They said no, but I’m doing it anyway.

Creative New Zealand rejected my funding application

So I’m doing it anyway — with whatever you give.

The project :

February 2026 I enter into Safety Camp Creek Bach, West Coast, with my Labrador Emily.

For 40 days No people. No power.No internet

Paper. Pen. Polaroid.

Isolation so I can reconnect with the rawest part of my creativity.

I go dark.

There will be silence.

Then I re-emerge with the draft manuscripts mid March

I’m Donna Faulkner, Rangiora poet & author of

• In Silver Majesty (erbacce-press UK, 2024)

• The Oracle of Birds : short stories for the fireside (Written Tales USA, 2023)

I live in an old cottage in Rangiora, New Zealand and came to the business of writing later in life. My work has been published in The Bayou Review, 300 Days of Sun, Takahē: Hua/ Manu,Tarot Poetry NZ, Windward Review, Havik, New Myths, and many others.

Awards include

• 1st Loud Coffee Press International Haiku 2022

• 1st Rune Bear Quarterly Drabble 2022

• 2nd Havik nonfiction “The Rag Doll Rider” 2023

• 2nd place literature ZO Magazine 10th anniversary’s “A Summons to the Revolution” 2025

• erbacce Poetry Prize long-list 2022-2025 (top 100 of 12-15 k entries)

Honourable mention for poem "Old Friend" (Dark Poets Club, Small Space Deep Impact,

2025).

I need $5,000:

• Bach rental (booked) $3,000

• Fuel, food, and emergency supplies. $2000

Every donor, any amount, gets their name in the finished book.

Help me vanish so the words can appear.

Thank you

Donna & Emily