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
Now in the editing process, to be published May 2024 by Massey University Press
For the last year I’ve been working on an exciting new project that’s a bit of a departure from memoir. But, c’mon guys, it’s me. It’s still queer-as, and subversive in its own way.
‘OTHERHOOD is an essay anthology that’s going to feature the writing of 30 women and gender diverse people, about their experience of being child-free, 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’.
UPDATE: July 2023
We closed for submissions at the end of May, and have just finished selecting 32 beautiful essays for ‘OTHERHOOD. Yes, we couldn’t manage to keep it to 30.
That’s why it’s even more important we get your help to raise the funds to pay our writers. We’ve been blown away by the response to our Boosted crowdfunding campaign already. Take a look!
‘OTHERHOOD is an essay anthology that’s going to feature the writing of 30 women and gender diverse people, about their experience of being child-free, 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’.
UPDATE: July 2023
We closed for submissions at the end of May, and have just finished selecting 32 beautiful essays for ‘OTHERHOOD. Yes, we couldn’t manage to keep it to 30.
That’s why it’s even more important we get your help to raise the funds to pay our writers. We’ve been blown away by the response to our Boosted crowdfunding campaign already. Take a look!
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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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
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