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Megan Dunn is the author of three irreverent works of non-fiction: Tinderbox (Galley Beggar Press, 2017), her memoir in essays Things I Learned at Art School (Penguin Random House New Zealand, 2021) and The Mermaid Chronicles: A Midlife Mer-moir (Penguin Random House New Zealand, 2024). In his review of Things I Learned at Art School, James Cook describes Megan as ‘Dorothy Parker in Courtney Love army boots; Eve Babitz with an Auckland accent…’ In his review of The Mermaid Chronicles, Guy Somerset writes of Megan: ‘I would read her on anything and follow her writing anywhere.’

Megan is a curator and art critic in New Zealand. She has published columns, reviews, personal essays and features for a wide range of media including the Guardian Australia, The New Zealand Listener, Metro, Newsroom and Art News New Zealand. She was once the visual arts correspondent on Radio New Zealand’s Saturday morning show, with broadcaster Kim Hill.

Megan graduated with a master’s in creative writing from the University of East Anglia. In 2006, she won an Escalator award from the New Writing Partnership (now the National Centre for Writing.) She was the 2018 winner of the Surrey Hotel Writers Residency. In 2022 she was the annual Writer in Residence at the International Institute of Modern Letters, based at Victoria University of Wellington, Te Herenga Waka. During this residency she worked on the first draft of her mer-moir and also curated an art exhibition The Mermaid Chronicles, based on her journeys to meet the world’s leading professional mermaids.

The Mermaid Chronicles was longlisted for the 2025 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards.

Megan currently lives and works in Wellington.

 

Links

Megan Dunn’s website

Penguin Random House writer page

Galley Beggar Press author page

ANZRB review by Guy Somerset of The Mermaid Chronicles (Sept, 2024)

Radio NZ interview with Kathryn Ryan on Nine to Noon discussing The Mermaid Chronicles (Aug, 2024)

North & South magazine interview with Theo Macdonald discussing The Mermaid Chronicles (Aug, 2024)

Watch TVNZ Seven Sharp interview discussing Megan’s exhibition and mermaids (Dec, 2022)

Metro magazine feature article by Dr Lana Lopesi on Things I Learned at Art School (Sept, 2021)

Sydney Review of Books review by David McCooey of Things I Learned at Art School (March, 2022)

Review 31 (UK) review by James Cook of Things I Learned at Art School (2021)