Janet Wainscott is a poet and essay writer. Her work has been published in literary magazines and anthologies in New Zealand, the US and the UK and commended in international competitions. For a day job, she works as a part-time literacy tutor.

She is based in Lincoln, near Christchurch, New Zealand.

What’s new?

Janet’s really big news (drum roll) is that her first poetry collection, A Game of Swans, has been published by Sudden Valley Press in May this year (2023). It will be launched 5:30pm Thursday 18 May at Tūranga.

What do you do when you find yourself trapped? By circumstance, by other’s expectations?

From the finger bone of an ancestor to a Leonardo da Vinci portrait, from the dining room of a rural pub to the real life of folk-tales, A Game of Swans weaves myth and modernity seamlessly through each other, asking what it means to be restrained, and what it might take to be free. Janet Wainscott’s debut collection stares out from the undergrowth, claws hidden in plain sight.

Some make it out. Some don’t. All try.

Order from Sudden Valley Press.