Toby Buck is a writer and editor working at the intersection of place and ideas.

His essays, journalism, and criticism have appeared in North & South, JancisRobinson.com, and The Spinoff, and he has made work for National Geographic, the Tate Modern, TIME, BloombergUSA, Magnum Photography, and others. He has won the Katherine Mansfield Prize, the Landfall Essay Prize, and a D&AD Silver Pen.

Based in Amsterdam, he works with international clients on writing and editorial projects that require intellectual rigour and a strong sense of voice. He is also EMEA Director for Te Mata Estate, one of New Zealand's oldest and most acclaimed wineries.

Featured Essays & Longform

Profiles, Interviews & Reportage

Wine, Food & Material Culture

Commentary / Short Form

Get in contact.

↓ Featured Essays & Longform

Culture, identity, and meaning.

In a still From Netflix the Serpent - a man and woman wearing sunglasses walking through an alleyway. The character is based on a famous serial killer. This article is about the man who stopped him.

Herman & The Serpent

The story of a friend who caught a serial killer.
Character and form bend at the edge of crime writing.

Illustration of people standing around a large yellow rectangular shape with signs labeled 'Refining Systems' and 'Applying Data' above them.

Is This Happiness?

A critical exploration of the UN World Happiness Report. Can global wellbeing be quantified? Or do metrics obscure more than they reveal.

Gabrielle

A human-centred feature from the front lines of Pacific Cyclone Gabrielle.

‘Profound writing - full of persuasive visual detail, with an incredible ear for everyday speech.’

Emma Kneale, Landfall Journal Editor

‘Brash, unapologetic and completely confident writing. It takes a series of risks, almost sinks itself,
and somehow gets away with it.’

Charlotte Grimshaw, Mansfield Award Judge

↓ Profiles, Interviews & Reportage

People, practice, voice, and context.

A woman and a child in traditional attire standing on a grassy field, with a thatched-roof hut, palm trees, and three indigenous men dressed in traditional clothing with floral accessories praying in the background.

Oceania in Venice

A profile of Yuki Kihara on Paradise Camp, Pasifika performance, and the Venice Biennale.

A group of ten older adults, along with one middle-aged woman, posing outdoors against a pink wall with a small tree on the left. Several are holding wooden sticks or staffs, and they are smiling.

Portable Miracles

A look at the the cultural logic behind a unique national literature programme, the role of New Zealand’s Poet Laureate.

Out of the Box

A cultural portrait of a DIY Coffin Club reveals grace, mortality, and happiness, intertwined inside local community activities.

↓ Wine, Food & Material Culture

Food as social practice.
How taste, labour and tradition shape the way we live.

Big Red

A speculative essay. New Zealand winemakers might be re-imagining a new “big red” identity? But what does that say about changes in category, value, and tradition?

A close-up of bunches of ripe, dark purple grapes hanging from a vine amidst green leaves.

Regeneration

An essay-style exploration. “A World Upside Down” celebrates wine, soil, and culture in a piece that resists easy categorisation. JR Prize Winner

A Jurassic Art

An interview with Sam Neill that goes beyond celebrity to interrogate lifelong craft, family, and the sensory poetics of viniculture.

A smiling woman wearing a orange safety vest, black face mask, wide-brimmed colorful hat, and black gloves, standing with arms outstretched among green vineyard rows under a partly cloudy sky.

Harvesters

A vivid photo portrayal of seasonal harvest workers in Hawke’s Bay shows labour, landscape, and the often invisible hands behind food production.

↓ Commentary / Short Form

Provisional, responsive, exploratory.

Two people harvesting grapes in a vineyard, with one person using pruning shears to cut a bunch of black grapes from the vine.

Espalier

A remembrance that lets detail ripple out into larger questions of memory and belonging. jancisrobinson.com

Fresh Claret

An ode to Cabernet - the most collaborative of grapes. Notes of home, nostalgia, the coast, and strawberries.

I’ve also made work for Magnum Photography, MTV, Lexus, Quartz Media, The Whitney, National Geographic, National GalleriesUK, Bloomberg, the Tate Modern, VICE, Jaguar, TIME Magazine, Rockstar Games, and others.