Freelance features writer; contributing author, Otherhood: Essays on being childfree, childless and child adjacent (MUP, 2024), A Liminal Gathering (Elixir & Star Press, 2023) and Headlands: New Stories of Anxiety (VUPbooks 2018); @NelsonArtsFest Pukapuka Talks programme manager; host/producer, Deathwalker’s Guide to Life radio show/podcast.
Biography
Kerry Sunderland [she/her] was born and raised on Bunurong Country in Victoria, Australia, then lived on Minjungbal Country in New South Wales for more than a decade before moving to Aotearoa New Zealand in late 2012. She is now based in Te Tauihu, the top of the South Island, where she has been the curator of the Nelson Arts Festival’s literary programme since 2018.
A freelance journalist since the late 90s, Kerry’s words have been published in New Zealand Geographic, NZ Listener, North & South, The Spinoff, Stuff/Nelson Mail, Wild Tomato, as well as the Byron Echo, Inside Film, and Metro Magazine in Australia.
She has an MA in Creative Writing from Victoria University of Wellington and was joint winner of the 2018 Hachette Mentorship for her unpublished manuscript, Beyond the Blue Door.
Her personal essay ‘Mother Issues’ appears in Otherhood: Essays on being childfree, childless and child adjacent (MUP, 2024), a short memoir titled ‘The Eagle’s Gift’ was published in A Liminal Gathering (Elixir & Star Press, 2023) and her personal essay, ‘Scared to Death’, which was published in Headlands: New Stories of Anxiety (THWUP, 2018).
Kerry also has broadcast experience as a film reviewer (ABC Northcoast, Australia) and radio presenter/producer (Fresh FM, Nelson, NZ). She has performed as a storyteller at events including 'Couch Stories' and 'True Stories, Told Live’.
After being widowed at the age of 42, Kerry has made it her mission to improve her own ‘death literacy’ and to support others to do the same.
Since training as a ‘deathwalker’ with Zenith Virago from the Natural Death Care Centre in 2014, Kerry has hosted numerous Death Cafes, run ‘Death Literacy 101’ workshops, and supported family and friends caring for their dying.
In 2021, she launched the radio show and podcast, Deathwalker’s Guide to Life. Over the past three years, as part of the show, she has conducted 30 in-depth conversations with her fellow travellers – including everyone from songwriters and storytellers, palliative care physicians and home-based death care practitioners, funeral celebrants and interfaith ministers, to septuagenarian climate activists and comedians.
A freelance journalist since the late 90s, Kerry’s words have been published in New Zealand Geographic, NZ Listener, North & South, The Spinoff, Stuff/Nelson Mail, Wild Tomato, as well as the Byron Echo, Inside Film, and Metro Magazine in Australia.
She has an MA in Creative Writing from Victoria University of Wellington and was joint winner of the 2018 Hachette Mentorship for her unpublished manuscript, Beyond the Blue Door.
Her personal essay ‘Mother Issues’ appears in Otherhood: Essays on being childfree, childless and child adjacent (MUP, 2024), a short memoir titled ‘The Eagle’s Gift’ was published in A Liminal Gathering (Elixir & Star Press, 2023) and her personal essay, ‘Scared to Death’, which was published in Headlands: New Stories of Anxiety (THWUP, 2018).
Kerry also has broadcast experience as a film reviewer (ABC Northcoast, Australia) and radio presenter/producer (Fresh FM, Nelson, NZ). She has performed as a storyteller at events including 'Couch Stories' and 'True Stories, Told Live’.
After being widowed at the age of 42, Kerry has made it her mission to improve her own ‘death literacy’ and to support others to do the same.
Since training as a ‘deathwalker’ with Zenith Virago from the Natural Death Care Centre in 2014, Kerry has hosted numerous Death Cafes, run ‘Death Literacy 101’ workshops, and supported family and friends caring for their dying.
In 2021, she launched the radio show and podcast, Deathwalker’s Guide to Life. Over the past three years, as part of the show, she has conducted 30 in-depth conversations with her fellow travellers – including everyone from songwriters and storytellers, palliative care physicians and home-based death care practitioners, funeral celebrants and interfaith ministers, to septuagenarian climate activists and comedians.
Professional experience
Nelson Arts Festival
Pukapuka Talks Programme Manager, 2018 - present
Write Across New Zealand
Residential writing retreat convenor & creative writing learning facilitator, 2018 - present
Write Across Media
Writer and editor, 2013 - present
Freelance journalist
News reports, feature articles and broadcast interviews, 1999 - present
Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology
Diploma in Writing programme coordinator & tutor, 2017 - 2020
Journey Beyond Road Trauma
Founder, 2008 - 2012
Evolve Media Consulting Pty Ltd
Owner/Director, 1999 - 2013
Education Image
Senior Consultant, 1992 - 1998
Qualifications
Master of Arts (Creative Writing)
Victoria University of Wellington, 2017
Graduate Diploma in Evaluation
University of Melbourne, 1995
Bachelor of Arts
Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology
(now RMIT University), 1991
(now RMIT University), 1991
Publications
For the past two decades, Kerry has worked as a professional writer, magazine editor and freelance journalist. Her words have appeared in New Zealand Geographic, NZ Listener, North & South, The Spinoff, Stuff/The Nelson Mail and Wild Tomato in New Zealand and Research News, Inside Film, Screen Education, Metro Magazine and HR Monthly in Australia. She was the Australian correspondent for UK-based magazine, Research World, for several years.
