Emma Neale
@emenspace.bsky.social
Author & editor. Billy Bird (Penguin Random, 2016). To the Occupant (OUP, 2019). The Pink Jumpsuit (QWP, 2021). Liar, Liar, Lick, Spit (OUP, 2024).Author pic by Caroline Davies. Cover photo art work by Sharon Singer.
I have a new essay/memoir piece, centering around a childhood friendship, up at North & South magazine.
I hope it finds the readers who need it. 💛🌟💛🌟
#pukapuka #memoir #aotearoa #creativenonfiction #nonfiction
northandsouth.co.nz/2025/04/23/s...
I hope it finds the readers who need it. 💛🌟💛🌟
#pukapuka #memoir #aotearoa #creativenonfiction #nonfiction
northandsouth.co.nz/2025/04/23/s...
April 24, 2025 at 12:00 AM
I have a new essay/memoir piece, centering around a childhood friendship, up at North & South magazine.
I hope it finds the readers who need it. 💛🌟💛🌟
#pukapuka #memoir #aotearoa #creativenonfiction #nonfiction
northandsouth.co.nz/2025/04/23/s...
I hope it finds the readers who need it. 💛🌟💛🌟
#pukapuka #memoir #aotearoa #creativenonfiction #nonfiction
northandsouth.co.nz/2025/04/23/s...
March 17, 2025 at 10:05 PM
My new book of poems, Liar, Liar, Lick, Spit is launching this Thursday. Published by Otago University Press. Gorgeous cover art by Laura Williams. Design by Fiona Moffat. Edited by Anna Hodge. #pukapuka #Aotearoa #poetry #otagounipress
November 11, 2024 at 1:49 AM
My new book of poems, Liar, Liar, Lick, Spit is launching this Thursday. Published by Otago University Press. Gorgeous cover art by Laura Williams. Design by Fiona Moffat. Edited by Anna Hodge. #pukapuka #Aotearoa #poetry #otagounipress
Apopros of nothing other than the love of an Elizabeth Bishop poem (and the fact that it's winter here in the southern hemisphere):
June 24, 2024 at 4:14 AM
Apopros of nothing other than the love of an Elizabeth Bishop poem (and the fact that it's winter here in the southern hemisphere):
A strong, bite-sized novel, or a narrative in poetic struck-matches.
It reminds me of Janet Frame’s comment, that she thought of all her novels as experiments. Maybe genre-categories will turn to ash, too, in the hands of this short but punchy publication. #pukapuka #aotearoa
It reminds me of Janet Frame’s comment, that she thought of all her novels as experiments. Maybe genre-categories will turn to ash, too, in the hands of this short but punchy publication. #pukapuka #aotearoa
April 13, 2024 at 9:18 PM
A stunning, measured sequence I’m late to: it’s full of compassion, restrained anger, each poem quietly controlled and deftly laid down so it’s all like a winning hand in a high stakes card game. Wow. #poetry #writers #CorneliusEady
February 3, 2024 at 6:21 PM
A stunning, measured sequence I’m late to: it’s full of compassion, restrained anger, each poem quietly controlled and deftly laid down so it’s all like a winning hand in a high stakes card game. Wow. #poetry #writers #CorneliusEady
Little snapdragon seed pods that look like riroriro or tiny finches. (3 of the beaks are pencil enhanced here, confession.)
January 12, 2024 at 12:35 AM
Little snapdragon seed pods that look like riroriro or tiny finches. (3 of the beaks are pencil enhanced here, confession.)
I first learnt that excellent word cryptid when writing about Bu in Fosterling: Māori legend of the maero, a yeti, a new species, or a young man with a genetic disorder? It’s been years now but I still have a soft spot for him. (Haven’t re-read the novel for ages, though!)
January 8, 2024 at 8:11 AM
I first learnt that excellent word cryptid when writing about Bu in Fosterling: Māori legend of the maero, a yeti, a new species, or a young man with a genetic disorder? It’s been years now but I still have a soft spot for him. (Haven’t re-read the novel for ages, though!)
January 3, 2024 at 9:38 PM
I hoped to see orca or a southern right whale as an auspicious sign today on some birthday outings. And what I got was … this magnificent stinkhorn!
January 2, 2024 at 5:04 AM
I hoped to see orca or a southern right whale as an auspicious sign today on some birthday outings. And what I got was … this magnificent stinkhorn!
A wonderful book: a mojito of drollery, honesty, poignancy, wit & the bittersweet spectre of looking after elderly loved ones; all stirred in with wicked craft advice. ‘I don’t think writing is that hard, as long as you’re comfortable with failure on every single level.’
December 31, 2023 at 1:58 AM
A wonderful book: a mojito of drollery, honesty, poignancy, wit & the bittersweet spectre of looking after elderly loved ones; all stirred in with wicked craft advice. ‘I don’t think writing is that hard, as long as you’re comfortable with failure on every single level.’
A small good thing happened in a pretty rank week: I’ve been sent copies of the anthology Happiness Delayed: one in Dutch, one in Frisian … my first ever print copies of my work in translation. #books #writers #pukapuka #aotearoa #Leeuwarden #Dunedin #Cityofliterature
November 24, 2023 at 7:32 PM
A small good thing happened in a pretty rank week: I’ve been sent copies of the anthology Happiness Delayed: one in Dutch, one in Frisian … my first ever print copies of my work in translation. #books #writers #pukapuka #aotearoa #Leeuwarden #Dunedin #Cityofliterature
😍😍 A tiny, confused, cacophonous pihipihi/wax-eye who stumbled into our foyer. It’s reunited with the trees now. 🌳🌳
November 13, 2023 at 4:53 AM
😍😍 A tiny, confused, cacophonous pihipihi/wax-eye who stumbled into our foyer. It’s reunited with the trees now. 🌳🌳
Signs and wonders / a sign to make you wonder, Broad Bay, Dunedin/Ōtepoti … (I’ve touched electric fences but it didn’t make me lose my teeth!)
November 9, 2023 at 7:14 PM
Signs and wonders / a sign to make you wonder, Broad Bay, Dunedin/Ōtepoti … (I’ve touched electric fences but it didn’t make me lose my teeth!)
I keep thinking about Adam Shatz's article on Gaza in the LRB. Specifically his quote from Franz Fanon: 'hate is not an agenda'. The whole piece is worth reading time. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
November 8, 2023 at 9:40 PM
I keep thinking about Adam Shatz's article on Gaza in the LRB. Specifically his quote from Franz Fanon: 'hate is not an agenda'. The whole piece is worth reading time. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
An antidote to all kinds of blues: the blues of literary limbo, the blues of best-laid plans scuppered; blues of scraggy sleep & parental melancholy @Elizmccrack.bsky.social fair crackles with a kind of sneaky, dry, sad-bitten wit. My new book crush!
November 2, 2023 at 6:39 PM
An antidote to all kinds of blues: the blues of literary limbo, the blues of best-laid plans scuppered; blues of scraggy sleep & parental melancholy @Elizmccrack.bsky.social fair crackles with a kind of sneaky, dry, sad-bitten wit. My new book crush!
They came from Pencilvania.
(Yes, I’m struggling to write a report 😬)
(Yes, I’m struggling to write a report 😬)
November 1, 2023 at 1:18 AM
They came from Pencilvania.
(Yes, I’m struggling to write a report 😬)
(Yes, I’m struggling to write a report 😬)
Sharing this on our 30th wedding anniversary. (🙏🏽to Bridport Prize anthology 2018 & The Pink Jumpsuit (QWP, 2021) )
October 30, 2023 at 7:49 PM
Sharing this on our 30th wedding anniversary. (🙏🏽to Bridport Prize anthology 2018 & The Pink Jumpsuit (QWP, 2021) )
This memorial gathering/ reading for Dunedin/Ōtepoti poet Peter Olds today was wonderful: full of bittersweet moments, great poetry, eccentric weirdness (from audience & readers), then what looked like an incredible cake-banquet: all things Dunedin does so well. Goodbye, gentle colleague-friend.
October 27, 2023 at 7:17 AM
This memorial gathering/ reading for Dunedin/Ōtepoti poet Peter Olds today was wonderful: full of bittersweet moments, great poetry, eccentric weirdness (from audience & readers), then what looked like an incredible cake-banquet: all things Dunedin does so well. Goodbye, gentle colleague-friend.
The voice in this poem makes me think of the woman in this Gary Larson cartoon!
October 23, 2023 at 2:14 AM
The voice in this poem makes me think of the woman in this Gary Larson cartoon!
Two cobalt blue irises with tiger yellow hearts, standing in spring-onion-green stems smart as suit pants, wave their birthday pennants. (It’s my Louise Glück garden.) #poetry #gardening
October 18, 2023 at 7:29 AM
Two cobalt blue irises with tiger yellow hearts, standing in spring-onion-green stems smart as suit pants, wave their birthday pennants. (It’s my Louise Glück garden.) #poetry #gardening
Happy to help celebrate Katherine Mansfield in her birthday month with this piece.
The posters are an initiative supported by At the Bay| I te Kokoru & Phantom Billstickers. If you spot mine in the wild, please say!
#microfiction #Aotearoafiction #poetry #KatherineMansfield
The posters are an initiative supported by At the Bay| I te Kokoru & Phantom Billstickers. If you spot mine in the wild, please say!
#microfiction #Aotearoafiction #poetry #KatherineMansfield
October 10, 2023 at 8:36 PM
Happy to help celebrate Katherine Mansfield in her birthday month with this piece.
The posters are an initiative supported by At the Bay| I te Kokoru & Phantom Billstickers. If you spot mine in the wild, please say!
#microfiction #Aotearoafiction #poetry #KatherineMansfield
The posters are an initiative supported by At the Bay| I te Kokoru & Phantom Billstickers. If you spot mine in the wild, please say!
#microfiction #Aotearoafiction #poetry #KatherineMansfield
A poem that grew out of running a writing workshop at the DPAG - in response to the 'baby umlaut' and owl sculptures and the wall label in the Emily Floyd exhibition. (Thank you to the artist and ngā mihi to Hana Pera Aoake!)
October 7, 2023 at 4:20 AM
A poem that grew out of running a writing workshop at the DPAG - in response to the 'baby umlaut' and owl sculptures and the wall label in the Emily Floyd exhibition. (Thank you to the artist and ngā mihi to Hana Pera Aoake!)
This is so freaking fabulous. I’m almost scared to finish it, in case it doesn’t sustain its vivid intensity and grimly comic, painfully honest glare into the tornado of early motherhood. I’ve got the Part 3 ‘will she, won’t she?’ tension … can it stay on that artistic tightrope?!
October 6, 2023 at 6:59 PM
This is so freaking fabulous. I’m almost scared to finish it, in case it doesn’t sustain its vivid intensity and grimly comic, painfully honest glare into the tornado of early motherhood. I’ve got the Part 3 ‘will she, won’t she?’ tension … can it stay on that artistic tightrope?!