of 25 at the time of submission. Many are new to Starling; several are returning contributors; some we are lucky to have this final opportunity to publish before their practice takes them on to other journals and/or lengthier bodies of work — which we will follow (as we always do!) with great eagerness.
While we have you, we want to share a few words of thanks to all of the collaborators who have shaped Issue 22 — which, of course, must begin with the authors. This includes those we’re publishing in this issue and all those whose work we have the opportunity to read. There’s such an incredible wealth of creative writing by young people in Aotearoa, and getting to read through the latest (be it poetry, prose, or any exquisite permutation in between) is the greatest joy of this mahi. The work included in Issue 22 is full of distinct voices — such a meeting of craft and heart. It’s full of resonant images and lines we haven’t stopped thinking about since the first time we read them.
Thanks also to Zephyr Zhang, Loretta Riach, and Anuja Mitra, whose writerly contributions to the journal span Issue 2 to Issue 20, and who are now back in our guest spot as the latest class of AUP New Poets. Each writer has provided a new poem especially for Issue 22, and we are thrilled to be publishing these three pieces of work, featuring skulls, geodesic domes, and smooth river stones; weeping, weathering, and warmth; and references to both multidisciplinary artist Claude Cahun and the doomed Trojan prophetess Cassandra.
To Joseph Trinidad, author of Lucky Creatures (published this year in Aotearoa by Te Herenga Waka University Press and in the United States by Sarabande Books), who spoke with us with such generosity and wit about the essay form, his current writing practice and community, and the landscape for non-fiction in Aotearoa today — plus some behind-the-scenes peeks at the development of his pukapuka. Divine!
To Ming Ranginui and Season for use of Game of Thrones: we are long-time fans, and it’s wonderful to have this impactful, intelligent, vibrant, playful piece of work as our Issue 22 cover.
To the rest of the Starling tīma: Ruby Macomber and Joy Holley, with whom we’re now on our third issue as an editorial team, and who continue to bring such nous, discernment, and heart to this journal; Louise Wallace and Francis Cooke, for their encouragement and sterling governance of Starling. To Creative New Zealand, who make so much of this kaupapa possible.
And, of course, to you! Thank you for your support of the young writers of Aotearoa. The work in this issue is adroit and funny, thought-provoking and poignant, sharp and romantic, clever and new — we can’t wait for you to read it.