The Mires by Tina Makereti (Te Ātiawa, Ngāti Tūwharetoa, Ngāti Rangatahi-Matakore, Pākehā) is set in a near future where ecological devastation has made parts of the world almost uninhabitable. An unyielding swamp encroaches in Becky Manawatu’s (Ngāi Tahu) Kataraina, the much-anticipated follow-up to her Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction winning Auē. These two wāhine Māori writers discuss their novels and the call of the landscape.