The Story Behind the Stories
Stories have always been at the heart of how I make sense of the world.
Born in Hungary and arriving in Aotearoa New Zealand as a child refugee in 1983, I grew up between cultures, languages, histories, and ways of understanding belonging. Looking back, many of the questions that continue to shape my writing began there: What does it mean to belong? How do our histories shape us? Which stories do we inherit, and which do we choose for ourselves?
I am drawn to the stories people carry – stories of family, migration, identity, loss, resilience, love, and meaning. Some are spoken openly. Others live quietly beneath the surface, waiting to be noticed. Through poetry, storytelling, reflection, and research, I explore the threads that connect our lives and the ways we make sense of our experiences.
My writing sits somewhere between the personal and the universal. It is informed by my own life, by the stories passed down through generations of my family, by conversations with others, and by a deep curiosity about what it means to be human. Some pieces are creative, some reflective, some scholarly, and many resist fitting neatly into a single category.
Alongside my writing, I have a background in counselling and psychology. I completed a Master of Science in Health Psychology with First Class Honours and am currently undertaking doctoral research exploring migration, memory, and intergenerational storytelling through the experiences of three generations of women in my family.
This website is a home for poems, stories, musings, and the occasional publication. More than anything, it is a place to gather the threads – of memory, identity, belonging, and meaning – that continue to shape both my writing and my life.
Thank you for visiting. I am glad our paths have crossed.
Publications
A selection of published writing.