Laughing PenguinLaughing Penguin

I write books for interesting people with something to say.

Poppie Johnson smiling over her shoulder, in a checked shirt and puffer vest, on a hilltop above the sea.

I decided to do what I love every day.

I realised I love writing and I can help a lot of people with it, because the things I find easy, others don’t. Turning someone’s story into a book is a privilege, and I start every morning looking forward to it. I’m with you from the first conversation until you open the first printed copy.

I’m a writer.

I’m a great writer. It’s taken me a while to be able to own that statement but I’m there. I’ve got a master’s degree from Edinburgh and a PhD in creative writing from Sydney, I’ve written five books and I’m writing NBR’s 60th anniversary history, and before that I wrote for a successful SaaS company and taught teenagers how to write for twelve years. I know what authentic content is, and I’m blunt enough to tell you when you’re trying to be someone you’re not.

I don’t have a bunch of pictures showing me holding a pen or sitting in front of a computer. There’s no carefully curated image of Poppie the Writer. Just me, in the places that make me smile, where I source my inspiration for writing.

Poppie stands with tousled hair smiling at the camera while standing on a log in shallow water on a beach, with a vast ocean and cloudy sky in the background.

Education.

ask my old students

  • PhD Creative Writing

    University of Sydney 2020–2024

  • MSc Creative Writing

    University of Edinburgh 2016–2019

  • BA English

    University of Canterbury 2005–2008

  • Grad Dip Teaching (Sec)

    NZGSE 2008–2009

Published in.

  • North & South
  • The Spinoff
  • Stuff
  • Newsroom
  • Landfall
  • University of Otago
  • University of Sydney
  • University of Edinburgh

Member of.

  • New Zealand Society of Authors Te Puni Kaituhi O Aotearoa
  • Australian Society of Authors

Are you my ideal client?

Is this you?

  • A founder or chief executive with a business story worth telling.
  • A company with decades of history and an epic story.
  • A board, trust or not-for-profit marking a milestone.
  • A coach or consultant with buckets of knowledge and the desire to share it more widely than face-to-face seminars.

I write for corporates, individuals, solopreneurs and small to medium-sized businesses run by cool humans. I write about causes, places, or areas of the industry that I’m passionate about. My speciality is ghostwriting. Mostly books but also medium to long-form content that can be repurposed and offers me the opportunity to build relationships with people over a period of time.

So what does that mean? Well, I’m primarily a ghostwriter but I’m also brilliant at LinkedIn blog posts (go on, read some of mine, I practise what I preach) and associated short socials, website copy that actually is interesting to read, short-form print articles, case studies, and profiles. I’m able to translate my knowledge as an educator to the online sphere and create pedagogically sound online courses. I also design programmes and run writing workshops for schools, trusts and leadership teams, which you can read about on the leadership programmes page.

You have an innate talent for taking complex ideas and transforming them into clear, concise, and impactful content.

James Bowens

Let’s talk about your book.

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