My work in creative non-fiction ranges in style and focus. Essays, book reviews, and creative prose help me interweave subjects of personal and academic interest – often allowing new accesses in doing so.
Awards…
- “Mary, Me, and the Bees” – 3rd Prize, Landfall Essay Competition (2021).
- “Red Zone Pie” – 1st Prize, Zealandia Te Māna a Tāna Essay Competition (2021)
- “Walking memories” – Honourable Mention, Creative Ethnographic Prose Competition – Society for Humanistic Anthropology (2021)
- “Working together: Aroha as capacity and work” – 1st Place, Sir John Graham Lecture Essay Competition (Maxim Institute) (2019)
- “Shining through the skull” – 2nd Place, Landfall Essay Competition (2018)
- National Winner, World Vision Tertiary Research Essay Award (2009)
- National Winner, RSNZ/UNESCO Humanities Essay Competition (2007)
Read Susan’s personal essays and reviews online…
Red Zone Pie

Winner of the Te Māna a Tāna essay creative prose competition; published in Headland (2021)
Companion Planting: the art and history of gardening

A book review/personal essay, published in The Spinoff (2021)
Diagnosing Anne

A personal essay, published in The Spinoff (2021)
The overstory: a knockout novel that speaks for the trees

A book review essay, published in The Spinoff (2020)
Growing up is Hard to Do: Phillip Pullman’s ‘The Secret Commonwealth’ reviewed

A book review, published in The Spinoff (2019)