Writer
Jazial Crossley is a writer based in Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand.
She writes a memoir-by-playlist called Everyone I’ve Ever Loved & All The Songs That Remind Me Of Them, published in regular installments on her Substack newsletter All The Songs.
She has won several national awards for her writing as a journalist and holds an MBA, a BA and a journalism diploma.
Everyone I’ve Ever Loved & All The Songs That Remind Me Of Them
“For this memoir-by-playlist project, I write 500 words on my memories of a song. These vignettes offer a glimpse in to the rich and varied emotions we all experience in our lifetimes through showing a brief slice of my life at a particular time, in how I relate to a certain song. What the music brings up might be shallow or it could be intense. The memory may be joyful or thick with sorrow, a reflection on pleasure or a heavy exploration of fear. Whatever emotions a song dredges up from the spectrum of human feeling, they are true.
I remember snippets alongside songs. This is the soundtrack to my life. Let me be clear: Everyone I’ve Ever Loved & All The Songs That Remind Me Of Them is not a curated selection of the coolest songs I want to associate myself with. Some of them are my jam, others are trashy and catchy – all manner of music has been part of my life.
This project invites the reader to consider, where does this song take you? What does it remind you of? Where were you in your life when you last listened to this track?”
All The Songs
In this monthly newsletter, I share with you one piece from my memoir-by-playlist project Everyone I’ve Ever Loved & All The Songs That Remind Me Of Them.
In each issue I will also tell you what I’ve been reading, listening to, watching, cooking and drinking as a way of sharing recommendations and providing an update on daily life.
Otherhood
My writing is included in ‘OTHERHOOD: Essays On Being Childless, Childfree and Child Adjacent; a collection of personal essays by New Zealand writers that gives voice to a common experience that still feels taboo: not being a mother. Or at least, not in the traditional sense.
It was published in 2024 by Massey University Press.
Gramercy Review
My Heart Beating On The Line
In this creative nonfiction essay published in New York City-based literary journal Gramercy Review, I write about friendship, loneliness and Jenny Lewis.
“I wonder if I’ve used up my lifetime quota of good mates with the women I’m so close to who live in different places. I hesitate to share more of myself with the people who do give me their time here but I can’t explain why.”
Capsule
‘How I’m Honouring My Dead Baby’s Due Date’
In this essay, I write about the grief of my first pregnancy ending in miscarriage.
“28 November 2024 is a date I will never forget. In honour of the day I was supposed to be giving birth to our child, my partner and I are going off the grid.”
Mamamia
‘Don’t Tell Me I Look Tired: What It Feels Like To Be Robbed Of A Lifetime Of Sleep’
In this essay for Australian women’s media publication Mamamia, I write about how insomnia as a result of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder impacted me.
“I’ve come to fear sleep. I drop off okay but wake as alert as if I’m in the act of fleeing an intruder. My dreams are stressful and taunting.”
The Spinoff
Was she not our girl? Remembering Sinéad O’Connor
“A companion of mine has died, someone whose art kept me company in tough moments and provided stability when that was something my real life lacked. Sinéad O’Connor has passed away at the age of 56.”