I wish you’d known me in my last life; I was so together. I had savings and a dog.

Maybe you should come with a warning though - like how they have those sickly pictures on cigarette packets? WARNING: Dating this woman may lead to insomnia, lack of appetite and reduced libido.

Snippets of witty conversations between ex-lovers and young artists make way for discussions of serious family secrets; dreams of red lilies and tapu stars co-exist with dreams of bottle-shop wine at supermarket prices.

We were taught to pity people with tattoos; my father said they were making life very hard for themselves and that they couldn't expect to find good jobs. I have the Southern Cross glittering down my back.

Long-listed for Ockham New Zealand Book Awards - Fiction 2016.

"Fabulously sassy, Meredith turns her poetic lens to short fiction, capturing her journey from urbanesia to metropolitan Europe. Tail of the Taniwha is her smashing debut collection." --Robert Sullivan

"This is fine work. There is a lot of energy in the prose and on the strength of the observations and insights along the way we trust the voice." --Lloyd Jones, Winner of the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best Overall Book for Mister Pip

"...loud, lyrical, and audacious." --Paula Morris,  Winner of the New Zealand Post Book Awards for Rangatira

In 2011, Meredith became the youngest artist and the first New Zealander and Pacific Islander in the history of the LiteraturRaum project to be invited to Germany as writer-in-residence for the Bleibtreu Berlin. Meredith toured with a group of esteemed writers for the International Indonesian Poetry Festival in 2012, was a delegate for the British Council for Phakama, and took part in activities in London that formed part of the Cultural Olympiad during the 2012 London Olympics. She has had her works translated into German, Dutch, French, Bahasa Indonesian, with Rushing Dolls soon to be translated into Italian.

Great Works - p. 8 | A/B - p. 14 | Ibu and Tufuga - p. 30 | Aotahi - p. 32 | The Coconut King - p. 46 | Taniwha House - p. 52 | Manifesto - p. 68 | Perfumed Stars - p. 78 | Hundred - p. 82 | The Youthful Dead - p. 84 | Leaning Trees - p. 90 | X - p. 108 | Patriarch, Eldest Son, Ghost Son, Daughter p. 114 | Corner of Bleibtreu - p. 124 | Dreams - p. 130 | Old Friend - p. 136 | 25 - p. 138 | 'New Zealand you' - p. 144