The Six Word Mum: Emma Power

The M Word would like to introduce to the readers this week our Irish/Kiwi writer Emma Power. A native of Cork now living in New Zealand, Emma is not only an M Word contributor but also keeps on our Twitter musings.

Emma is a self confessed foodie and a lover of autobiographies. Emma’s super power would be to fly faster than a space ship so she can go between her adopted home New Zealand and Ireland.

Emma has being very open about her battle with post natal depression and is determined to help others by writing about her experience’s.

Describe Motherhood in six words?

Terrifying, amazing, all-consuming, fulfilling, surprising, magic.

What inspires your writing?

My kids, my husband, the madness of the world we live in especially when it comes to parenting and how over the top every aspect of it has become.

What’s your story?

I was born and raised in Cork, the real capital of Ireland. I emigrated to New Zealand with my kiwi husband and kids four years ago, two of my kids were born in Ireland and one is a kiwi so she is way more relaxed than the other two! Writing has always been part of my life, I studied scriptwriting in film college, then went on to study journalism and worked for a variety of different newspapers and magazines in Ireland before I emigrated. Having been a stay at home mom I’m loving writing for the Mword and dipping my toes back into the adult world. The dream has always been to be paid to do what I love which is writing, whether its scripts, fiction or ranting about the stress of parenting, I’m hoping perseverance will pay off and by the time I’m seventy I’ll be making a decent living out of it!

Whose writing do you admire and why?

I read everything and anything. I love autobiographies and getting to know the back story of big successes, I’ve just finished Shoedog which is Phil Knights autobiography, the guy who started Nike, its fascinating and I would highly recommend it. I’m also a big foodie and I’m obsessed with Nigel Slater. The way he writes about food, with one sentence I can feel like I’m sitting in his house tucking into something amazing. When you read his books you can almost taste what he is describing. He has a unique way of stimulating all the senses with words.

If you had a super power for just one day only what would it be and what would you do with it?

Being able to fly faster than a spaceship would be handy, that way I could get to Ireland from New Zealand in an hour and have a cup of tea with my mom and fly back to New Zealand in time to pick the kids up from school.

Which story are you most proud of and what inspired you to write it?

My open letter to moms who are suffering from post-natal depression. This was a deeply personal subject for me to write about but I was passionate about sharing my story in the hope that it might make other moms feel less alone but more importantly make them feel like there is hope. The best thing about being part of the M word is having the opportunity to reach out to moms everywhere and let them know we are all winging it and nobody really has a clue what they are doing!

Read more from Emma on her channel on Medium.