© 2018-2022 Kerry Sunderland
Kerry Sunderland
Writer, editor and creative writing teacher Kerry Sunderland runs creative writing short courses and hosts all retreats, supporting internationally renowned teaching authors.
About Kerry
Kerry Sunderland is an author, freelance journalist, editor, film reviewer and radio presenter/producer. Since 2018, she has been the curator of the Nelson Arts Festival's literary programme, Pukapuka Talks. From 2017 to 2020, she was also a part-time creative writing tutor at Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology. Kerry has convened more than a dozen writing retreats to date, with more planned in 2026.
After being awarded a Master of Arts in Creative Writing (with Merit) from the International Institute of Modern Letters at Victoria University of Wellington in 2017, Kerry was joint winner of the 2018 Hachette Mentorship in Australia for her memoir, Beyond the Blue Door. An excerpt of an early draft of this work was published in Turbine Kapohau in 2016.
Her essay, 'Scared to Death', explores similar themes to Beyond the Blue Door and was published in Headlands: New Stories of Anxiety (VUP, 2018).
Kerry's personal essay, 'Mother Issues', was published in Otherhood: Essays on being Childfree, Childless and Child-Adjacent (Massey University Press, 2024). Her short memoir, 'The Eagle's Gift' was published in A Liminal Gathering (Elixir & Star Press, 2024).
She is also the producer and host of Deathwalker's Guide to Life, a radio show/podcast that explores how thinking and talking about death can help you live a life without regrets. She is currently writing a memoir, which is the story of why and how she became a deathwalker.
As a journalist, Kerry's writing has been published in a wide range of publications including New Zealand Geographic, NZ Listener, North & South, The Spinoff, Wild Tomato, Nelson Mail/Stuff, NZ Yoga Scene, Byron Echo, Inside Film, Metro Magazine, Filmink, Research News, Research World, HR Monthly and Australian Educator as well as major digital media projects accompanying documentary films including The Man Who Stole My Mother's Face (2003), I Told You I Was Ill: The Life and Legacy of Spike Milligan (2005) and The Burning Season (2009). She has performed as a storyteller at events including 'Couch Stories' and 'True Stories, Told Live' and was the Monday morning breakfast show host and producer at Fresh FM in 2015.
Born in Melbourne and resident of the Byron Shire for most of her adult life, Kerry moved to Aotearoa New Zealand at the beginning of 2013. She lived/worked in a house bus for four and a half years while roaming the Top of the South, Wellington and Kapiti Coast, then spent five years living in a small co-housing community near Kaiteriteri before moving to Whakatū Nelson in mid-2025.
After being awarded a Master of Arts in Creative Writing (with Merit) from the International Institute of Modern Letters at Victoria University of Wellington in 2017, Kerry was joint winner of the 2018 Hachette Mentorship in Australia for her memoir, Beyond the Blue Door. An excerpt of an early draft of this work was published in Turbine Kapohau in 2016.
Her essay, 'Scared to Death', explores similar themes to Beyond the Blue Door and was published in Headlands: New Stories of Anxiety (VUP, 2018).
Kerry's personal essay, 'Mother Issues', was published in Otherhood: Essays on being Childfree, Childless and Child-Adjacent (Massey University Press, 2024). Her short memoir, 'The Eagle's Gift' was published in A Liminal Gathering (Elixir & Star Press, 2024).
She is also the producer and host of Deathwalker's Guide to Life, a radio show/podcast that explores how thinking and talking about death can help you live a life without regrets. She is currently writing a memoir, which is the story of why and how she became a deathwalker.
As a journalist, Kerry's writing has been published in a wide range of publications including New Zealand Geographic, NZ Listener, North & South, The Spinoff, Wild Tomato, Nelson Mail/Stuff, NZ Yoga Scene, Byron Echo, Inside Film, Metro Magazine, Filmink, Research News, Research World, HR Monthly and Australian Educator as well as major digital media projects accompanying documentary films including The Man Who Stole My Mother's Face (2003), I Told You I Was Ill: The Life and Legacy of Spike Milligan (2005) and The Burning Season (2009). She has performed as a storyteller at events including 'Couch Stories' and 'True Stories, Told Live' and was the Monday morning breakfast show host and producer at Fresh FM in 2015.
Born in Melbourne and resident of the Byron Shire for most of her adult life, Kerry moved to Aotearoa New Zealand at the beginning of 2013. She lived/worked in a house bus for four and a half years while roaming the Top of the South, Wellington and Kapiti Coast, then spent five years living in a small co-housing community near Kaiteriteri before moving to Whakatū Nelson in mid-2025.