New Zealand

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.

Dr Patricia Berwick was born in New Zealand and currently lives in New Zealand. She has lived and worked in Europe, USA, China, Bangladesh, Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates, Vanuatu and her native New Zealand. 

Tom Baragwanath is originally from Masterton, New Zealand, and now lives in Parish. His short fiction has been widely published. Between pastries, he's working on his next novel.

Michael Bennett (Ngati Pikiao, Ngati Whakaue) is an award-winning New Zealand screenwriter and author whose films have been selected for numerous festivals including Cannes, Berlin, Toronto and New York. In 2008 Michael was the inaugural recipient of the Writers Award from the New Zealand Film Commission, and in 2005 he was awarded the British Council/New Zealand Writers Foundation Award. In 2011 Michael’s feature film Matariki won Best Feature Film Screenplay at the New Zealand Screenwriting Awards, and in 2013 he was awarded Best Documentary Screenplay for his documentary on the Teina Pora case, The Confessions of Prisoner T. He went on to publish In Dark Places in 2016, which won Best Non-Fiction Book at the Ngaio Marsh Awards and Best Biography/History at the Nga Kupu Ora Awards 2017. Michael lives in Auckland, New Zealand, and is Head of Screenwriting at South Seas Film School.

Steffanie Holmes is the author of steamy historical and paranormal romance. Her books feature clever, witty heroines, wild shifters, cunning witches and alpha males who get what they want.

Before becoming a writer, Steffanie worked as an archaeologist and museum curator. She loves to explore historical settings and ancient conceptions of love and possession. From Dark Age Europe to crumbling gothic estates, Steffanie is fascinated with how love can blossom between the most unlikely characters.

Steffanie lives in New Zealand with her husband and a horde of cantankerous cats. Learn more about Steffanie at her website: www.steffanieholmes.com. She also writes dark science fiction under the name S C Green.

Jacqueline 'Rock' Bublitz is a writer, feminist, and arachnophobe who lives between Melbourne, Australia and her hometown on the west coast of New Zealand's North Island.

Clare Moleta was raised on Whadjuk Noongar Country in Western Australia. Her fiction has been published in literary journals and broadcast on Radio New Zealand, and she has won awards for her travel writing. She has a Writing Diploma from RMIT University and an MA in Creative Writing from Te Herenga Waka | Victoria University of Wellington. She now lives in Poneke | Wellington, Aotearoa, where she was born. 

Patricia Forrester Donovan is a contemporary writer of adult fiction. She graduated from the University of Canterbury with a Master's Degree (with honours) in English Literature. After graduation she worked in corporate communications in Australia and New Zealand and is the author of best practice guide to the profession.

Andy grew up in Stratford-upon-Avon, England, spent too many years in the fog of London, then followed the long white cloud – and his wife – to Wellington. Always wanting to write, he completed an Advanced Certificate in Creative Writing (Novel) at Whitireia in 2015, followed by a Graduate Diploma in 2016. He writes contemporary fiction, science-fiction and travel blogs. Several of his sci-fi short stories have been published in Sponge.nz.

Angelique Kasmara has a Master of Creative Writing from the University of Auckland. She was a finalist for the Michael Gifkins Prize and won the Sir James Wallace Prize in 2016. Some of her fiction appears in Newsroom, Ko Aotearoa Tātou | We Are New Zealand and A Clear Dawn: New Asian Voices.

Angelique lives in Tāmaki Makaurau where she works as a communications manager, writer, translator and reviewer.

I was born in Edinburgh, Scotland and grew up in the Far East, first in Hong Kong and then in Singapore.

Chris was born in Eastbourne in the UK to a British mother and New Zealander father. He moved to New Zealand with his family at age two where he spent over six years growing up in Auckland. It was during this time that Chris’ love for reading and writing began, spending his early years penning hundreds of short stories his mother still has tucked away.

Upon returning to the UK, Chris lived in a small town in Sussex. These years went on to inspire many of the themes in his novels, such as coming of age, small-town homophobia and isolation. Chris moved to Hampshire at age nineteen to study journalism at university.

Upon graduating, Chris moved to London and began a career in copywriting. In 2011, he published his debut book of poetry through his co-founded publishing company, PRNTD.

Chris relocated to Australia in 2014 and released his LGBTQ+ coming-of-age novel The Nowhere in 2019. His New Zealand mystery novel Boy Fallen is coming out 22 March 2022.

Chris lives in Sydney with his husband.

Madeleine Eskedahl was born and raised in Sweden on the beautiful island of Gotland in the Baltic Sea.

Tom Remiger is the name under which Tom McLean writes fiction. He is originally from Rotorua, New Zealand, but now livs in the UK, where he is completing a DPhil in literature at Oxford.

Fiona Leitch is a writer with a chequered past. She’s written for football and motoring magazines, DJ’ed at illegal raves and is a stalwart of the low budget TV commercial, even appearing as the Australasian face of a cleaning product called 'Sod Off'. After living in London and Cornwall she's finally settled in sunny New Zealand, where she enjoys scaring her cats by trying out dialogue on them. She spends her days dreaming of retiring to a crumbling Venetian palazzo, walking on the windswept beaches of West Auckland, and writing funny, flawed but awesome female characters.

Brandy Scott is a New Zealand-born, Dubai-based author and journalist. Over her twenty-year career, she's worked as a magazine writer, newspaper editor, and radio presenter. 

Rose Carlyle is a lawyer and keen adventurer. She has crewed on scientific yachting expeditions to subantarctic islands and lived aboard her own yacht in the Indian Ocean for a year, sailing it from Thailand to South Africa via the Seychelles. Rose was a Michael King Writer in Residence in 2020. She lives in Auckland with her three children.

I spent my childhood on a small, dreamy fishing island close to Hamburg, Germany. From there I spent years in Switzerland and The Netherlands. For the last thirty years, I’ve called New Zealand my home.

Once my three children were grown, I studied psychotherapy and worked for 25 years as a trauma specialist and started writing. Over the years I’ve learned that life is a bumpy ride full of highs and lows. It’s having friends and loved ones to celebrate with that makes the highs special, and knowing one isn’t the only one who struggles makes the lows tolerable.

For Dione Jones, writing is a long-held passion. She lives in New Zealand but was born in England and if often inspired to write about the past and changes to the English way of life, she has a Master of Creative Writing and has won an award in the National Flash Fiction competition.

Robert Jenkins was born and raised in Walthamstow, East London. Running wild was his heritage but he also wrote plays for the stage, novels and short stories. He wrote poetry from a young age and read them in the early days of stand-up poetry nights in London pubs. Straddling realities can happen in great cities. He travelled the world with his wife and children and back at home lived and worked with some of the most challenging, damaged and beautiful people in society.

Rosetta Allan is an Auckland based novelist, poet, and short fiction writer. Born in Putaruru, Rosetta grew up in the Hawkes Bay, then studied at the University of Auckland, obtaining her Masters of Creative Writing with First Class Honours in 2017, and was the recipient of the Sir James Wallace Masters of Creative Writing Scholarship.

Maxine Alterio is a novelist, short story writer and academic mentor. She has a MA from Otago University and a PhD from Victoria University of Wellington, where she studied the memoirs of First World War nurses.

Sandra Arnold lives in New Zealand. She has a MLitt (High Distinction) and PhD in Creative Writing from Central Queensland University, Australia and is the author of a book on parental bereavement, Sing no Sad Songs and two novels, Tomorrow’s Empire and A Distraction of Opposites. Her first flash fiction collection Soul Etchings (Retreat West Books, UK) was published in June 2019. Her third novel, Ash (Mākaro Press, NZ) will be published in August 2019.

Becky Manawatu (Ngāi Tahu) was born in Nelson, raised in Waimangaroa and has returned there to live with her family, working 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.

Bruce Melrose grew up on New Zealand's Kapiti Coast, just north of the capital city, Wellington, and is a graduate of Massey University.

He was a Wellington track champion over 3000m steeplechase and 10,000m, and a New Zealand 3000m steeplechase representative in 1989.

He raced in the IAAF Grand Prix 3000m steeplechase in London against many of the best steeplechasers of his generation.

He lives with Ali and their two dogs Ruby and Benny.

Stephanie Johnson is the author of several collections of poetry and of short stories, some plays and adaptations, and many fine novels. The New Zealand Listener commented that ‘Stephanie Johnson is a writer of talent and distinction. Over the course of an award-winning career — during which she has written plays, poetry, short stories and novels — she has become a significant presence in the New Zealand literary landscape, a presence cemented and enhanced by her roles as critic and creative writing teacher.' the Shag Incident won the Montana Deutz Medal for Fiction in 2003, and Belief was shortlisted for the same award. Stephanie has also won the Bruce Mason Playwrights Award and Katherine Mansfield Fellowship, and was the 2001 Literary Fellow at the University of Auckland. Many of her novels have been published in Australia, America and the United Kingdom. She co-founded the Auckland Writers and Readers Festival with Peter Wells in 1999.

Lily Woodhouse is the Australian pen name of award winning New Zealand author Stephanie Johnson.

James N. Bade, professor emeritus of German at the University of Auckland, lives in Wellington, New Zealand.

Rob Elliott, a New Zealander, is a member and former President of his local U3A Chapter. He has travelled widely during his career in the Motor Industry. Since retirement he has written and published a memoir and five novels.

Christina O’Reilly is a writer, freelance proofreader, and copy editor currently living in the Manawatu. Two of her short stories have been published in the anthologies Horizons 3 and The Rangitawa Collection 2017. Her first crime novel, Into the Void, was recently longlisted for the 2019 Michael Gifkins Memorial Prize for an Unpublished Novel.

Frances Housden lives in New Zealand, a beautiful country not so very different from Scotland, where she was born. She began her career as a published writer after winning Romance Writers of New Zealands prestigious Clendon Award. She went on to pen six very successful novels for Silhouette Books, where she merged her penchant for characterisation with her love of suspense. She is now delving into the world of historical romance, using her love of history to take her readers on an exciting trip into the lives of memorable characters.

Jennifer Palgrave is the pen name of new writing partnership Lois Cox and Hilary Lapsley. Both are experienced writers of non-fiction.

Jennifer Palgrave is the pen name of new writing partnership Lois Cox and Hilary Lapsley. Both are experienced writers of non-fiction.

Jennifer Palgrave is the pen name of new writing partnership Lois Cox and Hilary Lapsley. Both are experienced writers of non-fiction.

Carmel Reilly writes for children and adults. She has worked as an educational writer for almost two decades and is the author of more than 300 titles of fiction and non-fiction for children and young teens. In 2011 she won the Partners in Crime Short Story award and in 2016 she was awarded a Varuna Residental Fellowship to develop her first novel, Life Before. Born in New Zealand, she now lives in Melbourne, Australia.

Cherie Mitchell is an Amazon bestselling author with a number of short story prizes, book awards, and literary commendations to her name. Her biggest prize to date was a complimentary trip across the world when her book The House At Sailor's Bay was ranked as a finalist in the Litnet Small Towns, Big Stories Contest.

Shauna writes crime novels featuring characters who aren't afraid to solve mysteries, find murderers, and generally get themselves in all sorts of danger. In real life, Shauna wouldn't be found doing any of these things.

I was born in Fiji and raised in New Zealand. I also spent three years living and working in Japan, during which time I took the chance to travel around Asia. I’m back in New Zealand now, but I’m always plotting new trips. If you’d like to see some of my travel snapshots, have a look at the Travel Diary page (updated every month).

So far, I've worked as a lawyer, a librarian, a candy factory general hand, a bank temp and an English teacher and not necessarily in that order. Some might call that inconsistency but I call it grist for the writer's mill.
 

R.W.R. McDonald is a Kiwi living in Melbourne with his two daughters and an extended rainbow family including HarryCat and Stevie Nicks the chicken. 

Catherine lives with a fox terrier that thinks he owns the house. She has sold international satellite capacity, worked in IT recruitment, and run her own communications store.

When Catherine isn't writing, she's dog-wrangling, wrestling with technology, or going crazy trying to maintain control of the yard.

He currently lives in the capital city of New Zealand with his wife & ex SPCA cat, Dudley.

When he's writing a novel (he has published twelve in twelve years) he works every day of the week, in the mornings, for 3-5 hours. A retired pensioner,it's his only paid employment.

Karen has always written stories, many over the recent years for her writers group. You can download her collection of young children's stories, "Cinderella Sarah" FOR FREE from here: http://www.karencossey.com/childrens-...

Having home-schooled her two children for five years, she tries to put something of her love of family and joy of living into her writing. She lives in beautiful New Zealand, near to the beach, along with her husband, her two kids who are now teenagers, and a very practical People Mover vehicle which looks nothing like the Ferrari she dreams of. Nor the unicorn. Worst of all, it doesn't come with a chauffeur or even a taxi driver so she also dreams about the day her teenagers get their own driving licences. :)

Being a writer she obviously has a cat, who is called Marbles and likes to talk with her other pet, Milly the goat. 

Brent Partner is a writer, academic librarian, husband and father. 

Writer based in Auckland, New Zealand.