Rere Takitahi Flying Solo Anthology Launch

You are invited to celebrate the launch of this anthology of collected writings on the experience of solo parenthood and differently-structured families in Aotearoa New Zealand.

- Fathers with minimal visiting rights who feel peripheral to their children’s lives and struggle to maintain close relationships
- Neglected youngsters parented by devoted grandparents or kindly neighbours or even raised by each other
- Frazzled single mothers navigating the indignities of the welfare system while juggling the roles of nurturer and breadwinner
- Children who spend their lives being shuttled between estranged parents in a never-ending game of ‘pass the parcel’
- The joys and difficulties, stresses and rewards of belonging to a differently structured family in a world that marginalises and stigmatises those who don’t fit the perceived norm

These are just some of the social issues addressed in this extensive anthology on the subject of single-parented or alternatively-structured families in Aotearoa New Zealand. Including over fifty writers from diverse ethnic and demographic communities (representing parents/grandparents/matua, offspring/rangatahi, educators, doctors, social workers, researchers, creatives and other disciplines) Rere Takitahi/Flying Solo eviscerates the lived experience of an often neglected and misunderstood sector of society, focusing attention on aspects of their lives that will resonate with readers who have experienced similar.

From Katherine Mansfield’s sinister story about an abandoned, single mother trying to survive in early 19th century rural New Zealand, to Jess Young’s moving poem about wet nappies hanging throughout the house while her milk lets down during her WINZ appointment, to Fiona Farrell’s intellectually disabled Skinny Louie, who births her child all alone in the orchid house at the Dunedin Botanic Gardens, to Alexandra Balm’s mother and son migrating to New Zealand from eastern Europe, to Michael Botur’s solo father going to great lengths to support his little girl, Rere Takitahi/Flying Solo explores the fates of alternatively-structured families and single parents through short and micro-fiction, essay, memoir, poetry and reportage.

Free entry, with refreshments provided. Eftpos available should you wish to purchase a copy of the book.