Emma Sidnam

Guest writer

Emma Sidnam is a Wellington based writer and lawyer. Her short stories and essays have been published by AUP, THWUP, Capital, and Newsroom. Her novel Backwaters was published in 2023. She is currently working on a second novel.

The Third Age: ‘We’ve been married for 66 years now!’

The Third Age: ‘We’ve been married for 66 years now!’

Life changes in the ‘Third Age’, but it doesn't stop. Just ask long-term life partners Barbara and Ron.

By Emma Sidnam | 5th August, 2025

Photo: Jechtography

What a strip club run by strippers looks like

At this strip club the dancers kept all their tips, there were no unfair overheads or fines and definitely no exploitative management.

By Emma Sidnam | 21st July, 2025

Emma Sidnam and her friend Blandine Granier (painter/set designer/lighting designer) at their apartment in Lyon, France where Sidnam studied for a while. (Photo: Supplied)

Can books change the world? A writer makes the case

'When I was 12, I started writing a Percy Jackson-esque adventure novel. My protagonist a white boy – I didn’t realise that Asian girls could be protagonists.'

By Emma Sidnam | 12th April, 2025

Illustration: Bonnie Wong

The Sunday Essay: 林 / Ling

In a way, I’m a stranger everywhere. And yet I have my name.

By Emma Sidnam | 21st August, 2022

Painting of the author by Maria Rosa Düssler (Image: Supplied)

The story of my body, which refuses to cooperate

Rising star Emma Sidnam examines her strong, fallible body.

By Emma Sidnam | 31st July, 2022

Photo: Getty Images

The Friday Poem: ‘I will not be applying to work with you’ by Emma Sidnam

A new poem by Wellington-based poet and student Emma Sidnam.

By Emma Sidnam | 10th June, 2022