In Aspiring Daybook, poet Annabel Wilson tells of a year in the life Elsie Winslow, who has just returned from Europe to Wanaka to take care of her terminally ill brother and finds herself thinking about love in ways she didn't expect. Like the mountains that surround her and the lake that greets her every morning with a different face, Elsie's story is a fractured, sedimentary and reflective thing, exploring the hidden darkness inside the beauty that is everywhere. Elsie's story is told in the form of a fictionalised diary packed with poems, snapshots, conversations and letters. The result is an immersive, genre-bending book that shines with a particular light only found in the deep South.

Author Biography

Annabel Wilson is a writer from Wanaka. Her work has been published in journals in New Zealand and overseas. She has been awarded the R.A.K Mason Fellowship at NZ Pacific Studio, the inaugural Australasian Association of Writers' Programmes Emerging Writers' Prize and a residency at the Robert Lord Writers' Cottage. She has a Masters in Creative Writing from Massey University. She also runs an NZ arts, adventure and culture guide at www.onmag.co.nz.