Writer Nikki-Lee Birdsey was brought up in Piha and studied in the United States - at the Iowa Writers' Workshop, as well as working on her BA at New York University. She writes about her impressions of both countries in her first poetry collection, Night As Day. With her we spend time in beautiful remote parts of New Zealand and hang out in the bright lights of New York and Queens. Nikki-Lee tells Lynn Freeman that her time in the States has deeply impacted on her writing. Night as Day by Nikki-Lee Birdsey is published by Victoria University Press.