You’re born either a cheery soul or a gloomy one, reckons Linda Burgess – but what happens when gene pools from opposite ends of the spectrum collide? In our shoeboxes of photos that we have to sort out before we die or get demented – because who IS that kid on the plane, or that … Read more
Jillian Sullivan lives in a strawbale house in Central Otago’s Ida Valley. This essay, Between Lands, is from Map for the Heart, a new collection blending memoir and environmentalism. There’s a moment on the ferry crossing, mid-journey, when a bird hovering over the charcoal water turns and flies towards us, wings outspread. This bird, mollymawk, … Read more
How do you hold a funeral service with the country in lockdown? Where there’s a will – and a tech-savvy uncle – there’s a way, Erin Kavanagh-Hall discovered. I was floating somewhere in the Cook Strait when I heard my grandfather’s funeral had been cancelled. I should elaborate. It was a Monday, and my mum, … Read more
Ruby Porter’s debut novel, Attraction, is a lucid, layered story of three young women on a road trip across the North Island. It’s one of the best books we’ve read this year. Here, Ruby writes about her grandmother – who is not like the grandmother in her book – and Levin, and how the two … Read more
Unless we look closely sometimes we forget the important role our closest guides have on our lives. On his grandmother’s 103rd birthday, Arun Jeram takes a moment to examine his grandparents’ legacy. When most people discover I have a granddad who is 103 and a grandmother who is also 103, and they are both alive … Read more
In a beautiful personal essay, Neesha Bremner writes of her grandmother’s past and her journey to the place she was happiest. In my carry on luggage is a little grey plastic box. On that little grey plastic box is a name. That name is my grandmother’s. The little grey box is filled with her ashes. … Read more
When you’re exhausted and everything that could go wrong, does go wrong, you need a parenting hack to get you through. Spinoff Parents editor Emily Writes has a tip to change your mindset and help turn your little devils into little angels. For much of my second child’s life I have wondered what’s going on … Read more