ABOUT CIAN-CRISTIANA

Cian Cristiana Dennan is a poet, educator and multidisciplinary artist based in Tāmaki Makaurau, Aotearoa. Her creative work explores girlhood, inheritance, feminism, and the layered experience of identity. Drawing on her Italian heritage, Cian’s writing examines the tensions between place and displacement, language and silence, intimacy and tradition. Her poems find nuance in everyday life—family rituals, inherited gestures, and the quiet negotiations of belonging.

Alongside her poetic practice, Cian is deeply invested in fostering accessible, artist-led spaces. She is the founder of By & For, a market platform supporting emerging and independent artists, and has facilitated zine-making workshops for initiatives such as Same Same But Different, contributing to the vibrant queer literary community in Aotearoa. Cian’s interest in independent publication has led Cian to partake in Auckland Zine Fest since 2022, promoting Of Craft and Curios small press zine catalogue. Cian’s online artist pseudonym, Of Crafts and Curios, has amassed over 10,000 combined followers across social media platforms.

Cian completed her Master’s degree in Creative Writing at the University of Auckland in 2025 and has been recognised for her work through a number of prestigious awards, including the Garth Maxwell Creative Project Prize and the Phoenix Prize. Cian’s practice continues to evolve as both intimate and expansive—rooted in the personal and the political. A list of Cian’s awards and prizes is available below.

Awards & Recognitions

  • Cian was awarded The Phoenix Prize 2025. The prize recognises a student in the Master of Creative Writing degree who submitted for examination the highest-quality manuscript and is deemed to have strong potential to succeed commercially.

  • Cian was the recipient of the Shimon Weinroth Prize in Poetry, 2025. The prize recognizes and rewards the Univeristy of Auckland student who produces the best piece of poetry and demonstrates a focus and commitment to writing poetry

  • Cian Dennan was the inagural first place recepeient of the Garth Maxwell Creative Project Prize for her Masters thesis - an award to recognize outstanding creative practice.

  • Cian Dennan was awarded the first-place scholarship prize for her contribution to poetry at the University of Auckland.

  • Cian Dennan received the Copyright Licensing New Zealand scholarship for 2024. Awarded to an individual student in the Master’s of Creative Writing programme based on the merit of their application portfolio.