Welcome to american.nz!

I’m Dan Keane, an American writer in Aotearoa New Zealand. I write letters home, to both countries. Subscribe and you’ll receive a letter each Thursday in the US, or Friday in NZ. (Down here we live in the future.)

If you enjoy what you read, consider a paid subscription! It’s cheap, about the price of a coffee each month, and your support really helps this project happen.

Heading South?

If you’re thinking about moving to New Zealand, an annual subscription gets you a one-on-one, ask-me-anything consultation about the journey ahead.

How can I help? My family and I have been here five years now. Before that, I’ve lived in seven countries on four continents, writing and teaching the whole time. I can help you think through questions big and small about nation, identity, restlessness, homesickness, the logistics of moving young kids—and what never to bring to a Kiwi potluck. Drop me a line at dan@american.nz. I’d love to talk.

Who am I?

I’m a writer, journalist, teacher, and now a PhD candidate in creative writing at Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington. My work has appeared or is forthcoming in The Washington Post, Harper’s, North & South, McSweeney’s, ChinaFile, Zoetrope, The Austin Chronicle, and The Best American Nonrequired Reading, among others. I’m a former Bolivia correspondent for The Associated Press, and covered the U.S.-Mexico border for The Big Bend Sentinel in Marfa, Texas. I’ve taught writing at NYU Shanghai, NYU Abu Dhabi, and the Universtiy of Michigan. I grew up in Tempe, Arizona, sister city to NZ’s own Lower Hutt, and now we live just over the hill in the Wairarapa. Maybe this was fate.

What’s with Superman?

That’s Superman and Wanganui Hills (1994), by NZ artist Graham Kirk, used with his generous permission. Kirk’s got a whole series of American icons superimposed on Kiwi landmarks, with the familiar heroes quite lost but swaggering on anyhow. They’ve been my daemon for these letters from the jump. Thanks, Graham!