Essays, reviews, creative prose
My work in creative non-fiction ranges in style and focus. Essays 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)
It is comforting to see yourself on the page. Why else do we read? We read to know we are not alone. Then when we learn something new about ourselves, we re-read to know we are still not alone...
From ‘Diagnosing anne”
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)
Susan Wardell - Writer 