JCL Purchase (aka Jenny Purchase) lives on the shores of the Whangãrei Harbour with her best friend/partner, two cats who loathe each other, a dog who is more human than animal, and a puppy who was never going to be allowed to sleep on the bed. She gives thanks daily that the waka that brought her to Aotearoa New Zealand from distant lands beached itself on these shores. 

Jenny is a senior secondary teacher of English, ESOL, and French, but has also taught a range of subjects in the tertiary sector. She has worked in a variety of other fields as well: librarianship, banking, administration, accounting, management, public service, and the hospitality and entertainment industries. At one stage in her career she was the only female on a committee of twelve, managing a large community organisation north of Auckland. (This fact still astounds her, because as a young woman who had attended a girls' only Christian boarding school, she was terrified of men!) She considers herself a jack-of-all-trades and is a multidiscplinary writer, having designed teaching and educational materials, produced business reports, procedures manuals, and promotional materials, and published academic and creative writing, reviews, and articles. Jenny is passionate about focusing attention on and countering mis- and disinformation, bias, partisanship and spin in public discourse and in the media.   

Jenny has a post-grad diploma in communication and a master’s degree in creative writing from AUT, and has published short fiction and poetry in journals and anthologies, and written short film scripts. Lasavia Press published her debut collection of short stories, Transit Lounge, in December 2022, and she is currently working on an epic historical novel in the classic tradition, a memoir/philosophical reflection on her life and times, and a second collection of short stories.

A project close to Jenny's heart in recent times has been her selection of material and editorial work on a themed, multi-genre anthology on the topic of solo-parented and alternatively-structured families in Aotearoa New Zealand, titled Rere Takitahi/Flying Solo. Jenny arrived in New Zealand in 1998 after a huge upheaval in her life, a solo mother with three young children, and later co-parented her children with a new partner. Thus she is familiar with the challenges and rewards of being part of a non-mainstream family. Rere Takitahi/Flying Solo Anthology was published by Olearia Press on 1 July 2024 with a comprehensive introduction by renowned New Zealand demographer, Professor Emeritus Paul Spoonley.     

Jenny still relief teaches at her local college, particularly helping out in the English Department. She enjoys teaching language - the vehicle of consciousness, thought, connection, and imagination. She campaigns tirelessly for magazines, newspapers, and periodicals to adhere to the principles of responsible journalism and to publish more creative writing, especially short fiction and poetry. She is something of a music afficionado with hundreds of records and CDs and reams of sheet music. She plays piano and guitar, and sings, after a fashion. She has even written some cringefully awful song lyrics!  

In another incarnation Jenny would have liked to have been a performing artist, having played Olivia in Shakespeare's Twelth Night to a large audience way back when she was young and beautiful. She has also been involved in the hospitality and music industries, as part-owner of a nightclub in Johannesburg in the 1990s, and later, as the manager of a successful band in New Zealand in the 2000s, among other roles. In her current life, she reads, thinks, walks, teaches, writes, swims, prays, sings, travels and grandparents, though not necessarily in that order.

 

---