Janis Freegard is a poet and fiction writer. Her work has been widely published in books, anthologies and literary magazines. She lives in Wellington, New Zealand.

Janis Freegard
Born1963
South Shields
OccupationWriter
NationalityNew Zealand

Biography edit

Janis Freegard was born in 1963 in South Shields, England.[1][2] She lived in England, South Africa and Australia before her family moved to New Zealand when she was twelve.[1]

She has degrees in botany and plant ecology, and public management.[1][2]

Her work has appeared in local and international magazines such as The New Zealand Listener, Landfall, Poetry NZ, JAAM, Turbine,[3] The North (UK) and Magma (UK),[2] printed and online anthologies such as Best New Zealand Poems, Essential New Zealand Poems: Facing the Empty Page (Random House, 2014) and Tales for Canterbury,[4][5] poetry blogs and websites,[6][7] and has also been broadcast on radio.[8]

For several years, she has published a series of reports into the breakdown of fiction published in New Zealand by gender and ethnicity of the authors, to investigate the state of inequality in publishing and whether New Zealand's national literature can be seen as truly representing the diversity of its population.[9][10][11] This work was cited by Lani Wendt Young in her 2019 Read NZ Te Pou Muramura Lecture.[12]

Janis Freegard lives in Wellington and works in the public sector.[1][2][13]

Awards and Prizes  edit

In 2001, Freegard won the BNZ Katherine Mansfield Memorial Award for her story ‘Mill’.[2]

In 2014, she held the inaugural Ema Saiko Poetry Fellowship at New Pacific Studio in the Wairarapa.[14][15]

In 2019, she won the Geometry/Open Book National Poetry competition with her poem ‘Mikey’.[16]

She has taken part in events for National Poetry Day[17] and National Flash Fiction Day[18] and also been among the winners for National Flash Fiction Day.[19]

Bibliography  edit

  • AUP New Poets 3, with Katherine Liddy and Reihana Robinson (Auckland University Press, 2008)
  • Kingdom Animalia: the Escapades of Linnaeus (Auckland University Press, 2011)[20]
  • The Continuing Adventures of Alice Spider (Anomalous Press, 2013)[21][22]
  • The Year of Falling (Makaro Press, 2015)[23][24][25][26]
  • The Glass Rooster (Auckland University Press, 2015)[27][26]

External links edit

  • Profile of Janis Freegard on the Read NZ Te Pou Muramura website
  • Profile of Janis Freegard on the ANZL website
  • Janis Freegard's weblog
  • Janis Freegard reading her poem 'Requiem' on the NZ Poetry Shelf website audio spot

References edit

  1. ^ a b c d "Janis Freegard". NZSA The New Zealand Society of Authors (PEN NZ Inc) Te Puni Kaituhi o Aotearoa. Retrieved 4 January 2020.
  2. ^ a b c d e "Freegard, Janis". Read NZ Te Pou Muramura. January 2017. Retrieved 4 January 2020.
  3. ^ "Janis Freegard". Turbine Kapohau. 2005. Retrieved 5 January 2020.
  4. ^ "What is Tales for Canterbury?". Tales for Canterbury. Retrieved 5 January 2020.
  5. ^ Lowe, Helen (17 July 2011). ""Tales for Canterbury": A Peek Inside "The Magician" by Janis Freegard". Helen Lowe... on anything, really. Retrieved 5 January 2020.
  6. ^ Freegard, Janis (18 August 2015). "Speaking of the Balloonist". Tuesday Poem. Retrieved 5 January 2020.
  7. ^ Sheko, Tania (8 September 2017). "Poem of the Day: Janis Freegard: "Ode To A Kuri: Te Papa Open Day". Medium. Retrieved 5 January 2020.
  8. ^ "'Dimorphism' - a poem by Janis Freegard". RNZ. 25 August 2016. Retrieved 5 January 2020.
  9. ^ "Why Can't We All Just Get Along? The Literature Edition". The Pantograph Punch. 31 October 2017. Retrieved 5 January 2020.
  10. ^ Freegard, Janis (19 October 2014). "Poetry and Gender in New Zealand Publishing – the latest". Janis Freegard's website. Retrieved 2 January 2020.
  11. ^ Freegard, Janis (7 January 2017). "NZ Poetry 2015 by gender & ethnicity". Janis Freegard's website. Retrieved 5 January 2020.
  12. ^ "Lani Wendt Young on how the digital era is changing writing and reading for the better". RNZ. 28 October 2019. Retrieved 4 January 2020.
  13. ^ "Janis Freegard". Auckland University Press. Retrieved 4 January 2020.
  14. ^ Kavanagh-Hall, Erin (23 December 2013). "Poet's way with flowery words". NZ herald. Retrieved 4 January 2020.
  15. ^ "Janis Freegard: Poet - 2014 Ema Saiko Fellow". NZ Pacific Studio. Retrieved 5 January 2020.
  16. ^ "The 2019 Geometry | Open Book National Poetry Competition Judges' List". The Open Book. Retrieved 4 January 2020.
  17. ^ "Counting down to National Poetry Day…". Wellington City Libraries. 16 August 2018. Retrieved 5 January 2020.
  18. ^ "National Flash Fiction Day Wellington". NZSA The New Zealand Society of Authors (PEN NZ Inc) Te Puni Kaituhi o Aotearoa. 22 June 2018. Retrieved 5 January 2020.
  19. ^ Green, Paula (23 June 2017). "The winners: National Flash Fiction Day New Zealand". NZ Poetry Shelf. Retrieved 5 January 2020.
  20. ^ Jones, Tim (7 July 2011). "An Interview with Janis Freegard". Books in the Trees. Retrieved 4 January 2020.
  21. ^ Green, Paula (1 October 2013). "The Continuing Adventures of Alice Spider". NZ Poetry Shelf. Retrieved 4 January 2020.
  22. ^ "Wellington poet published in US via online poetry network". Beatties Book Blog. 2 September 2013. Retrieved 4 January 2020.
  23. ^ Harvey, Siobhan (3 September 2015). "The Year of Falling review: loss, travel and absorbing characters". Stuff. Retrieved 4 January 2020.
  24. ^ Bryson, Emma (11 June 2015). "The Year of Falling - Quirky, funny and inspiringly touching". Beatties Book Blog. Retrieved 4 January 2020.
  25. ^ "The Year of Falling". RNZ. 21 June 2015. Retrieved 4 January 2020.
  26. ^ a b "Janis Freegard: King of the Forest". Beatties Book Blog. 8 May 2015. Retrieved 4 January 2020.
  27. ^ Morton, Elizabeth (26 June 2015). "Elizabeth Morton Reviews Recent NZ Poetry Titles". Beatties Book Blog. Retrieved 4 January 2020.