Wendy Parkins
@wendmyway.bsky.social
Former professor of Victorian literature but I'm much happier now as a novelist and memoirist based in Dunedin, NZ. Tangata tiriti.
Devoted to Dickens, Woolf, and Radiohead. Don't make me choose.
Devoted to Dickens, Woolf, and Radiohead. Don't make me choose.
Pinned
Wendy Parkins
@wendmyway.bsky.social
· Nov 26
Launched! 🚀 Thank you to everyone who came along to see THE DEFIANCE OF FRANCES DICKINSON in the world at last. Special thanks to @liammcilvanney.bsky.social for such kind words!
Living a rich and full life here, too. #amwriting
one of the coolest things about ChatGPT is how you can actually just never use it. you can fill your whole entire life with simply not once using it. it's incredible.
November 25, 2025 at 6:23 PM
Living a rich and full life here, too. #amwriting
To which I would add: half-finished knitting projects and bags of 🧶.
Twitter accounts are based in Russia. BlueSky accounts are based in homes with, frankly, too many books, plants, obsolete cables, and pieces of rustic pottery, that could do with a bit of a tidying up, to be honest.
November 24, 2025 at 12:38 AM
To which I would add: half-finished knitting projects and bags of 🧶.
Currently watching TWO TV dramas where the protagonist is a woman writer who is annoying, whiny, and self-absorbed.
I've never felt so seen! #amwriting
I've never felt so seen! #amwriting
a cartoon of a woman sitting at a desk with a pen and a notebook
ALT: a cartoon of a woman sitting at a desk with a pen and a notebook
media.tenor.com
November 18, 2025 at 5:52 AM
Currently watching TWO TV dramas where the protagonist is a woman writer who is annoying, whiny, and self-absorbed.
I've never felt so seen! #amwriting
I've never felt so seen! #amwriting
30,000 words in ... just keep digging!
a penguin and a seal are standing in the snow
ALT: a penguin and a seal are standing in the snow
media.tenor.com
November 9, 2025 at 1:02 AM
30,000 words in ... just keep digging!
Reposted by Wendy Parkins
David Simon, creator of ‘The Wire’, being interviewed by Ari Shapiro (NPR)
October 9, 2025 at 4:42 AM
David Simon, creator of ‘The Wire’, being interviewed by Ari Shapiro (NPR)
‘You’ll laugh, you’ll cry…’: Wendy Parkins on the book everyone should read thespinoff.co.nz/books/08-10-...
‘You’ll laugh, you’ll cry…’: Wendy Parkins on the book everyone should read
Wendy Parkins, winner of best first book at the 2025 Ngaio Marsh Awards, on a must-read Victorian 'trauma novel'.
thespinoff.co.nz
October 8, 2025 at 1:23 AM
‘You’ll laugh, you’ll cry…’: Wendy Parkins on the book everyone should read thespinoff.co.nz/books/08-10-...
Wild and windy and warm spring day in my garden! #dunnerstunner
September 30, 2025 at 2:24 AM
Wild and windy and warm spring day in my garden! #dunnerstunner
Extra luggage to bring back from my quick trip to Christchurch!
September 26, 2025 at 1:25 AM
Extra luggage to bring back from my quick trip to Christchurch!
Reposted by Wendy Parkins
Union members at the ABC and across the media industry stand with John Lyons and reject the US President’s unfounded attacks on our colleague.
#MEAAmedia
#MEAAmedia
September 17, 2025 at 3:02 AM
Union members at the ABC and across the media industry stand with John Lyons and reject the US President’s unfounded attacks on our colleague.
#MEAAmedia
#MEAAmedia
Reposted by Wendy Parkins
Applications are invited for the 2026 CISS Scottish Writing Fellowship at the University of Otago in Aotearoa New Zealand. Flights, accommodation & stipend for 2 months at the Caselberg House near Dunedin. Apply at the link below by 31 October. Good luck…! www.otago.ac.nz/ciss
Centre for Irish and Scottish Studies
The Centre for Irish and Scottish Studies provides an opportunity to study the literature, history, politics and culture of Ireland and Scotland – and of the Irish and Scottish diasporas – over the pa...
www.otago.ac.nz
September 17, 2025 at 5:16 AM
Applications are invited for the 2026 CISS Scottish Writing Fellowship at the University of Otago in Aotearoa New Zealand. Flights, accommodation & stipend for 2 months at the Caselberg House near Dunedin. Apply at the link below by 31 October. Good luck…! www.otago.ac.nz/ciss
Reposted by Wendy Parkins
When journalism was cool. And risked everything to challenge power.
September 16, 2025 at 4:18 PM
When journalism was cool. And risked everything to challenge power.
Reposted by Wendy Parkins
I always love those lists of "35 under 35," but as I get older, I find that I would love to know about innovations/art from people over 65. "65 over 65" please. Elders have incredible ideas that are the result of having seen the full lifecycle of previous ideas and learned from it.
September 8, 2025 at 11:09 PM
I always love those lists of "35 under 35," but as I get older, I find that I would love to know about innovations/art from people over 65. "65 over 65" please. Elders have incredible ideas that are the result of having seen the full lifecycle of previous ideas and learned from it.
Stopped in our tracks by this sleeping beauty on our walk today ❤️ One of many snoozing in the sun along the length of Allan’s Beach
September 8, 2025 at 4:07 AM
Stopped in our tracks by this sleeping beauty on our walk today ❤️ One of many snoozing in the sun along the length of Allan’s Beach
Reposted by Wendy Parkins
Headline of the year
September 6, 2025 at 11:56 PM
Headline of the year
A blue hyacinth on Bluesky. Spring is springing here despite the state of the world. So that’s something. 🫤🌷☀️
September 3, 2025 at 11:15 PM
A blue hyacinth on Bluesky. Spring is springing here despite the state of the world. So that’s something. 🫤🌷☀️
Very happy to be included in the finalists for Best First Novel in the 2025 Ngaio Marsh Awards. Hope to meet my co-finalists at the Awards evening in Christchurch next month!
August 29, 2025 at 12:26 AM
Very happy to be included in the finalists for Best First Novel in the 2025 Ngaio Marsh Awards. Hope to meet my co-finalists at the Awards evening in Christchurch next month!
Reposted by Wendy Parkins
One of the drivers of the cost of living crisis is spiralling insurance cost, and one of the drivers of that is the cost of climate-amplified extreme weather events. So when Luxon Govt, Fonterra, and oil cos fight efforts to cut emissions, they are adding to the cost www.rnz.co.nz/news/busines...
The essential item that's 900% more expensive than in 2000
Climate change and the cost of increasing weather events are pushing up the cost.
www.rnz.co.nz
August 26, 2025 at 9:57 PM
One of the drivers of the cost of living crisis is spiralling insurance cost, and one of the drivers of that is the cost of climate-amplified extreme weather events. So when Luxon Govt, Fonterra, and oil cos fight efforts to cut emissions, they are adding to the cost www.rnz.co.nz/news/busines...
Reposted by Wendy Parkins
💡Fonterra has agreed to sell Anchor Butter etc. for $3.845 billion.
Since we've ALL paid the price of decades of excessive pollution of our fresh water and the climate by intensive dairy, that money should now go into fixing the damage!
#MakePollutersPay #nzpol #TooManyCows
Since we've ALL paid the price of decades of excessive pollution of our fresh water and the climate by intensive dairy, that money should now go into fixing the damage!
#MakePollutersPay #nzpol #TooManyCows
August 23, 2025 at 9:36 AM
💡Fonterra has agreed to sell Anchor Butter etc. for $3.845 billion.
Since we've ALL paid the price of decades of excessive pollution of our fresh water and the climate by intensive dairy, that money should now go into fixing the damage!
#MakePollutersPay #nzpol #TooManyCows
Since we've ALL paid the price of decades of excessive pollution of our fresh water and the climate by intensive dairy, that money should now go into fixing the damage!
#MakePollutersPay #nzpol #TooManyCows
Reposted by Wendy Parkins
Now THIS is how you write acknowledgments in a scholarly book (from Irmbtraub Huber's 2023 Time and Timelessness in Victorian Poetry). What a welcome note of urgency and conviction
August 18, 2025 at 10:24 AM
Now THIS is how you write acknowledgments in a scholarly book (from Irmbtraub Huber's 2023 Time and Timelessness in Victorian Poetry). What a welcome note of urgency and conviction
The shrinking violet beside the garden shed ❤️
August 17, 2025 at 5:47 AM
The shrinking violet beside the garden shed ❤️
Reposted by Wendy Parkins
Exactly right. Keep putting true, interesting, beautiful things into the world. It’s a vote for a livable future, and the opposite of what they want.
Counterpoint: There is has never been a more urgent time to write a book. Technofascism is, among other things, an attempt to capture and enclose literature and literacy. Print is a rent strike.
is there anything more pointless right now that writing a book? feels that way to me
August 12, 2025 at 11:31 PM
Exactly right. Keep putting true, interesting, beautiful things into the world. It’s a vote for a livable future, and the opposite of what they want.
Soooo tired of people posting errors from AI / ChatGPT queries as a joke -- stop feeding the machine that is killing all our creative / intellectual futures!!
August 9, 2025 at 7:33 AM
Soooo tired of people posting errors from AI / ChatGPT queries as a joke -- stop feeding the machine that is killing all our creative / intellectual futures!!