Welcome to american.nz!
I’m Dan Keane, an American writer in Aotearoa New Zealand, and these are my letters home. This newsletter appears most weeks and comes in three flavors:
Letters to Aotearoa. My family and I have lived here for five years now, in a small town outside Wellington.
Letters to America. I was born in TX, raised in AZ, and married into IA & SD. We return about once a year and it’s always a trip.
Letters of Transit, on the expat/immigrant life anywhere. I’ve lived all over, with NZ only the latest chapter—and maybe the last.
All the letters are free! Podcasts and videos, too. You can also follow me on Spotify and Apple Podcasts to hear the letters read aloud.
If you enjoy what you read, consider buying a paid subscription! It’s cheap, about the price of a coffee each month. Coffee’s mostly what I spend it on, so your support makes a big difference in both my family’s grocery bill & my own writerly swagger. You can also just make a one-time donation. (Americano, for here.)
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 in Newsroom, The Spinoff, The Washington Post, Harper’s, McSweeney’s, ChinaFile, Zoetrope, The Austin Chronicle, and The Best American Nonrequired Reading, among plenty others.
I’m a former Bolivia correspondent for The Associated Press. I’ve also covered the U.S.-Mexico border for The Big Bend Sentinel in Marfa, Texas. I’ve also taught writing at NYU Shanghai, NYU Abu Dhabi, and the Universtiy of Michigan.
I grew up in Tempe, Arizona, which is sister city to NZ’s own Lower Hutt. My family now live just over the hill in the Wairarapa. Maybe this was fate.
What’s with Superman?
For a logo I’m using Superman and Wanganui Hills (1994), by NZ artist Graham Kirk, with his generous permission. Kirk’s done a whole wonderfully uncanny series of American icons superimposed on Kiwi landmarks, with the familiar heroes lost and dreaming but determined to struggle on. They’ve been my daemon for these letters from the jump. Thanks, Graham! //
