Mophead Tu: The Queen's Poem

An inspirational graphic memoir written and illustrated by fast-talking PI Poet Laureate, Selina Tusitala Marsh.

The journey of Mophead continues! Our best-selling children’s book by poet laureate and fast talking P.I. Selina Tusitala Marsh recounted her experience growing up Pasifika with ‘BIG hair. Not just curly hair but wild Afakasi hair’. Selina’s Mophead showed how her (and your) difference can make a difference.

Mophead Meets the Queen tells the story of Selina’s visit to Westminster Abbey to perform for the Queen. Aimed at young readers and adults, Selina tells a story about a Pasifika women conquering her fears on one of the biggest stages one can occupy – and thinking through the role of Empire and the Crown in New Zealand and Samoa. Featuring Megan and Harry, Prince Philip and Lockwood Smith, Mophead Meets the Queen will make you laugh, make you cringe and make you think.

Praise for Mophead: How Your Difference Makes a Difference
‘funny and empowering with magnificent illustrations’ – Hera Lindsay Bird, Newsroom

‘a truly encouraging and rousing story of her extraordinary life’ – NZ Herald

‘I was immediately obsessed, completely and utterly infatuated. Mophead
is an absolute treasure of a book . . . When pressed as to what my top book
of the year is . . . Mophead is my go-to pick.’ – Briar Lawry, The Sapling

About the Author

Dr Selina Tusitala Marsh is of Samoan, Tuvaluan, English and French descent. She was the first Pacific Islander to graduate with a PhD in English from The University of Auckland and is now a lecturer in the English Department, specialising in Pasifika literature. Her first collection, the bestselling Fast Talking PI, won the NZSA Jessie Mackay Award for Best First Book of Poetry in 2010. Marsh represented Tuvalu at the London Olympics Poetry Parnassus event in 2012; her work has been translated into Ukrainian and Spanish and has appeared in numerous forms live in schools, museums, parks, billboards, print and online literary journals. As Commonwealth Poet (2016), she composed and performed for the Queen at Westminster Abbey. She became New Zealand’s Poet Laureate in 2017.

Author Biography

Selina Tusitala Marsh is an Auckland-based Pasifika poet of Samoan, Tuvaluan, English, Scottish and French descent. She was the first Pacific Islander to graduate with a PhD in English from the University of Auckland where she is now an associate professor in the English Department, specialising in Pasifika literature. Her first collection, the bestselling Fast Talking PI, won the NZSA Jessie Mackay Award for Best First Book of Poetry in 2010. Marsh represented Tuvalu at the London Olympics Poetry Parnassus event in 2012; her work has been translated into Ukrainian and Spanish and has appeared in numerous forms live in schools, museums, parks, billboards, as well as print and online literary journals. As Commonwealth Poet (2016), she composed and performed for the Queen at Westminster Abbey. She was New Zealand’s Poet Laureate from 2017-2019. In 2019 she was awarded a Humanities Aronui Medal and was elected a Nga Ahurei a Te Aparangi Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand.