Backwaters

Winner of the 2022 Michael Gifkins Prize, Backwaters is a tender and exquisitely written debut novel examining identity, race and complex family history.

Laura is tired of being asked where she's really from. Her family has lived in Aotearoa New Zealand for four generations, and she's ambivalent at best about her Chinese heritage. But when she's asked to write about the Chinese New Zealander experience for a work project, Laura finds herself drawn to the diary of her great-great-grandfather Ken, a market gardener in the early years of the British colony.

With the help of her beloved grandpa, Laura begins to write a version of Ken's story. She imagines his youth in Guangzhou and his journey to a new land-unaware that soon, spurred on by a family secret that comes to light, she will go on her own journey of self-discovery, sexuality and reckoning with the past.

A tender, nuanced novel about the bittersweet search for belonging, Backwaters marks the arrival of a brilliant new talent.

About the Author

Emma Sidnam is a Wellington-based writer and law and literature student. As a fourth-generation Asian New Zealander, she is passionate about representation and ensuring that all voices are heard. She is an award-winning slam poet and her work has been published in the Spinoff, Capital, Newsroom and the anthologies A Clear Dawn and Middle Distance. In 2022, she was awarded the prestigious Michael Gifkins Prize for Backwaters.