Wild, Wild Women

by Janis Freegard

Short story collection. Winner of the ATB | ITK 2023 award for short stories

Sometimes touching, sometimes troubling, these adventures introduce us to women who don’t stand still: scandalous women, runaway women, daring women, wild women.

Published June 1, 2024

About the author

Janis Freegard 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 most recent publication is a short story collection: 'Wild, Wild Women', published by At The Bay| I Te Kokoru after she won a competition for the manuscript.

Her novel, 'The Year of Falling' was published by Makaro Press in 2015. Her poetry collections are 'Reading the Signs' (The Cuba Press, 2020), 'The Glass Rooster' (Auckland University Press, 2015), 'The Continuing Adventures of Alice Spider' (Anomalous Press (US) 2013) and 'Kingdom Animalia: the Escapades of Linnaeus' (Auckland University Press, 2011). She is also a co-author of AUP New Poets 3 and is widely published in journals and anthologies in New Zealand and elsewhere.

She is a past winner of the BNZ Katherine Mansfield Award and lives in Wellington with an historian.

Reviews

[Claudia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I honestly wished most of these stories were longer I was so invested

[Jared Gulian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Full of bittersweet, poignant moments and deep, resounding emotions. It’s astonishing how quickly Freegard makes us care about these characters, and how profoundly we feel for them.

[Kay Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good range of current and recently historical slice of lives stories. I don't like all the characters but I appreciated and related to most of their challenges, whether the stories of teenagers discovering interesting or unpleasant truths, or midlife people working out better ways of coping. Or wild fantasies that probably aren't true but I might wish they were. Or love stories with prickly people. Overall so much to dip into and enjoy. Good for a picnic or to take with you for walking, stopping and musing on.

[A · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed these short stories, and found it particularly interesting to read a story that mentioned so many small NZ places that I am familiar with.

[Tim · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've enjoyed all of Janis Freegard's work I've read - poems, novels, and short stories. These have been straitened times for short story collections, so it's especially good to see this new collection appear, published by At the Bay | I Te Kokoru, which is an organisation set up to champion and advance the short story form in Aotearoa.

And this is a fine short story collection! The theme is as it says on the cover: women, all wild, some wilder than others. The collection includes a mixture of character-driven stories and shorter, surrealist pieces - both styles that appeal to me. "Saturday Night" and "The Visit from the English Cousins" are two of my favourite stories, but every story is worth your time and attention.