Check out my latest projects, extending the world of Not That I’d Kiss A Girl or creating something new outside of it.
’OTHERHOOD: A forthcoming essay anthology with Massey University Press
Released May 9, 2024 by Massey University Press
For the last year and a half I’ve been working on an exciting new project that’s a bit of a departure from memoir. But it’s still queer-as, and subversive in its own way.
‘OTHERHOOD is an essay anthology featuring the writing of 36 women and gender diverse people about their experience of being child-free, childless or child-adjacent, whether by choice or circumstance. I’m putting it together with the best team, Alie Benge and Kathryn van Beek, a.k.a ‘The Barrenesses’.
There’s so much passion about this topic out there, which meant we had no trouble getting together 11 writing samples to pitch to publishers. Our samples explored religion, Te Ao Māori, forms of care, queerness, depression, feminism, body autonomy, grief, shame and gender expectations. I’ve written a piece about navigating the fertility industry in NYC through a queer lens, called ‘No Masturbation Allowed’.
After raising funds through a super successful Boosted crowdfunding campaign back in 2023 to pay our contributors. we frenetically selected essays from close to 100 submissions, got them edited and submitted to our publisher in under three months. It was such a mission, but we learned so much along the way, and made amazing connections with our contributors. We can’t wait for you to read this collection.
UPDATE: March 2024
Check out that cover! We have the advance copy, and the book launches are in planning for Auckland, Wellington and Dunedin in May. We’ll also be running a lunchtime event at Unity Books Wellington, and speaking at the Auckland Writer’s Festival. Check out the Events page for more details.
UPDATE: Jan 2024
We’ve heard that the advance copies have arrived at the Massey office, and we can’t wait to get our sweaty hands on them – especially to share them with our amazing contributors. Planning is also underway for launches in Auckland, Wellington and Dunedin in May.
UPDATE: July 2023
We closed for submissions at the end of May, and have just finished selecting 36 beautiful essays for ‘OTHERHOOD (well, 35 and one comic). Yes, we couldn’t manage to keep it to 30.
‘OTHERHOOD is an essay anthology featuring the writing of 36 women and gender diverse people about their experience of being child-free, childless or child-adjacent, whether by choice or circumstance. I’m putting it together with the best team, Alie Benge and Kathryn van Beek, a.k.a ‘The Barrenesses’.
There’s so much passion about this topic out there, which meant we had no trouble getting together 11 writing samples to pitch to publishers. Our samples explored religion, Te Ao Māori, forms of care, queerness, depression, feminism, body autonomy, grief, shame and gender expectations. I’ve written a piece about navigating the fertility industry in NYC through a queer lens, called ‘No Masturbation Allowed’.
After raising funds through a super successful Boosted crowdfunding campaign back in 2023 to pay our contributors. we frenetically selected essays from close to 100 submissions, got them edited and submitted to our publisher in under three months. It was such a mission, but we learned so much along the way, and made amazing connections with our contributors. We can’t wait for you to read this collection.
UPDATE: March 2024
Check out that cover! We have the advance copy, and the book launches are in planning for Auckland, Wellington and Dunedin in May. We’ll also be running a lunchtime event at Unity Books Wellington, and speaking at the Auckland Writer’s Festival. Check out the Events page for more details.
UPDATE: Jan 2024
We’ve heard that the advance copies have arrived at the Massey office, and we can’t wait to get our sweaty hands on them – especially to share them with our amazing contributors. Planning is also underway for launches in Auckland, Wellington and Dunedin in May.
UPDATE: July 2023
We closed for submissions at the end of May, and have just finished selecting 36 beautiful essays for ‘OTHERHOOD (well, 35 and one comic). Yes, we couldn’t manage to keep it to 30.
Not That I’d Kiss A Girl – the film
Currently in early development
In 2020, a bastion of the New Zealand television industry, Kate McDermott, heard me speak on Lynn Freeman’s RNZ programme about about Not That I’d Kiss A Girl. She popped up to her local bookstore, Dear Reader, and asked for ‘That latest lesbian autobiography’. They sold her the new Glennon Doyle.
Not that lesbian.
Eventually she got her hands on a copy, and soon after reading, tracked down my contact details (this is New Zealand, it’s small) and got in touch. A year later, because things move slowly then all at once in TV & film land, I was sitting down in a room at South Pacific Pictures with Kate and two other amazing writers: Jess Sayer and Libby Bird, storylining NTIKAG: the TV series. (Can I just say, what a story table: four queer women, all fantastic writers across TV/theatre/film and... me, just happy to be there.)
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Due to a number of reasons, the TV series didn’t go further, but, bringing Not That I’d Kiss A Girl to the screen was still a flickering ember. Long story short, and nearly two years later, we have a film script, written by Kate, with me providing edits.
There’s still a long road to go, but seeing this in script form has been SO exciting, and I can picture it vividly thanks to Kate’s amazing script. Next step: pitching to the NZ Film Commission. Cross fingers for us!
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It was amazing to see how quickly the story becomes more and more fictionalised, as you flesh out other characters and give them their own storylines, or move things around to fit the jigsaw puzzle.
After being presented to TVNZ and TV3 (which was in flux as it was bought by Discovery), our series proposal kind of disappeared, not aided with the onset of our longest lockdown in Auckland due to COVID. But! Just when I thought it had sunk, South Pacific Pictures said ‘Let’s give it another go’, and gave Kate and I the go-ahead to start developing NTIKAG: The Film. Now in v2, we’re waiting to hear back from the NZ Film Commission if we’ve got some funding to write the script.
WATCH THIS SPACE!
kjkjk
kjkj
Due to a number of reasons, the TV series didn’t go further, but, bringing Not That I’d Kiss A Girl to the screen was still a flickering ember. Long story short, and nearly two years later, we have a film script, written by Kate, with me providing edits.
There’s still a long road to go, but seeing this in script form has been SO exciting, and I can picture it vividly thanks to Kate’s amazing script. Next step: pitching to the NZ Film Commission. Cross fingers for us!
It was amazing to see how quickly the story becomes more and more fictionalised, as you flesh out other characters and give them their own storylines, or move things around to fit the jigsaw puzzle.
After being presented to TVNZ and TV3 (which was in flux as it was bought by Discovery), our series proposal kind of disappeared, not aided with the onset of our longest lockdown in Auckland due to COVID. But! Just when I thought it had sunk, South Pacific Pictures said ‘Let’s give it another go’, and gave Kate and I the go-ahead to start developing NTIKAG: The Film. Now in v2, we’re waiting to hear back from the NZ Film Commission if we’ve got some funding to write the script.
WATCH THIS SPACE!
kjkjk
kjkj