MANUIA HEINRICH
PhD & Author
SALT WATER BLOOD
“A riveting and original page-turner centering on beautifully realized characters.”
—KIRKUS Reviews (starred review) ✪
An Indigenous teen fights to clear her brother of a murder charge by embracing her gift of hearing the sea’s prophetic thoughts in this debut young adult speculative thriller that’s Firekeeper’s Daughter meets Moana.
Out November 17, 2026.
About
Manuia is a Tahitian-Chinese writer based in Aotearoa New Zealand. Raised in the francophone Pacific in a large and loving family, she's a researcher and educator with a PhD in Pacific Studies from Victoria University of Wellington (something she’s eternally recovering from!). An advocate for Pacific Islander voices, she co-founded the non-profit organization Pacific Islanders in Publishing.
- Selected for Write Mentor UK, We Need Diverse Books with New York Times best-selling authors Dhonielle Clayton and Varsha Bajaj, & the New Zealand Society of Authors with crime author Vanda Symon.
- Recipient of a Highlights Foundation Scholarship for Emerging Writers of Pacific Island descent (2023).
- Selected for the Doctoral Dean’s List of Excellence, for theses of exceptional quality that make an outstanding contribution to their field of research, Victoria University of Wellington (2022).
Contact
For any publishing inquiries, please reach out to my agent Marin Takikawa at The Friedrich Agency. If you have any questions or simply want to say hi, drop me a line below!