Becky Manawatu
Becky Manawatu (Ngāi Tahu) was born in Nelson in 1982, raised in Waimangaroa and has returned there to live with her family. She worked as a reporter for The News in Westport.
Becky’s short story ‘Abalone’ was long-listed for the 2018 Commonwealth Short Story Prize, her essay ‘Mothers Day’ has been selected for the Landfall anthology Strong Words.
Auē is her first novel & it won both the Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction and the Hubert Church Prize for best first book of fiction at the 2020 Ockham Book Awards.
If you like author Becky Manawatu here is the list of authors you may also like
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Sue Orr
Sue Orr is the author of two short story collections. Etiquette for a Dinner Party (2008) won the Lilian Ida Smith Award and From Under the Overcoat (2011) was shortlisted for the 2012 New Zealand Post Book Awards and won the People's Choice Award. Her fiction has been published in New Zealand and international anthologies and translated into Spanish. In 2011 she was the Sargeson Buddle Findlay Fellow.
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She has taught creative writing at Manukau Institute of Technology and Massey University and is completing a PhD in Creative Writing at Victoria University, Wellington. She lives in Auckland with her family. -
Alan Duff
Alan Duff (born October 26, 1950, Rotorua, New Zealand) is a New Zealand novelist and newspaper columnist, most well known as the author of Once Were Warriors. He began to write full-time in 1985.
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He tried writing a thriller as his first novel, but it was rejected. He burned the manuscript and started writing Once Were Warriors, which had an immediate and great impact. The novel is written in juxtaposed interior monologues, making its style stand out from other works. It was winner of the PEN Best First Book Award, was runner-up in the Goodman Fielder Wattie Award, and was made into the award-winning film of the same name in 1994.
Another of his novels, One Night Out Stealing, appeared in 1991 and shortlisted in the 1992 Goodman Fielder Watti -
Charles Portis
Charles McColl Portis was an American author best known for his novels Norwood (1966) and the classic Western True Grit (1968), both adapted as films. The latter also inspired a film sequel and a made-for-TV movie sequel. A newer film adaptation of True Grit was released in 2010.
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Portis served in the Marine Corps during the Korean war and attended the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville. He graduated with a degree in journalism in 1958.
His journalistic career included work at the Arkansas Gazette before he moved to New York to work for The New York Herald Tribune. After serving as the London bureau chief for the The New York Herald Tribune, he left journalism in 1964 and returned to Arkansas to write novels. -
Tina Makereti
Where the Rēkohu Bone Sings is Tina Makereti’s first novel. Her short story collection, Once Upon a Time in Aotearoa (Huia Publishers 2010), won the Ngā Kupu Ora Māori Book Awards Fiction Prize 2011. In 2009 she was the recipient of the Royal Society of New Zealand Manhire Prize for Creative Science Writing (non-fiction), and in the same year received the Pikihuia Award for Best Short Story written in English. In October 2012, Makereti was Writer in Residence at the Weltkulturen Museum in Frankfurt, and in 2014 she is the Creative New Zealand Randell Cottage Writer in Residence. Makereti has a PhD Creative Writing from Victoria University, and teaches creative writing and English at Massey and Victoria Universities. She is of Ngāti Tūwharet
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Witi Ihimaera
Witi Ihimaera is a novelist and short story writer from New Zealand, perhaps the best-known Māori writer today. He is internationally famous for The Whale Rider.
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Ihimaera lives in New Zealand and is of Māori descent and Anglo-Saxon descent through his father, Tom. He attended Church College of New Zealand in Temple View, Hamilton, New Zealand. He was the first Māori writer to publish both a novel and a book of short stories. He began to work as a diplomat at the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1973, and served at various diplomatic posts in Canberra, New York, and Washington, D.C. Ihimaera remained at the Ministry until 1989, although his time there was broken by several fellowships at the University of Otago in 1975 and Victoria -
Brannavan Gnanalingam
Brannavan Gnanalingam was born in Sri Lanka and moved to New Zealand via Zimbabwe at the age of three.
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He is a music and film reviewer for the Lumière Reader, Under the Radar, and the Dominion Post, and also works as a lawyer in Wellington, New Zealand.
He is the author of five novels, all published by Wellington publishing collective Lawrence & Gibson which specialises in experimental non-fiction and heavyweight literature. -
John Boyne
I was born in Dublin, Ireland, and studied English Literature at Trinity College, Dublin, and Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia, Norwich. In 2015, I was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Letters by UEA.
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I’ve published 14 novels for adults, 6 novels for younger readers, and a short story collection. The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas was a New York Times no.1 Bestseller and was adapted for a feature film, a play, a ballet and an opera, selling around 11 million copies worldwide.
Among my most popular books are The Heart’s Invisible Furies, A Ladder to the Sky and My Brother’s Name is Jessica.
I’m also a regular book reviewer for The Irish Times.
In 2012, I was awarded the Hennessy Literary ‘Hall of Fame’ Award for my body of work. I’v -
Emily Perkins
Emily Perkins is a writer of contemporary fiction, and the success of her first collection of stories, not her real name and other stories, established her early on as an important writer of her generation. Perkins has written novels, as well as short fiction, and her writing has won and been shortlisted for a number of significant awards and prizes. She was the 2006 Buddle Findlay Sargeson Fellow, and she used the fellowship to work on her book, Novel About My Wife, published in 2008. She is an Arts Foundation of New Zealand Laureate Award winner (2011).
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Catherine Chidgey
Catherine Chidgey is a novelist and short story writer whose work has been published to international acclaim. In a Fishbone Church won Best First Book at the New Zealand Book Awards and at the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize in her region. In the UK it won the Betty Trask Award and was longlisted for the Orange Prize. Golden Deeds was Time Out’s book of the year, a Notable Book of the Year in The New York Times and a Best Book in the LA Times. She has won the Prize in Modern Letters, the Katherine Mansfield Award, the Katherine Mansfield Fellowship, the Janet Frame Fiction Prize, and the Acorn Foundation Fiction Prize for The Wish Child. Remote Sympathy was shortlisted for the Dublin Literary Award and the Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fictio
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Damien Wilkins
Damien Wilkins writes fiction, and he has published short stories, novels, and poetry. His writing has been described as ‘exuberant and evocative, subtle and exact, aware of its own artifice yet relishing the idiosyncrasies and possibilities of language’. Wilkins has had books published in New Zealand, the USA and the UK, and he has won and been nominated for a range of prizes and awards. He also edited the award-winning anthology, Great Sporting Moments: The best of Sport magazine 1988-2004 published in 2005.
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Laurence Fearnley
Laurence Fearnley is an award-winning novelist. Her novel The Hut Builder won the fiction category of the 2011 NZ Post Book Awards and was shortlisted for the international 2010 Boardman Tasker Prize for mountain writing. Her book Edwin and Matilda was runner-up in the 2008 Montana New Zealand Book Awards and her second novel, Room, was shortlisted for the 2001 Montana Book Awards. In 2004 Fearnley was awarded the Artists to Antarctica Fellowship and in 2007 the Robert Burns Fellowship at the University of Otago. Laurence Fearnley lives in Dunedin with her husband and son.
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Ngahuia Te Awekotuku
Ngahuia Te Awekotuku MNZM (1949– ) is a New Zealand academic specialising in Māori cultural issues and a lesbian activist. She is descended from Te Arawa, Tūhoe and Waikato iwi.
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As a student Te Awekotuku was a member of Ngā Tamatoa a the University of Auckland, her MA thesis was on Janet Frame and her PhD on the effects of tourism on the Te Arawa people. She has been curator of ethnology at the Waikato Museum; lecturer in art history at Auckland University, and professor ofMaori studies at Victoria University of Wellington. She is currently 'Professor of Research and Development' at Waikato University.
In 1972, Te Awekotuku was denied a visitors permit to the USA on the grounds that she was a homosexual. Publicity around the incident was a ca -
Louise Wallace
Louise Wallace is the author of four collections of poems, and the novel Ash. She is the founder and editor of Starling, an online journal publishing the work of young writers from Aotearoa, and the editor of Ōrongohau | Best New Zealand Poems 2022.
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Charity Norman
Charity was born in Uganda, brought up in draughty vicarages in Yorkshire and Birmingham, met her future husband under a lorry in the Sahara. She worked as a barrister in York Chambers, until - realising that her three children had barely met her - she moved with her family to New Zealand and began to write.
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After the Fall/Second Chances was a Richard & Judy and World Book Night title, The New Woman/ The Secret Life of Luke Livingstone a BBC Radio 2 choice. See You in September (2017) was shortlisted in the Ngaio Marsh Awards. The Secrets of Strangers was a Radio 2 choice and shortlisted for the Ngaio Marsh and Ned Kelly Awards. Her seventh, Remember Me, was published in March 2022. -
Tina Makereti
Where the Rēkohu Bone Sings is Tina Makereti’s first novel. Her short story collection, Once Upon a Time in Aotearoa (Huia Publishers 2010), won the Ngā Kupu Ora Māori Book Awards Fiction Prize 2011. In 2009 she was the recipient of the Royal Society of New Zealand Manhire Prize for Creative Science Writing (non-fiction), and in the same year received the Pikihuia Award for Best Short Story written in English. In October 2012, Makereti was Writer in Residence at the Weltkulturen Museum in Frankfurt, and in 2014 she is the Creative New Zealand Randell Cottage Writer in Residence. Makereti has a PhD Creative Writing from Victoria University, and teaches creative writing and English at Massey and Victoria Universities. She is of Ngāti Tūwharet
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Naomi Arnold
Naomi Arnold is an award-winning journalist based in Nelson, New Zealand.
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Dominic Hoey
Dominic Hoey is a poet, author and playwright based in Auckland, New Zealand.
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His debut novel Iceland was a New Zealand bestseller, long-listed for the 2018 Ockham Book Award and his short story 1986 won the 2021 Sunday Star Times Short Story Award. His latest poetry collection I Thought We’d Be Famous was released in October 2019.
Dominic has written and performed two one-person hit shows about his bone disease and his inability to get arts funding. In a former life, Dominic was an MC battle and slam-poetry champion.
Through his Learn To Write Good creative writing course, Dominic has taught hundreds of students around the world how to think dyslexic.
He also works with young people through the Atawhai program, teaching art, yoga and meditati -
Michael Bennett
Michael Bennett (Ngāti Pikiao, Ngāti Whakaue) is an award-winning screenwriter, director, and author whose films have been selections at major festivals, including Cannes, Berlin, Toronto, and New York. His nonfiction book, In Dark Places, which explored an infamous miscarriage of justice, won awards, and his young adult graphic novel, Helen and the Go-Go Ninjas, was a finalist for the 2019 New Zealand Book Awards.
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Jacinda Ardern
The Right Honourable Dame Jacinda Ardern was elected the 40th Prime Minister of New Zealand at the age of thirty-seven, becoming the country’s youngest Prime Minister in more than 150 years. Since leaving office, Ardern has established the Field Fellowship on empathetic leadership. She is a Senior Fellow at Harvard University, continues to work on climate action, and is the Patron of the Christchurch Call to Action to eliminate terrorist and violent extremist content online. Ardern also works on a number of projects that support women and girls, but considers her greatest roles to be those she will hold for life, including that of mum and proud New Zealander.
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Ruth Shaw
Ruth Shaw runs two wee bookshops in remote Manapouri in the far south of New Zealand.
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Michelle Rahurahu
Michelle Rahurahu (Ngaati Rahurahu, Ngaati Tahu-Ngaati Whaoa) is a writer who was raised by taangata turi. She was a co-editor of Te Rito o te Harakeke, an anthology of Maaori voices for Ihumaatao. She has a Masters in Creative Writing from the IIML, where she won the Modern Letters Fiction Prize, and was shortlisted for the Michael Gifkins Prize for Poorhara.
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Patricia Grace
Patricia Grace is a major New Zealand novelist, short story writer and children’s writer, of Ngati Toa, Ngati Raukawa and Te Ati Awa descent, and is affiliated to Ngati Porou by marriage. Grace began writing early, while teaching and raising her family of seven children, and has since won many national and international awards, including the Kiriyama Pacific Rim Book Prize for fiction, the Deutz Medal for Fiction, and the Neustadt International Prize for Literature, widely considered the most prestigious literary prize after the Nobel. A deeply subtle, moving and subversive writer, in 2007 Grace received a Distinguished Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for her services to literature.
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Ruby Tui
Ruby Tui is a professional rugby player and a bestselling author. She won an Olympic gold medal in 2021, an Olympic silver medal in 2016, a Rugby World Cup Sevens title in 2018 and a Rugby World Cup title in 2022.
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Her memoir Straight Up was the bestselling book in New Zealand in 2022, and Ruby's brilliant rugby skills and amazing personality won the hearts of New Zealanders, culminating in her shortlisting for the New Zealander of the Year.
She was named Black Ferns Sevens Player of the Year in 2017 and World Rugby Sevens Player of the Year in 2019. Transitioning to the 15s game in 2022, she won the inaugural Super Rugby Aupiki competition with the Chiefs Manawa and then made her debut for the Black Ferns, helping them win the 2021 Rugby Worl -
Eileen Merriman
Eileen Merriman works full-time as a consultant haematologist at North Shore Hospital. Her writing has appeared in a number of national and international journals and anthologies, including Smokelong Quarterly, The Island Review, Literary Orphans, the Bath Short Story Award Anthology 2015, the Sunday Star-Times, F(r)iction, takahe, Headland and Flash Frontier. Her first novel was Pieces of You, with reviewers calling it 'compulsively readable' and 'compelling, challenging, and heartbreaking'. It was a 2018 Storylines Notable Book and, along with her second novel, it was shortlisted for the NZ Book Awards for Children and Young Adults.
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Her other awards include runner-up in the 2018 Sunday Star-Times Short Story Award, third for three consecut -
Catherine Chidgey
Catherine Chidgey is a novelist and short story writer whose work has been published to international acclaim. In a Fishbone Church won Best First Book at the New Zealand Book Awards and at the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize in her region. In the UK it won the Betty Trask Award and was longlisted for the Orange Prize. Golden Deeds was Time Out’s book of the year, a Notable Book of the Year in The New York Times and a Best Book in the LA Times. She has won the Prize in Modern Letters, the Katherine Mansfield Award, the Katherine Mansfield Fellowship, the Janet Frame Fiction Prize, and the Acorn Foundation Fiction Prize for The Wish Child. Remote Sympathy was shortlisted for the Dublin Literary Award and the Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fictio
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Naomi Arnold
Naomi Arnold is an award-winning journalist based in Nelson, New Zealand.
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Michael Bennett
Michael Bennett is a three-time Pro Bowler, Pro Bowl MVP, Super Bowl Champion, and two-time NFC Champion. He has gained international recognition for his public support for the Black Lives Matter Movement, women’s rights, and other social justice causes. In 2017, he was named one of the 100 Most Influential African Americans by The Root, was the Seattle Seahawks nominee for the NFL’s Walter Payton Man of the Year award, and was honored along with his brother Martellus with a BET Shine a Light award for exceptional service.
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He is the cofounder with Pele Bennett of The Bennett Foundation, which educates underserved children and communities through free, accessible programming. He has held free camps and health clinics in Seattle, in his hometo -
Tahmima Anam
Tahmima Anam is an award-winning novelist, short story writer, and anthropologist. She is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, a Granta Best Young British Novelist, and winner of a Commonwealth Writers Prize. Her work has been published in Granta, The New York Times, and The Guardian. She was born in Dhaka, Bangladesh and lives in London, where she is on the board of ROLI, a music technology startup founded by her husband.
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The Startup Wife (07/13/2021) is her latest novel. -
Guyon Espiner
Attended the University of Canterbury.
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New Zealand investigative journalist.
Married Emma Wehipeihana in 2012. -
Michael Bennett
Michael Bennett (Ngāti Pikiao, Ngāti Whakaue) is an award-winning screenwriter, director, and author whose films have been selections at major festivals, including Cannes, Berlin, Toronto, and New York. His nonfiction book, In Dark Places, which explored an infamous miscarriage of justice, won awards, and his young adult graphic novel, Helen and the Go-Go Ninjas, was a finalist for the 2019 New Zealand Book Awards.
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Steven Adams
Born in New Zealand, Adams is a professional basketball player in the States.
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In 2018 he released his autobiography Steven Adams, My Life My Fight. -
Maurice Gee
Maurice Gough Gee was a New Zealand novelist. He was one of New Zealand's most distinguished and prolific authors, having written over thirty novels for adults and children, and having won numerous awards both in New Zealand and overseas, including multiple top prizes at the New Zealand Book Awards, the James Tait Black Memorial Prize in the UK, the Katherine Mansfield Menton Fellowship, the Robert Burns Fellowship and a Prime Minister's Award for Literary Achievement. In 2003 he was recognised as one of New Zealand's greatest living artists across all disciplines by the Arts Foundation of New Zealand, which presented him with an Icon Award.
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Gee's novel Plumb (1978) was described by the Oxford Companion to New Zealand Literature to be one of -
Anthony Lapwood
Anthony Lapwood's debut story collection Home Theatre won the Hubert Church Prize for Fiction in the 2023 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards. His fiction has featured in numerous publications and been anthologised in Middle Distance: Long Stories of Aotearoa New Zealand, Year’s Best Aotearoa New Zealand Science Fiction and Fantasy, and Hiwa: Contemporary Māori Short Stories. Anthony is of Ngāti Ranginui, Ngāi Te Rangi, Ngāti Whakaue and Pākehā descent. He lives in Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington, in Aotearoa New Zealand.
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Ian Cross
Ian Robert Cross, CMG, was a novelist, journalist and administrator, and has contributed significantly to New Zealand letters. His first novel, The God Boy, was released in 1957 to critical acclaim. Later novels are The Backward Sex (1959), After ANZAC Day (1961) and The Family Man (1993). He also wrote two memoirs The Unlikely Bureaucrat (1988) & Such Absolute Beginners. (2007)
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Cross was the first recipient of the Burns Fellowship at Otago University. (1959)
In 1973 he became editor of the New Zealand Listener, a position he held for four years.
Ian Cross died in a Kapiti Coast rest home. His wife Tui had died a month earlier. -
Ruth Shaw
Ruth Shaw runs two wee bookshops in remote Manapouri in the far south of New Zealand.
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Jenny Pattrick
Jenny Pattrick is an acclaimed historical novelist, whose The Denniston Rose, and its sequel Heart of Coal, are among New Zealand's bestselling novels. In 2009 she received the New Zealand Post Mansfield Fellowship. She has been active in the arts community, and has also written stories, songs and shows for children.
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Jenny Pattrick has been awarded the OBE for services to the arts, the 1990 medal, is featured in the Wellington Girls' College Hall of Fame and has received the NZ Post Katherine Mansfield Prize. -
Pippa Latour
PIPPA LATOUR was the last surviving SEO agent, serving in France until its liberation. For seventy years, Pippa's contributions to the war effort were largely unheralded, but she was finally given her due in 2014 when she was awarded France's highest military decoration, the Chevalier de l'Ordre National de la Légion d'Honneur (Knight of the National Order of the Legion of Honour). She died in 2023 at age 102.
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Charlotte Lobb
Charlotte Lobb was born and raised on a lifestyle block just out of Hamilton, in Aotearoa/New Zealand. Charlotte kept busy in her earlier years with interests and talents ranging from ballroom dancing, violin, piano and singing, to being a member of the NZ Shooting Team and High Performance Academy for air-rifle shooting.
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After leaving school, Charlotte completed a Bachelor in Speech and Language Therapy (Hons) at the University of Canterbury. She now lives in Tauranga, in the sunny Bay of Plenty, with her husband, two children and their fluffy cat.
Along with her passion for words, Charlotte has a desire to bring mental health topics out into the open, and to provide hope for those in need. 'Hannah & Huia' is Charlotte’s debut novel. -
Barbara Else
Barbara Else is a playwright and fiction writer, and has also worked as a literary agent, editor and fiction consultant. Else won the Victoria University Writer’s Fellowship in 1999, and was made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to literature in 2005.
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Emma Espiner
Emma Espiner (née Wehipeihana) is a New Zealand broadcaster and political commentator. In 2020, she won Opinion Writer of the Year at the Voyager Media Awards.
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She is a columnist for Newsroom and hosts a podcast Getting Better for Radio New Zealand about Māori health equity.
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Michael King
Michael King was one of New Zealand's leading historians and biographers. In 2006 he was named one of 100 most important New Zealanders that have ever lived. He published more than 34 books in his lifetime. His last, The Penguin History of New Zealand, has sold more than 200,000 copies and is widely considered to be the definitive history of New Zealand. His work in literary biography - most notably Wrestling With the Angel, on the life of Janet Frame - also received great critical acclaim. He made many level-headed contributions to race-relations debates and is sorely missed by his country.
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Stan Walker
Stan Walker is an Australian-born New Zealand singer, actor, and television personality. In 2009, Walker was the winner of the seventh and last season of Australian Idol. He subsequently signed a recording contract with Sony Music Australia. In December 2009, Walker released his debut studio album, Introducing Stan Walker, which included the hit single, "Black Box". The album debuted at number three on the Australian ARIA Albums Chart and was certified platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA). It also appeared on the New Zealand Albums Chart at number two and was certified triple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of New Zealand (RIANZ).
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In October 2020, Walker released an autobiography titled Impossible: -
Jane Arthur
Jane Arthur was the recipient of the Sarah Broom Poetry Prize in 2018, judged by Eileen Myles. She has worked in the book industry for over fifteen years as a bookseller and editor. She has a Master of Arts in Creative Writing from the IIML at Victoria University of Wellington. Born in New Plymouth, she lives in Wellington with her family and dogs.
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Laurence Fearnley
Laurence Fearnley is an award-winning novelist. Her novel The Hut Builder won the fiction category of the 2011 NZ Post Book Awards and was shortlisted for the international 2010 Boardman Tasker Prize for mountain writing. Her book Edwin and Matilda was runner-up in the 2008 Montana New Zealand Book Awards and her second novel, Room, was shortlisted for the 2001 Montana Book Awards. In 2004 Fearnley was awarded the Artists to Antarctica Fellowship and in 2007 the Robert Burns Fellowship at the University of Otago. Laurence Fearnley lives in Dunedin with her husband and son.
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Michelle Rahurahu
Michelle Rahurahu (Ngaati Rahurahu, Ngaati Tahu-Ngaati Whaoa) is a writer who was raised by taangata turi. She was a co-editor of Te Rito o te Harakeke, an anthology of Maaori voices for Ihumaatao. She has a Masters in Creative Writing from the IIML, where she won the Modern Letters Fiction Prize, and was shortlisted for the Michael Gifkins Prize for Poorhara.
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Kelley Tantau
Described as 'an exciting new writer' by NZ Booklovers, Kelley Tantau is an award-winning New Zealand journalist and author of The Runaway Man.
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In 2023, she was named Best Senior News Journalist at the Community Newspaper Awards, and Runner-Up Best Community Reporter at the NZ Voyager Media Awards.
The Runaway Man is her debut novel and tells the story of Nick Greene, who voluntarily disappears. When Nick's missing persons case turns into a manhunt, he'll begin to question whether his efforts to start a new life were worth it.
"Tantau’s writing style is nothing short of exceptional. Her vivid descriptions not only bring the New Zealand landscape to life but also provide insight into the internal struggles of her characters."
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Richard Shaw
Richard Shaw is Professor of Politics at Massey University whose research is published in leading international journals. He is a regular commentator on political issues.
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Megan Dunn
Megan Dunn studied Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia, graduating in 2006. She won an Escalator award from the New Writing Partnership (now The Writers’ Centre Norwich) and her short story 'The Mermaid and the Music Box' was included in Roads Ahead, a 2009 anthology of new writers published by Tindal St Press. Her first book, Tinderbox, was published by Galley Beggar Press in November 2017.
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Anna Smaill
Anna Smaill lives in Wellington with her husband, novelist Carl Shuker, and her daughter. She studied performance violin at Canterbury University and creative writing at the International Institute of Modern Letters at the University of Victoria, and has a PhD in English Literature from University College London. She is the author of one book of poetry (The Violinist in Spring, VUP 2005) and her poems have been published and anthologised in New Zealand and the United Kingdom. Her first novel The Chimes will be published by Sceptre in Feburary 2015.
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Matt Heath
Matt Heath is a well-known broadcaster, producer, actor, podcaster, TV personality and sports commentator. As well as co-hosting The Matt & Jerry Show on Radio Hauraki and the Daily Bespoke podcast, he is the co-owner of production company Vinewood Motion Graphics. For ten years he wrote a weekly column for the New Zealand Herald. Matt lives in Auckland city and is a father of two.
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Annaleese Jochems
Annaleese Jochems was born in 1994 and grew up in Northland. She won the 2016 Adam Prize from the International Institute of Modern Letters for Baby, which is her first book.
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Emily Perkins
Emily Perkins is a writer of contemporary fiction, and the success of her first collection of stories, not her real name and other stories, established her early on as an important writer of her generation. Perkins has written novels, as well as short fiction, and her writing has won and been shortlisted for a number of significant awards and prizes. She was the 2006 Buddle Findlay Sargeson Fellow, and she used the fellowship to work on her book, Novel About My Wife, published in 2008. She is an Arts Foundation of New Zealand Laureate Award winner (2011).
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Pip Adam
PIP ADAM gained an MA in Creative Writing with Distinction from Victoria University in 2007. Her work has appeared in Sport, Glottis, Turbine, Lumiere Reader, Hue & Cry, Landfall and Blackmail Press. Her work has also appeared in publications produced in conjunction with two exhibitions at the Wellington City Art Gallery and her reviews have appeared in Metro. She is currently working toward her PhD Creative Writing at Victoria University. Her PhD project explores how engineers describe the built environment. She is using this research to write stories about our relationships with built forms and the structures that hold them up.
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Everything We Hoped For won the NZ Post Best First Book Award in 2011 and is an unusually strong first book, dist -
Joanna Cho
Joanna Cho was born in South Korea and currently lives in Wellington. She completed an MA in Creative Writing at the International Institute of Modern Letters in 2020 and received the Biggs Family Prize in Poetry.
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Damien Wilkins
Damien Wilkins writes fiction, and he has published short stories, novels, and poetry. His writing has been described as ‘exuberant and evocative, subtle and exact, aware of its own artifice yet relishing the idiosyncrasies and possibilities of language’. Wilkins has had books published in New Zealand, the USA and the UK, and he has won and been nominated for a range of prizes and awards. He also edited the award-winning anthology, Great Sporting Moments: The best of Sport magazine 1988-2004 published in 2005.
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Kate De Goldi
Kate De Goldi is a full-time writer who grew up in Christchurch and now lives in Wellington. Her first book was for adults: called like you, really, it was published under the name Kate Flannery, and gave a series of interlinked short stories about the women in a Catholic family. Since then she has won numerous awards and accolades for her fiction, including the American Express and Katherine Mansfield Awards for short stories, and the overall Children’s Book Award in 1997 for her young adult novel Sanctuary.
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In 2000, her novel about adoption, Closed, Stranger won an Honour Award in the New Zealand Post Children and Young Adults' Book Awards, and in 2001, Kate was made an Arts Foundation Laureate. Her book Clubs, illustrated by Jacqui Colley -
Louise Wallace
Louise Wallace is the author of four collections of poems, and the novel Ash. She is the founder and editor of Starling, an online journal publishing the work of young writers from Aotearoa, and the editor of Ōrongohau | Best New Zealand Poems 2022.
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Dominic Hoey
Dominic Hoey is a poet, author and playwright based in Auckland, New Zealand.
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His debut novel Iceland was a New Zealand bestseller, long-listed for the 2018 Ockham Book Award and his short story 1986 won the 2021 Sunday Star Times Short Story Award. His latest poetry collection I Thought We’d Be Famous was released in October 2019.
Dominic has written and performed two one-person hit shows about his bone disease and his inability to get arts funding. In a former life, Dominic was an MC battle and slam-poetry champion.
Through his Learn To Write Good creative writing course, Dominic has taught hundreds of students around the world how to think dyslexic.
He also works with young people through the Atawhai program, teaching art, yoga and meditati -
Romesh Dissanayake
romesh dissanayake is a Sri Lankan and Koryo Saram writer, poet and chef from Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington. His work explores ideas of identity, migration, decolonisation and place. romesh's poetry, fiction and essays have appeared in various print and online publications. His first novel, When I open the shop, was the winner of the 2022 Modern Letters Fiction Prize and is published by Te Herenga Waka University Press. His chapbook poetry collection, ‘Favourite Flavour House’, is featured in AUP New Poets 10 published by Auckland University Press. He has cooked at Mabel's Burmese Eat and Drink Shop and Rita in Aro Valley.
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Ngahuia Te Awekotuku
Ngahuia Te Awekotuku MNZM (1949– ) is a New Zealand academic specialising in Māori cultural issues and a lesbian activist. She is descended from Te Arawa, Tūhoe and Waikato iwi.
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As a student Te Awekotuku was a member of Ngā Tamatoa a the University of Auckland, her MA thesis was on Janet Frame and her PhD on the effects of tourism on the Te Arawa people. She has been curator of ethnology at the Waikato Museum; lecturer in art history at Auckland University, and professor ofMaori studies at Victoria University of Wellington. She is currently 'Professor of Research and Development' at Waikato University.
In 1972, Te Awekotuku was denied a visitors permit to the USA on the grounds that she was a homosexual. Publicity around the incident was a ca -
Rosetta Allan
Rosetta Allan is a multi-talented writer with a passion for poetry that began in her formative years. Rosetta honed her skills and achieved recognition through prestigious awards such as the Kathleen Grattan Poetry and the Metonymy Poetry Awards.
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In 2017, Rosetta solidified her commitment to her craft by earning a Master of Creative Writing with First-Class Honours First Division from the University of Auckland. Her talent and dedication were duly acknowledged with the coveted Wallace Trust Scholarship.
Beyond her writing, Rosetta has embraced her role as a mentor, teacher, and manuscript assessor, sharing her knowledge and guiding aspiring writers on their creative journeys. As an essayist, she fearlessly explores intricate subjects, delving -
Michael King
Michael King was one of New Zealand's leading historians and biographers. In 2006 he was named one of 100 most important New Zealanders that have ever lived. He published more than 34 books in his lifetime. His last, The Penguin History of New Zealand, has sold more than 200,000 copies and is widely considered to be the definitive history of New Zealand. His work in literary biography - most notably Wrestling With the Angel, on the life of Janet Frame - also received great critical acclaim. He made many level-headed contributions to race-relations debates and is sorely missed by his country.
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Dr Robin Youngson
I have been an engineer, adventurer, anesthesiologist, international health leader, patient safety expert, campaigner for compassionate healthcare, and latterly a healer and trauma therapist working in my own clinic. My book 'TIME TO CARE' launched an international movement for compassionate healthcare and volunteers translated my book into Dutch, German and Hungarian, sparking movements in those countries. I am just finishing my memoir, which details my long journey from a heroic but detached doctor, to the compassionate healer I now am. My beliefs have radically changed and I now witness miracles of healing in my clinic every day. I
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I was brought up in the Uk but have lived in New Zealand for more than 30 years.
In my spare time I have been -
Carl Nixon
Carl Nixon is a playwright, a short story writer and a novelist. He has written original plays and has adapted Lloyd Jones’ novel The Book of Fame and JM Coetzee's Disgrace.
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Born in Christchurch, Nixon graduated with a Masters degree in Religious Studies from Canterbury University. He briefly taught secondary school English before leaving to teach in Japan for two years.
He has won numerous awards for his fiction, including winning and being nominated for key short story competitions.
Nixon was the Ursula Bethell/Creative New Zealand Writer in Residence at Canterbury University in 2006, where he completed his first novel, Rocking Horse Road. He has also written numerous plays for children.
2017 recipient of the Mansfield Menton Fellowship, wi -
Caroline Barron
Caroline Barron is an award-winning author and sought-after host of literary events. Her debut novel, Golden Days (Affirm Press, Australia / Hachette, New Zealand, 2023), was praised by Woman’s Day as ‘a riveting read that also acts as a nostalgic ode to growing up in Auckland in the ’90s’. Her memoir, Ripiro Beach (Bateman Books, 2020), won the New Zealand Heritage Literary Award for Best Non-fiction Book.
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She holds a Masters in Creative Writing from University of Auckland (2015) plus a journalism degree and, in a previous life, owned and ran Nova—a leading model and talent agency. -
Mona Anderson
The Wilberforce River in all its moods governed Mona Anderson's life for 33 years, and was inspiration for her best-seller A River Rules My Life.
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Her introduction to the river came in 1940 when she arrived as the bride of Ron Anderson, manager of Mt Algidus Station.
She had been looking after an aunt on the West Coast of the South Island, when an old swaggie nicknamed John the Baptist called in for his regular cup of tea. He was taken with the young woman and surprised that she wasn't married.
"I know of a man who needs a wife," he said, and gave her Ron Anderson's address.
She first wrote to him as a joke, but when he replied she was impressed and the correspondence flourished. They met, fell in love and married.
The 23,000ha Mt Algidus propert -
Charlotte Grimshaw
Charlotte Grimshaw is the author of a number of critically acclaimed novels and outstanding collections of short stories. She has been a double finalist and prize winner in the Sunday Star-Times short story competition, and in 2006 she won the BNZ Katherine Mansfield Award. In 2007 she won a Book Council Six Pack prize. Her story collection Opportunity was shortlisted for the 2007 Frank O'Connor International Prize, and in 2008 Opportunity won New Zealand's premier Montana Award for Fiction or Poetry. She was also the 2008 Montana Book Reviewer of the Year. Her story collection Singularity was shortlisted for the 2009 Frank O'Connor International Prize and the South East Asia and Pacific section of the Commonwealth Writers' Prize. Grimshaw'
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Fiona Kidman
Fiona Kidman is a leading contemporary novelist, short story writer and poet. Much of her fiction is focused on how outsiders navigate their way in narrowly conformist society. She has published a large and exciting range of fiction and poetry, and has worked as a librarian, producer and critic. Kidman has won numerous awards, and she has been the recipient of fellowships, grants and other significant honours, as well as being a consistent advocate for New Zealand writers and literature. She is the President of Honour for the New Zealand Book Council, and has been awarded an OBE and a Dame Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for her services to literature.
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Nikki Crutchley
After seven years of working as a librarian in New Zealand and overseas, Nikki now works as a freelance proofreader and copy editor. She lives in the small Waikato town of Cambridge in New Zealand with her husband and two girls.
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Nikki has been writing on and off her whole life and before she turned to crime writing had success in flash fiction. She has been published in 'Bonsai: Best Small Fictions from Aotearoa New Zealand', and 'Fresh Ink' anthologies.
Crime/thriller/mystery novels are her passion. 'Nothing Bad Happens Here', her first novel, is set on the Coromandel Coast of New Zealand. It was a finalist in the 2018 Ngaio Marsh Award for best first novel.
Nikki's second book, 'No One Can Hear You', was long-listed for the Ngaio Marsh Awa -
Stephen Daisley
Stephen Daisley was born in New Zealand in 1955. He has served in the New Zealand Army and worked at a variety of jobs in New Zealand and Australia including on sheep and cattle stations, cutting bush and scrub, driving trucks, doing road works and bar work, and on oil and gas construction sites. He now lives in Perth.
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Stephen's first novel, Traitor, won the 2011 Prime Minister's Literary Award for Fiction. He lives in Western Australia with his wife and five children.
His novel, Coming Rain won the the 2016 Ockham Awards in the fiction category. -
Eamonn Marra
Eamonn Marra is a writer and comedian. He was born and raised in Christchurch and now lives in Wellington. He has a masters degree from the International Institute of Modern Letters. Eamonn’s shows include Man on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (2014), Respite (2014/2015), I, Will Jones (2016–18), and Dignity (2018). His first book 2000ft Above Worry Level was released in February 2020 through Victoria University Press.
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Photograph by Ebony Lamb -
Whiti Hereaka
Whiti Hereaka is an award-winning novelist and playwright of Ngāti Tūwharetoa, Te Arawa, Ngāti Whakaue, Tuhourangi, Ngāti Tumatawera, Tainui and Pākehā descent, based in Wellington, New Zealand.
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She teaches Creative Writing at Massey University.
She is the author of four novels: The Graphologist’s Apprentice, and the award-winning YA novels Bugs, Legacy, and her retelling of Kurangaituku.
Legacy won the New Zealand Children’s and Young Adult Book Award for YA fiction in 2019 and Kurangaituku was awarded the 2022 Jann Medlicott Acorn Award for fiction, Ockham New Zealand Book Awards and was long listed for the Dublin Literary Award, 2023.
She was also co-editor of Pūrākau -
Owen Marshall
Owen Marshall has written, or edited, over twenty-five books. He has held fellowships at the Universities of Canterbury and Otago, and in Menton, France. In 2000, he received the Officer of the Order of New Zealand Merit (ONZM), and in the same year his novel Harlequin Rex won the Montana New Zealand Book Awards Deutz Medal for Fiction. Marshall is an adjunct professor at the University of Canterbury, which awarded him the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters in 2002. He was awarded the Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit (CNZM) in 2012 for services to literature, and in 2013 received the Prime Minister’s Award for Literary Achievement in Fiction.
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Matt Brown
Librarian Note: There are several authors in the GoodReads database with this name. Those listed below have multiple books listed on GoodReads.
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Matt Brown (2 spaces): Has the podcast The Matt Brown Show, experiments with ChatGPT
Matt Brown (3 spaces): GRs author of sci/fi, horror, & children’s books,
has the Compton Valance series
Matt Brown (4 spaces): German westerns
Matt Brown (5 spaces): tiny houses
Matt Brown (6 spaces): GRs author of Christian books
Matt Brown (14 spaces): GRs author of the Everything You Know About ___ Is Wrong books