I started DorkyMum in 2011 – when I was still living in Edinburgh – as a creative outlet that I could fit around my life as a stay at home parent.

Now that DorkySon is older and requires a little less attention (only a little!) I work freelance as a copywriter and feature writer. I’m based in Hobart, Tasmania, but have clients across Australia, the UK and US.

To check out the services I offer in copywriting and feature writing please visit my professional website ruthdawkins.net 

You can also browse a selection of my published pieces below.

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Parenting and Family

• The Washington Post: I’ve become an accidental Dear Abby
• Guardian: He’s not my father, he’s my husband
• Literary Mama: The Last Bedtime Story
• Kidspot: 5 things only expat parents understand
• Kidspot: Parenting as an introvert
• Kidspot: Our age gap has made our marriage happier
• Kidspot: My son’s imaginary friend
• Mamalode: How do you measure motherhood?
• Mamalode: Sharing the Cake is Never Easy
• Mamalode: Motherhood and Multitasking
• Mamalode: The people we lean on
• Mothers Always Write: On Love and Language
• Mothers Always Write: Almost Ready
• Offbeat Families: Dealing with mean words from a toddler
• Scary Mommy: Watching my son learn to love the deep end
• Scary Mommy: The Things He Has Learned
• Elephant Journal: Making sense of motherhood

Environment and Activism

• Guardian: Au revoir Aurora Australis
• SBS: Even in Antarctica, women are experiencing sexism
• Guardian: Inspirational climate researchers feared dead on Arctic expedition
• Observer: Death on the Ice
• The Island Review: Bruny Island
• SBS Life: How to be a political activist and a parent
• The Scotsman: Together, we could trigger huge change
• Huffington Post: Beacons: Stories for our not so distant future
• Huffington Post: Take Action to Give Girls Power
• Huffington Post: A Day in the Life of a Campaigner

Travel

• Guardian: Four of the best Tasmanian road trips
• Guardian: Dark Mofo or no
• Time Out (Sydney): 13 of Tasmania’s Best Kept Secrets
• Time Out (Sydney): Guide to North West Tasmania
• Time Out (Sydney): Guide to Hobart
• Kidspot: Christmas in Australia as an expat
• The Simple Things: My City, Hobart (pdf)
• The Island Review: Welcome to Tasmania
• The Island Review: A Tassie Summer
• Vrai Magazine: A Home in Tasmania
• Vrai Magazine: Top 10 Things to do in Tasmania
• Time Out (UK): Things to Do in Launceston
• Time Out (UK): 13 Best Things to Do in Tasmania

Food and Drink

• Guardian: Tasmania’s off-beat gin boom
• The Island Review: The Whisky Island
• The Island Review: Tasmanian Food
• The Crafty Pint: Bruny Island Brews
• The Crafty Pint: Last Rites’ First Rites
• The Crafty Pint: Canny Moovers
• The Crafty Pint: Moo Brew Single Hop Can
• The Crafty Pint: The Smoky, Hoppy, Spotty Dog
• The Crafty Pint: Trials and Fermentations
• The Crafty Pint: A Complete Shambles
• The Crafty Pint: Two Heads are Better than One
• The Crafty Pint: From Wellington to Wellington
• The Crafty Pint: The Devils’ New Platform
• The Crafty Pint: Raising the Stakes

Life and Style

• Caught by the River: Going Home
• SBS Life: Would you go no shampoo?
• Offbeat Home: Why every home needs a terramundi pot
• Kidspot: What you wear as a mum helps you find your tribe
• Scary Mommy: Marie Kondo, my son, and me
• Literary Mama: Confessions of a Diary Writer
• Offbeat Home: The objects that make a house a home
• Offbeat Home: Why I love my dining table
• Huffington post: Marks and Spencer and Me

Arts, Books and Culture

• The Lifted Brow: More than MOFO
• The Island Review: A Winter in Tassie
• The Skinny: Artistic Licence
• Mommikin: I am not a poet
• Scottish Book Trust: An Island Childhood
• Mommikin: Confessions of a paper hoarder
• Mommikin: Focus

Humour and Miscellaneous

• The Island Review: Tasnamia (Poetry)
• BLUNTMoms: You know you’ve hit the dirty thirties when…
• BLUNTMoms: I hate getting my haircut because I look like Macaulay Culkin
• Buzzfeed: 18 Signs That You Grew Up in the Western Isles
• Kidspot: The Day I Asked Why
• Mrs Muffintop: Imperfect Parenting
• Mrs Muffintop: 13 Lessons from early motherhood

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Photo Credit: Margaret Clift McNulty