Dr April-Rose Geers - University Book Shop Emerging Writer in Residence

Posted: Thursday Nov 23, 2023

Dr April-Rose Geers has been announced as the University Book Shop Emerging Writer in Residence. She will take up the residency in the Robert Lord Writers Cottage in early January 2024.

April is a poet and researcher from Tāmaki Makaurau/Auckland and is currently a Lecturer and Course Coordinator at the University of Canterbury. In 2023 she completed her PhD in Creative Writing at Massey University where she was awarded Valedictorian of the School of Humanities.

Her poetry has been published globally in a number of publications and she will utilise her time in the residency to complete a first draft of an original book project, drawing on eight years of research, poetry writing, and journal entries.

The book, which she plans to name 'Border Walker', will be a creative nonfiction memoir interspersed with poetry detailing her journey as a poet-activist and the inspiration she derived from her research on an Iranian political prisoner, poet, and Bahá'í.

Congratulations April!