Emma Neale

In 2009 Emma Neale was the inaugural recipient of the NZSA/Janet Frame Memorial Award for Literature. Her latest collection of poetry is Spark (Steele Roberts, 2008). She lives in Dunedin with her husband and their two sons.

Neale comments: 'Many women claim to feel complete once they have children. For others, there is instead a kind of violence done to their sense of identity with the birth of each new child, as every new arrival not only reconfigures the family, but also brings about a metamorphosis of almost every aspect of their existence. The protagonist in "Proposal" knows which kind of woman she is.'

Poem: Proposal

Links

New Zealand Book Council writer file

Random House: Swings and Roundabouts editor page

Steele Roberts: Spark

nzepc – New Zealand Electronic Poetry Centre: online work

TFS: Anderson's Bay