The Punga House Wanker
‘The Punga House Wanker’ was awarded a Highly Commended placing in the Samesame But Different 2025 Peter Wells Fiction Contest. The judges’ comments, from authors Pip Adam and Jeffrey Buchanan, are below:
“A powerfully chilling story concerning sexual abuse, religious hypocrisy, the fight for justice, and the power dynamics involved within that intensity. It requires the reader to enter the gravity of the situation. The writing, intense, draws you in, gasping, the messages ringing long after. “
Please note there are references to sexual abuse, religious hypocrisy and church cover-ups that may be triggering for readers.
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Twice in my life I have sat in a room with professional bigots and been asked, “Is there anything more you’d like to say?”….
Pronunciation and Pronouns
A couple weeks back I turned fifty-three, putting me at the younger end of the Te Reo Māori class that I have come to love. It is a weekly two-hour class in the bustling city suburb of Newmarket. The drive there is always doubled on the way home by the kids clambering out of the surrounding schools. The accumulated affluence is presented in queues of opulent cars parked on yellow lines, sensor-operated doors opening and school bags flying through onto ergonomically designed seats. Kids pile into cars more orderly than I ever managed to, and before their feet touch the floor mats their devices are out and they continue to work on their forward head posture….