I’m Jane, I’m a writer, a Kiwi and a serial immigrant who now lives in Berkshire, England. I am also the Creative Nonfiction editor at Virtual Zine, an online literary magazine. My work usually focuses on issues of identity, political change and the connection between a sense of place and social outcomes. To date, my work has been featured in or recognised by the publications/contests below.
From Carisbrook, With Love |
500-word flash fiction about belonging, nationality, fluidity and rugby. But it’s never really about the rugby. ‘From Carisbrook, With Love’ was published in Virtual Zine, July 2020. |
Oblations |
Long-listed in Reflex Fiction’s Autumn 2020 contest, ‘Oblations’ is a sub-400 word flash about religion, classism and control. |
The Seen |
Published in Fairlight Books’ short story section in 2020, ‘The Seen’ is a story about elaborate cheating, and what happens when duplicity catches up with a person who’s spent a lifetime lying to themselves. |
Viva |
‘Viva’ is a 500-word flash, published in Spelk Fiction in July 2020. It’s about what happens in Vegas, and what follows you out of the desert. |
Girl, Boxed |
‘Girl, Boxed’ is the story of a lonely young mother whose vulnerability is noted by her local multi-level marketer. The piece was published in Fairlight Books in 2020. |
A Trading Post On The 117th Meridian West |
Flash fiction, published in Ellipsis Zine in March 2020, ‘A Trading Post On The 117th Meridian West’ is about isolation, wanderlust, and homesickness for a curious place that was never home. |
Pretty Girls In Places Like This |
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Just To You |
Shortlisted in the Nobrow Prize and Fresher Prize in 2020, ‘Just To You’ is as-yet unpublished. It deals with censorship, abuse and power, and how #metoo means nothing when confined to only words, not actions. |
Cache Flow |
Experimental fiction, ‘Cache Flow’ was a finalist in the New Millennium Writing Awards in 2020. Whilst fiction, it draws on my very real experiences of being a young woman in tech, and the predatory environment that dominated my early career. |
About The Skating |
As-yet unpublished, ‘About The Skating’ is a creative nonfiction essay about competitive swimming and the politics that plague the sport. An older version of the piece received and Honorable Mention in the 49th New Millennium Writing contest. |
I Don't Mind, This Could Be The Last Time |
‘I Don’t Mind, This Could Be The Last Time’ is a creative nonfiction piece about leaving Seattle in early 2009. It was published in Ellipsis Zine’s 8th print edition. |
Davy Jones and the Cape |
‘Davy Jones and the Cape’ placed as a finalist in the Intrepid Times “Reunions” travel writing contest in 2021. It is about immigration, repatriation and the piecing together of generations and family. |
Our Side Of The Clouds |
‘Our Side Of The Clouds’ is an essay, published by Entropy Magazine in February 2021, about being a New Zealander abroad during the COVID-19 pandemic, and New Zealand’s uneasy position as the world’s most recent “tall poppy.” |
With Honors |
‘With Honors’ was published in trampset magazine in April 2021. It’s a flash fiction piece that explores peer pressure, trauma and the cyclical nature of a college town. |
Pieces published on my own site are available on my blog, and include flash fiction, creative nonfiction and essay-style articles. View all posts here.
A collective conscience knew her body by heart. It had touched it all. It lived in everyone who’d put his hands on her, data sucked up and filed with every squeeze of the shoulder, lingering hug, brush down to the waist, kiss on the cheek,......
21 July, 2020
This story placed third in the Tandem Press short story competition for young New Zealanders in 2001, written when I was 17 years old. The accompanying anthology was published later that year. It was one of my first pieces of flash fiction and my first......
23 February, 2020
This story was longlisted in the London Independent Short Story Prize in December, 2019. My interview with LISP talks about the story’s theme and writing in general. By the time I was standing on stage at the Congress Centre in Bloomsbury, plastic clicker in hand......
20 February, 2020
Running along the South Bank in London a few years ago, I caught and passed a male runner. He shouted “bitch!” at me as I ran past and tried to sprint to keep up. I can be hot-headed and so while I primarily felt angry......
26 July, 2019
You loser. You: loser. And me. Last summer, the English football team did well in the World Cup in Russia and a lot of people in this country were elated and surprised in equal parts. It was a lot of fun, even as someone who......
29 March, 2019
First published 21 December, 2011 “You, guy,” he said to my boyfriend across the table. “It’s not fair. You bring this girl here. It’s not fair.” We asked why not. “Because all women who come to conferences should be available,” he replied. Available to him.......
26 February, 2019I am a writer with a background in technology and marketing, currently based in Berkshire, England. Born and raised in Wellington, New Zealand, I have now spent half my life overseas, living and working in Seattle and London earlier in my career.
My first school report noted that I showed promise with both swimming and creative writing, delivered eighteen years before I graduated from Washington State University after completing a degree in English, funding my education with a sports scholarship as a member of the swim team.
My swimming career earned me one New Zealand national record in the 200m breaststroke, three national titles in the 100m and 200m events of the same stroke, and a berth at the NCAA Championships in the 200 yards breaststroke and individual medley for Washington State.
Since then, I have worked in digital marketing at Moz in Seattle and Ayima in London, before shifting my focus back to writing.
I am now a keen amateur runner, competing in road races around Reading and London, and keen to take at least 31 seconds off my 40min 30sec PB over 10 kilometres.