“Anahera” is a transliterated Maori word meaning “Angel”. It is also a popular name for Maori girls.

ANAHERA Press was founded by poet and editor Kiri Piahana-Wong in July 2011. Kiri’s vision was to create a new small press publishing company whose reason for being was to provide a publication platform for authors writing outside the mainstream.

ANAHERA’s kaupapa/mission statement is to publish work by all authors in all genres that fosters cross-cultural communication.

A book by an ANAHERA author may give voice to the author’s own cultural story, or may speak to the intersections and spaces between cultures. This is particularly relevant to those of our young people who have grown up with mixed ethnicity; walking between worlds. At ANAHERA we want to publish these stories, stories that the mainstream media does not always understand, value or appreciate. If you are such a writer, or reader, find your home with us.

ANAHERA has made a commitment that a minimum of 75% of authors published will be from minority groups: those groups of persons who face barriers in finding a platform for publication in the mainstream media. The remaining 25% of authors published in any given publication year may be from a non-minority group provided that their work speaks to ANAHERA’s core mission statement.

For the first year of its existence, ANAHERA will be publishing only poetry, both full-length collections and chapbooks, by Maori and Pasifika writers based in Aotearoa NZ. In the following year, we hope to broaden our publications to include a wider range of genres and author groups.