Robert Sullivan

Robert Sullivan is a contemporary writer whose written nine books including the bestselling Star Waka, which was reprinted five times and was listed as a shortlisted in 2000 for the Montana New Zealand Book Awards. He had a few books that were on a short list and long list as well. Maui: Legends of the Outcast, illustrated by Chris Slane, was shortlisted for LIANZA Russell Clark Medal. In 2003, Captain Cook in the Underworld was long-listed for the Montana New Zealand Book Awards in the Poetry Category. In 1991, Robert did have success for his first collection, Jazz Waiata, which won PEN (NZ) Best First Book Award

In the poetic narrative Star Waka (1999) for example, Mr. Sullivan employs traditional Māori story-telling techniques (oral tradition) in order to link contemporary and traditional topics from Aotearoa/New Zealand with concepts and ideas from a European background. This approach allows him to study the identity relation between Māori and Pākehā within transcultural themes of voyaging, personal and national, of the poet and of Māori. In a sense, the poems in Star Waka "themselves function like a waka." "Star Waka" was "lauded for its poetic flair".

He is one of the editors of the online journal trout since its foundation in 1997. Sullivan is also the founder of the new Journal Ika which will be giving students of the Creative Writing School at Manukau Institute of Technology the opportunity to showcase their work. At the moment, Robert Sullivan is - supported by several literary awards and his successful professional career - "widely seen as one of the most important contemporary Māori poets."

Robert Sullivan (born 1967) is a Māori writer from New Zealand.