Surviving Bigotry & Central Otago Winters with Kyle Mewburn

The novel Sewing Moonlight is Kyle Mewburn’s first work of fiction for adults. It begins in the winter of 1928, when 24-year-old German man Wilhelm Erdinger is left stranded in the remote New Zealand village of Falters Mill. He purchases land and builds a sustainable and self-sufficient life before the imminent arrival of a new war, and the sometimes-brutal Central Otago climate threatens to destroy his utopia. Kyle talks about love, loss, and the journey from alienation to acceptance with Queenstown author Jane Bloomfield.

Miller’s Flat-based Kyle Mewburn is one of New Zealand's most prolific writers. From much-loved children’s books such as Old Hu-hu and Hill & Hole to laugh-out-loud junior fiction series such as Dinosaur Rescue and Dragon Knight, her titles have been translated into eighteen languages and won numerous awards including Children's Book of the Year. After 25 years of hiding her true identity, Kyle told her wife Marion that she was transgender. With Marion’s support, Kyle flew to Argentina for facial feminisation surgery. Her life story is poignantly described in her memoir Faking it: My life in transition. She was Children's Writer-in-Residence at Otago University in 2011 and President of the New Zealand Society of Authors from 2013 to 2017.

Jane Bloomfield is the author of the much loved Lily Max children’s trilogy, published by Luncheon Sausage books. The first novel was a finalist in the New Zealand Book Awards for Children & Young Adults, and received a Storylines Notable Book Award. She was the Michael King Writing Centre, Writer in Residence, Summer 2021. Her creative non-fiction and poetry have been published in numerous literary journals.