2026 - Barefoot on Eggshells

Barefoot on Eggshells is a contemporary collection of original poetry rooted in the landscapes, language, and imagination of Aotearoa New Zealand.

Moving between the intimate and the fantastical, the collection explores love, loss, family, friendship, desire, ageing, grief, and the strange, sometimes beautiful business of being human.

These are poems about connection — to other people, to place, to memory, and to the natural world — tender, irreverent, and sometimes darkly funny, Barefoot on Eggshells invites you to walk alongside its poems without knowing exactly where they will lead.

The collection is accompanied by original illustrations by Charli Sheppard, bringing poetry to life. Also, adding another visual and emotional dimension that interprets poems in a very human way.