Christodoulos Moisa

Christodoulos Evangeli Georgiou Moisa (born 1948) is a New Zealand poet, artist, photographer, writer, essayist and art teacher.

Moisa was born in 1948 in Lower Hutt, New Zealand.

His parents were immigrants from Cyprus.

His father was Evangelos Georgiou Moisa from Marathovounos and his mother was Athena Kleanthi from Angastina two villages in central Cyprus.

From 1954 to 1959 he lived in Varosia/Famagusta a provincial capital in eastern Cyprus and the villages of Patriki and Angastina.

Moisa was educated at Patriki and Angastina Primary Schools in Cyprus, Mount Cook Primary School, Wellington (1960–1962), Wellington College (1963–1967), and Victoria University of Wellington and University of Auckland in New Zealand.

As a social activist and Chairperson of the Newton branch of the Grey Lynn, Westmere, Newton Community Committee, in the late 1970s Moisa led in Auckland a campaign against lead in petrol and with the architect, university lecturer and Cheer Part-Up Party leader, Vince Terrini, established Flash, one of the precursors to all the Auckland community newspapers.

At the same time he also led a campaign to stop the extension of upper Queen Street – the city's main street – to Dominion Rd. He won a case against the Auckland City Council in the Town Planning Court and as a result, the north-facing Basque Park has remained a peaceful residential haven.

At The Quay School of the Arts, he completed his Bachelor of Fine Arts which he started at Auckland University in 1972, in print-making.

He attended the Sir John School of Art London in 1973 and The Quay School of the Arts at UCOL, Whanganui, New Zealand in 2002.

He also lived in Angastina 18 months before 1974 coup and Turkish invasion.

He was an Executive member of the New Zealand Branch of PEN, now New Zealand Society of Authors (PEN New Zealand Inc.), in the 1980s and was the founder of the Dunedin and Christchurch branches.

Moisa has also written for Te Ara (New Zealand National Library's online encyclopaedia).

He has written a series of essays such as: The Big Sigh, Bitter Kiwifruit and Felix the Cat Versus Mr Morgan.

He was awarded the National Poetry Prize at the Te Awamutu Rose Festival in 1981, the Queen Elizabeth the II Arts Council Fellowship in 1983, and the Whitirea Poetry Prize in 1991 for his long poem "In the Shadow of the Cathedral".

During his Queen Elizabeth the II Arts Council fellowship tenure he trialed a scheme whereby the arts would be taught to people who were unlikely to receive such training.

Moisa taught poetry at Dunedin's Crippled Children Society.

This scheme eventually led to the Arts in Prisons Scheme.

In the seventies Moisa taught art as a volunteer to inmates at Mount Eden Prison, in Auckland.

He is the owner/manager/editor of One Eyed Press which has published the poetry of New Zealand poets among them Iain Sharp, Win Jones, and Peter Olds.

To date Moisa has published seven of his own books of poems also under the One Eyed Press imprint.

He also took part in the demonstrations against the 1981 South African Springbok Rugby Tour.

In 2002 Moisa was the recipient of a Ministry of Education Teachers Fellowship which he used to complete his BFA.

In 2004 Moisa launched the Whanganui Inter-Secondary Schools Portrait Competition to promote the talent of young secondary school artists in the Whanganui region.

It is now in its eighth year.

As a political activist, Moisa demonstrated with other university students against the war in Vietnam and later on the occupation of Timor and Cyprus.

In 2006 he was the Winner of the Telecom Art Contest for Whanganui.

He has had nine one-person exhibitions and participated in a number of group shows.

Moisa has read his poetry throughout New Zealand and in Germany and Cyprus.

In 2011 Moisa wrote a brief history of his mother's village in Cyprus and designed and compiled a website to ensure that its history will outlive the Turkish occupation.

The site is called Angastina – The village of the lotus-eaters.

In 2013 Moisa's first book of short stories was published.

Blood and Koka Kola.

It includes four illustrations and 24 short stories.

In January 2016, Moisa's first novel The Hour of the Grey Wolf was published followed by a second "Overcast Sunday" in June 2016.

In 2018 the second novel in the Wolf Trilogy, Wolves in Dogs' Clothing was published.

“Blood and Koka Kola is a mix of tales... Some are told in the traditional manner; with a beginning, middle and end; others are short staccato bursts of poetic energy, gorgeous in their use of language and satisfying as a good story should be... None is disappointing.

Each story is a good read, and the variety of construction adds to the interest and encourages further exploration ... For your average Kiwi, it adds an exotic touch and extra interest ... Some stories make you wonder where they come from, how they arrived in the author’s imagination, but they ‘re so good you’d be pleased they did.

Paul Brooks - Midweek

“Moisa doesn’t disappoint.