The 21st of March marks World Poetry Day, a day for celebrating the power and influence that poetry has had and continues to have within the literary world.

In honour of World Poetry Day the Akoya Team is thrilled to announce the acquisition of our first two poetry collections, Horses by Jake Skeets and Chinese Fish by Grace Yee.

Jake Skeets’ sophomore collection Horses embarks on an exploration of identity, place and culture in the face of climate change. Starting off with the tragic suffocation of 191 wild horses trapped in mud in 2019, Skeets draws parallels between the impact of global warming on wildlife, and settlers’ treatment of Native Americans. Throughout the collection Skeets honors his Diné heritage from the structure of his poems drawing upon numbers significant to the Diné, to his content commemorating Diné culture and land. 

Grace Yee’s debut collection Chinese Fish is a family saga in verse. Spanning twenty years the collection follows a family of Chinese immigrants across as they struggle to assimilate into 20th century New Zealand. Inspired by the survival of her own family, Yee sheds light on the reality of immigration in New Zealand, depicting the harmful “yellow peril” stereotype and fetishisation that Chinese people were subjected to. Intertwining immigration statistics and personal accounts, Yee portrays the complex realities of assimilation.

Camilla, founder of Akoya, says: “We are thrilled to launch our poetry list with two powerful storytellers. Jake Skeets stuns with his passionate, experimental and lyrically complex second collection. Grace Yee’s debut is deeply moving, the subjects of her poems compelling and intimate in nature. Their writing brings to life unforgettable stories about identity, discrimination, assimilation, climate change, industrialisation, home and belonging that offer up important lessons as well as mesmerising reads.”

Both collections are scheduled for a 2026 publication with Horses setting out in April followed by Chinese Fish in August.