Jack (Ngāti Rangi) is a queer short fiction writer who currently lives in Te-Whanganui-a-Tara. His debut flash fiction collection Ten Acceptable Acts of Arson and other very short stories was published in 2021 by Canterbury University Press. This manuscript won the 2020 Wallace Foundation Prize and was shortlisted for a Sir Julius Vogel Award.
Jack’s had short stories published in the NZ Listener, takahē magazine, and on Newsroom’s ReadingRoom. Alongside these, his writing has been featured in several anthologies, most recently Te Awa o Kupu (Penguin Random House), Visible Cities (The Cuba Press), and Hiwa (Auckland University Press).
In 2022 Jack began teaching flash fiction workshops in rural schools, as well as to writers groups in the North Island. Along with teaching about writing, he occasionally teaches writers about online marketing, websites, and social media.
Often found with a whistle in his hand, Jack funds his expensive rugby refereeing habit by writing online content and doing contract web management.
During his residency Jack will work on his second short fiction collection. The new stories will focus on the concept of info-hazards – defined by philosopher Dr Nick Bostrom in 2011 as “A risk that arises from the dissemination of information that has the potential to cause harm.”