Welcome to american.nz!
I’m Dan Keane, an American writer in Aotearoa New Zealand. These are my letters between the two countries, filed more weeks than not, covering all angles of the US/NZ exchange and the gringo immigrant life in a fellow sibling of empire. All posts, videos, and podcast episodes are free to all subscribers. If you enjoy what you read, consider a paid subscription! It’s cheap, about the price of a coffee each month, and your support really helps this project happen.
Who am I?
I’m a writer, journalist, teacher, and a PhD candidate in creative writing at Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington. My work has appeared or is forthcoming in The Spinoff, The Washington Post, Harper’s, North & South, McSweeney’s, ChinaFile, Zoetrope, The Austin Chronicle, and The Best American Nonrequired Reading, among others. I’m a former Bolivia correspondent for The Associated Press, and covered the U.S.-Mexico border for The Big Bend Sentinel in Marfa, Texas. I’ve taught writing at NYU Shanghai, NYU Abu Dhabi, and the Universtiy of Michigan. I grew up in Tempe, Arizona, sister city to NZ’s own Lower Hutt, and now we live just over the hill in the Wairarapa. Maybe this was fate.
What’s with Superman?
That’s Superman and Wanganui Hills (1994), by NZ artist Graham Kirk, used with his generous permission. Kirk’s got a whole series of American icons superimposed on Kiwi landmarks, with the familiar heroes quite lost but swaggering on anyhow. They’ve been my daemon for these letters from the jump. Thanks, Graham!
