Alice Te Punga Somerville (Te Atiawa) teaches at Victoria University of Wellington, with specialisation in Maori, Pacific and Indigenous writing in English. Born and raised in Aotearoa New Zealand, she received her PhD at Cornell University (English & AIS), and spent time at the University of Hawaii at Manoa during her doctoral studies. Her research interests bring literary and other texts together with Indigenous, Pacific, Maori, Postcolonial, Comparative and Cultural Studies, and she is completing her first book, Once Were Pacific, which explores Maori articulations of connection with the Pacific. Her next project, Kanohi ki te Kanohi, will look at Indigenous-Indigenous encounters. She also writes the occasional poem.