Janis Freegard is a New Zealand writer of fiction and poetry. She was born in South Shields, England, and spent part of her childhood in South Africa and Australia before her family settled in Aotearoa New Zealand when she was 12. Her latest publication is a poetry collection, Reading the Signs (The Cuba Press, 2020). Her novel, The Year of Falling, was published by Mākaro Press in 2015.
She is also the author of poetry collections: Kingdom Animalia: the Escapades of Linnaeus (Auckland University Press, 2011), The Continuing Adventures of Alice Spider (Anomalous Press (US), 2013) and The Glass Rooster (Auckland University Press, 2015); as well as being a co-author of AUP New Poets 3 (2008), Meowing Part 1 (Meow Gurrrls, 2020) and Famdamily: Meowing Part 2 (Meow Gurrrls, 2023).
Freegard’s work has appeared in many journals and anthologies, including A Kind of Shelter Whakaruru-taha: An anthology of new writing for a new world order (Massey University Press, eds Witi Ihimaera and Michelle Elvy), Landfall, Out Here: An Anthology of Takatāpui and LGBTQIA+ Writers from Aotearoa (AUP), Hallelujah for 50ft Women (Bloodaxe Books), the New Zealand Listener, 100 Short Short Stories New Zealand 4 and Essential Poems of New Zealand (see the Bibliography section of the blog for a full list of publications). She won the At the Bay | I Te Kokoru (an imprint of Ad Hoc Fiction) Short Story Manuscript Competition in 2023 and the Open Book/Geometry Poetry Prize in 2019, held the Ema Saikō Poetry Fellowship in 2014 and is a past winner of the BNZ Katherine Mansfield Award.
She has degrees in science and public management and won the Prime Minister’s Award for Public Management in 2014. She lives in Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington with her historian husband and works in the public service.
More Info
Wikipedia page for Janis Freegard
Academy of New Zealand Literature page
Read NZ Te Pou Muramura author page
NZ Society of Authors (PEN NZ) author page
You can read one of her short stories here:
http://www.anomalouspress.org/current/12.freegard.tattooed.php
and some of her poems here:
http://www.nzetc.org/iiml/turbine/Turbi05/poetry/freegard1.html
here: http://www.blackmailpress.com/JFgard13.html
here: http://www.poetrynz.net/archives/issue-27/#poem2
and here: http://nzpoetsonline.homestead.com/JF25.html
Publisher Pages:
Awards and Prizes
Winner, inaugural At the Bay | I te Kokoru short story collection competition, for ‘Wild, Wild Women’ (2023)
‘The Rocky Shore’ shortlisted and ‘Parietal Eye’ long-listed in the National Flash Fiction Day competition (2023)
Winner of the Geometry/Open Book Poetry Prize for ‘Mikey‘ (2019)
Highly commended, National Flash Fiction Day competition for ‘Spindrift‘ (2017)
Inaugural Ema Saiko poetry fellow at New Pacific Studio (2014)
Commended, Magma Poetry Competition (2014)
Runner-up and Wellington Regional Winner, National Flash Fiction Day Competition, for ‘Elephant’ (2012)
Nominated for a Rhysling Award (Science Fiction Poetry, US, 2012)
‘Gator’ included in Best New Zealand Poems 2011
Finalist, Science Teller 2011 Science Poetry Competition
Commended, Whitireia “Eat Your Words” Cafe Poetry competition, for ‘Brunch’ and ‘Chocolate Hearts’ (2011)
Commended, NZ Poetry Society competition, for ‘The Wind & the Caterpillar’ (2009)
Honourable Mention, Momaya Press Short Story Competition, for ‘Lorelei’ (2009)
Runner-up, Fish Short Story Prize (Ireland) for ‘The Hen Party’ (2008)
Short-listed for the inaugural Royal Society of New Zealand Manhire Prize for Creative Science Writing with ‘Liking Eyes’ (2007)
Winner, Friends of Whakatane District Libraries competition for ‘Jasper and the Angel’ (2004)
Winner, Western Districts Short Story Competition, for ‘Evelina and the Wolf’ (2004)
Creative New Zealand grant, 2002
BNZ Katherine Mansfield Award,for ‘Mill’ (2001)
Highly Commended, Commonwealth Short Story Competition, for ‘Missing’ (2001)
Janis Freegard's Weblog 
Thanks for the plug Janis, you are very kind.
I was using google to search for a list of last years NZ published Poerty. I would have been suprised to have found my self published book Sam’s Poems’ ISBN: 9780473156671 on such?
But was interested in your search and results, and wondered where / how you made up your spreed sheet. Did it come from the National Library which issues the ISBN numbers?
I looked to fined a contact addy for Jannis, could not see it? so have entered my message here.
Hi Steve
Thanks for stopping by. I based my spreadsheet on what I found on several publishers’ websites (AUP, VUP, Steele Roberts, Seraph Press, Earl of Seacliffe Workshop, Cape Catley, Titus Books and OUP). So it’s a sample rather than a comprehensive list and it doesn’t include self-published books (only because I was using the quickest method I could think of, not because I was intentionally excluding them).
I’ve had a quick look at the National Library Catalogue, but there were over 300 poetry-related titles published in 2009 (including anthologies and critical works), so I haven’t ploughed through them yet – maybe when I get time, I’ll do just that.
Cheers
Janis
[…] Freegard’s Weblog: Janis blogs about matters that generally relate to her very fine poetry and fiction. A recent article about Poetry and Gender in New Zealand Publishing was especially […]
Hi Janis … I see we’ve again made it onto the same “list” …. Are you going to Café Kaizen re Eat Your Words on Wednesday? Hope your novel’s coming along happily … cheers, Linda bremford
Brillant blog..so delighted to have came across your pages..Eliza Keating
Dear Janis. We thought this could be of interest to you because of your previous involvement in the works of Robin Hyde. The Iris Project: a multimedia tribute to Robin Hyde, will premiere in New Zealand during the upcoming Wellington and Dunedin Fringe Festivals in early March. Further details about the shows can be found at http://www.irisproject.nz Would be wonderful to distribute the information within your wider networks. Thanks. Wiebke (Vebka – lead vocalists)
Dear Janis, I have just read your book, The Year of Falling and I am still besotted. I was born and grew in Spain and I am also a Kiwi now, after 23 year of living here. Yet, so far, nothing I ever read before by a New Zealand fiction writer made me feel that I was reading something from where I belonged to. I still feel that way, that I’m reading about home, whenever I read about most books by writers from my country of origin even after so many years of not living there. When I read books from New Zealand writers, however, I always felt I was reading literature foreign to me. Nothing to do with the language but the lack of soul of it, the story, the politics. It always tasted as a facade, a plot devised to impress someone or to get funding, something for the show or a victims story, a sorry thing or a too full of itself something. Please, do not take it as a criticism of New Zealand writers, just that the few I read made me not wanting to read more of, so I haven’t read much New Zealand literature since the few first disappointments. And then, by chance really, your book came to me and I could not put it down. I could not wait to open it again when I had interruptions. I felt home, and touched and turned inside out, caressed inside my soul. Your book said in a story everything I love about New Zealand, its people and the reason why I say I am a Kiwi too. Thanks from the bottom of my heart. Your book did this for me. I was able to feel every word as a home, finally. I can relate to a New Zealand writer that has the skill, the art and sensitivity to show the true place this is for me. I absolutely adored your book and want to read anything you ever wrote. Much admiration and kindest regards, Puri Alvarez
Wow! Thank you so much! So pleased you enjoyed it 🙂