I am a writer from Aotearoa New Zealand.
My most recent book, Where We Swim, is a blend of memoir, travel and nature writing, and it was published by in Aotearoa New Zealand and Australian editions in 2021. My fiction debut, All Her Lives: Nine Stories is forth-coming on both sides of the Tasman in late 2025/early 2026.
In 2024 I was lucky enough to be the Writer in Residence at the International Institute of Modern Letters, Te Herenga Waka, University of Wellington. In 2025, I am a Teaching Fellow at Te Herenga Waka, teaching a course on Writing Ecologies, and I will be teaching for the Faber Academy at Allen & Unwin.
My previous books include the genre-bending Travelling with Augusta: 1835 and 1999, part memoir, part love story, part history of women’s travel. I’m interested in what happens to people on the move and I’ve written a book on the history of women wanderers in fiction, poetry and travel books, Women Wanderers and the Writing of Mobility. As part of this, I got to edit a new edition of pioneering feminist Mary Wollstonecraft’s dazzling 1796 travel book. I’ve also published two poetry books, short stories, and co-edited a collection of personal essays, Extraordinary Anywhere: Essays on Place for Aotearoa New Zealand. Places where my writing has appeared include Lithub, The Ninth Letter, Spinoff, Landfall, the Guardian.
Awards for my writing include a Michael King Writers Residency and Creative New Zealand grants. I was a Commonwealth Scholar in the UK, did a PhD at Princeton University, and until the end of 2022, I was a Professor in Creative Writing and English at Massey University, Wellington, where I am now an Honorary Research Associate. I was a member of the NonfictioNOW International Board and, with Tina Makereti, co-chaired the steering committee for NonfictioNOW2021.
I live in Te Whanganui a Tara, Wellington, near the south coast, with my partner and twin daughters.
