Ko wai koe?

Nic Low is a writer and arts organiser of Ngāi Tahu Maori and European descent. He whakapapas to Ōraka-Aparima at the bottom of the South Island, and is vice-chair of the Ngāi Tahu Ki Melbourne taurahere group. He divides his time between a bush retreat in the Castlemaine National Heritage Park, and Christchurch, NZ.

His first book is Arms Race, a collection of mischievous, polemical short stories out with Text Publishing. His second, a literary walking expedition through the Maori and European history of New Zealand’s Southern Alps, comes out with Text Publishing next year. His subjects are wilderness and adventure, technology and power, history and race.

Nic’s short fiction, essays and criticism have been published widely in Australia and New Zealand. He is a recipient of the 2018 CLNZ Writers’ Award, a 2018 Pushcart Prize nominee, and an alumnus of the 2017 Banff Centre Mountain and Wilderness Writing Program. He also judges literary prizes, most recently the 2020 Commonwealth Short Story Prize, and the 2020 Jan Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction in the New Zealand Book Awards.

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ARMS RACE & other stories

Twelve wildly funny and politically charged stories about the urgent questions of our time: data theft, internet memes, advertising, terrorism, indigenous sovereignty, drone warfare, opium addiction, syphilis, the moon landing, mining, oil slicks, climate change, giant octopuses; in this collection nothing is spared. Arms Race goes beyond satire, aiming for the dark heart of our collective obsession with technology, power and image.

Shortlisted for the Readings Prize and the Queensland Literary Awards; A Listener and Australian Book Review Book of the Year.
"Fierce and uncompromising ... seductive and frightening" - The Australian
"a bristling, playful energy" - Sydney Morning Herald
"brazenly funny" - The Thousands

 Arms Race cover - small

Set variously in London, a Rajasthani village, remote Mongolia, the West Australian outback and mountainous New Zealand, these are prescient visions of the future and outlandish reimaginings of the past. Arms Race is an arresting debut from a fierce new voice in Australian writing.

ARMS RACE REVIEWS AND MEDIA

  • Fukuyama was wrong. History hasn't ended. It's been outsourced.

    General Hurtz

  • The man had a heavy beard, and the kind of morose gravity that makes talkative people act like fools. Filling his silence would be like shovelling sand into the sea.

    The Lotus Eaters

  • This bar has been full of drunken Frenchmen since the year 1893. It has never been empty. These seats pass like batons in a relay. We sit and try to remember why we are here, but the truth is—we have come here to forget.

    The Lotus Eaters

the lowdown

All the news that's unfit for print

  • Fukuyama was wrong. History hasn't ended. It's been outsourced.

    General Hurtz

  • The man had a heavy beard, and the kind of morose gravity that makes talkative people act like fools. Filling his silence would be like shovelling sand into the sea.

    The Lotus Eaters

  • This bar has been full of drunken Frenchmen since the year 1893. It has never been empty. These seats pass like batons in a relay. We sit and try to remember why we are here, but the truth is—we have come here to forget.

    The Lotus Eaters

portfolio

Writing, installation art, international cultural exchange, festival direction, graphic and web design.

Ear to the Ground

developed for Griffith REVIEW

Ain’t no D in the DMZ

developed for The Lifted Brow

Octopus

developed for Griffith REVIEW

Punkasila

developed for Art Monthly

The Bookwallah

developed for Asialink

A Map of a Dream of the Future

developed for Junction Australian National Regional Arts Festival

Te Kāraka Magazine

developed for Te Kāraka magazine, Te Rūnunga ō Ngāi Tahu