Samuel Te Kani (born 1990) is a New Zealand author, artist, and sexpert.[1][2]
Early life
Te Kani (Ngāpuhi) grew up in Whangārei. Te Kani has described growing up in a Protestant household who were accepting of his early cross-dressing, and that his family experienced brief stints of homelessness as a result of evictions.[3] Te Kani came out as gay when he was 14, saying that he came out "without the practical knowledge of my orientation, only the fervent theoretical belief that I was a homosexual."[4]
Career
Te Kani started sex blogging in 2013–14, which then led to series of mini-documentaries, Sex with Sam, for Vice on different aspects of sex and sexuality in New Zealand.[5][6]
Te Kani has also written cultural, music, and sex-related essays for a variety of publications, including Metro, Vice, The Spinoff, TVNZ, Stuff, NZ Herald, and Radio New Zealand.[7][8][4][9][10][11][12][13]
In 2015 Te Kani contributed a chapter to the book Close Your Eyes With Holy Dread, and in 2020 contributed a chapter to the exhibition catalog Whose Futures?[14][15]
During the COVID-19 pandemic in New Zealand Te Kani supplemented his income by writing 150–200 personalised erotic stories on commission.[1] Reoccurring motifs in these commissions were John Campbell, Britney Spears, and bisexual Male-Male-Female stories.[1]
Te Kani participated in New Zealand's 2018 National Poetry Day, and in two panels in the 2020 Samesame But Different writing festival; one on science-fiction, and another on sex.[16][17] Te Kani participated in the 2022 Auckland Writers Festival and 2022 New Zealand Young Writers Festival.[18][19]
In 2022, Te Kani's essay Catholic Taste was shown and orated in the art show Season, a mixed-medium gallery in the Commercial Bay Shopping Centre.[20] In 2022 Te Kani and Johanna Cosgrove started a podcast Rats in the Gutter where they discuss art and pop culture.[21][22]
Please, Call Me Jesus
In 2021 Te Kani published Please, Call Me Jesus his debut fiction book of erotic short-stories. In describing the book, Te Kani said that Please, Call Me Jesus is "a collection of mostly erotic fiction, but I play with the genre a little bit there too, so there's sci-fi and fantasy elements."[23]
One reviewer summarised the book as "There's an unsavory Messiah, a monk named Tilda Swinton, as well as werewolves, a lidless box of dildos and enough fisting scenes to equal 11 weeks of lockdown."[24] One review for 95bFM said that Please, Call me Jesus is "clever and dark, and it's consistently reminding you of how freaky and weird and intelligent [Te Kani]'s brain is.[25]
Influence and writing style
Te Kani's work often falls under the science-fiction category, he said "I love sci-fi categorically as a genre because it's just a lab house for futures. It's a space where we can project and reimagine where we are and where we are going."[1]
Te Kani said the first time he encountered erotic fiction was when he was twelve years old, reading Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis, which led to a lifelong interest in the subject.[1] Te Kani has been influenced by writers Witi Ihimaera and Peter Wells.[23]
Published works
- Te Kani, Samuel (2015). Davidson, Henry (ed.). Close your eyes with holy dread. Artspace. ISBN 978-0-99412-256-8. OCLC 929994058.
- —— (2020). Murtola, Anna-Maria; Walsh, Shannon (eds.). Whose Futures?. Economic and Social Research Aotearoa. ISBN 978-0-47354-738-7. OCLC 1236459764.
- —— (2021). Please, call me Jesus. Dead Bird Books. ISBN 978-1-99115-061-5. OCLC 1286676571.