Founded | 2005 |
---|---|
Founder | Julia Marshall |
Country of origin | New Zealand |
Headquarters location | Wellington |
Distribution | Harper Entertainment Distribution Services (NZ and AUS) Lerner (US) Bounce! Sales & Marketing (UK) [1] |
Publication types | Children's Books |
Official website | www |
Gecko Press is an independent publisher of children's books based in Wellington, New Zealand. [2] The company was founded in 2005 by Julia Marshall, formerly of Appelberg Publishing Agency, winner of the Storylines Margaret Mahy Medal 2021. [3] [4]
Gecko Press publishes English translations of popular books from countries including France, Taiwan, Sweden, Japan, Germany, Poland and the Netherlands. Gecko Press also publish 2–4 original titles each year. [5]
Gecko Press has published and translated a wide range of children's book authors and illustrators. These include:
Gecko Press publishes fiction and non-fiction books for children. Some of its most successful books to date include: Duck, Death and the Tulip, [6] which has also been adapted as a stage production and short film, and Poo Bum by Stéphanie Blake. [7]
Since it was established, Gecko Press has been internationally recognised. Prizes include:
Maurice Gough Gee is a New Zealand novelist. He is one of New Zealand's most distinguished and prolific authors, having written over thirty novels for adults and children, and has 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.
Margaret Mahy was a New Zealand author of children's and young adult books. Many of her story plots have strong supernatural elements but her writing concentrates on the themes of human relationships and growing up. She wrote more than 100 picture books, 40 novels and 20 collections of short stories. At her death she was one of thirty writers to win the biennial, international Hans Christian Andersen Medal for her "lasting contribution to children's literature".
Cassia Joy Cowley is a New Zealand author best known for her children's fiction, including the popular series of books Mrs. Wishy-Washy.
Amanda Hager is a writer of fiction and non-fiction for children, young adults and adults. Many of her books have been shortlisted for or won awards, including Singing Home the Whale which won both the Young Adult fiction category and the Margaret Mahy Book of the Year in the New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults in 2015. She has been the recipient of several fellowships, residencies and prizes, including the Beatson Fellowship in 2012, the Katherine Mansfield Menton Fellowship in 2014, the Waikato University Writer in Residence in 2015 and the Margaret Mahy Medal and Lecture Award in 2019.
David Elliot is a New Zealand illustrator and author, known internationally for his contributions to the Redwall fantasy series by British author, Brian Jacques.
Clive David Hill is a New Zealand author, especially well known for his young adult fiction. His young fiction books See Ya, Simon (1992) and Right Where It Hurts (2001) have been shortlisted for numerous awards. He is also a prolific journalist, writing many articles for The New Zealand Herald.
The Margaret Mahy Award, officially the Storylines Margaret Mahy Medal and Lecture Award, is a New Zealand literary prize presented to a person who has made a significant contribution to children's literature, publishing or literacy. Presented annually since 1991 by the Storylines Childrens Literature Charitable Trust of New Zealand, the award is named in honour of its first recipient, Margaret Mahy.
The New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults are a series of literary awards presented annually to recognise excellence in children's and young adult's literature in New Zealand. The awards were founded in 1982, and have had several title changes until the present title was introduced in 2015. In 2016 the awards were merged with the LIANZA children's book awards. As of 2023 the awards are administered by the New Zealand Book Awards Trust and each category award carries prize money of NZ$7,500.
Sherryl Rose Jordan was a New Zealand writer for children and young adults, specialising in fantasy and historical fiction. She wrote a number of children's and young adult works, published in New Zealand and overseas. She is best known for her books The Juniper Game and The Raging Quiet. In 2001, she received the Margaret Mahy Medal for her contribution to children's literature, publishing and literacy.
Gavin John Bishop is an author and illustrator, from Invercargill, New Zealand. He is known for illustrating books from prominent New Zealand authors, including Joy Cowley and Margaret Mahy. Bishop's first published picture book was Mrs McGinty and the Bizarre Plant, published in 1981 by Oxford University Press.
The Storylines Tessa Duder Award is a New Zealand award made to the author of a work of fiction for young adults aged 13 and above.
Barbara Helen Else, also known as Barbara Neale, is a New Zealand writer, editor, and playwright. She has written novels for adults and children, plays, short stories and articles and has edited anthologies of children's stories. She has received a number of awards and fellowships including the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to literature, the Storylines Margaret Mahy Medal and the Victoria University of Wellington's Writer's Fellowship.
Janice Marriott is a writer, editor, audio producer, screenwriter, creative writing tutor and mentor, manuscript assessor, poet and gardener. Several of her books have been shortlisted for or won awards and she has also been the recipient of a number of writing residencies, as well as the prestigious Margaret Mahy Medal in 2018. She lives in Auckland, New Zealand.
Robyn Belton is an illustrator of children's books. Her work, often focusing on themes of war and peace, has won many prizes, including the New Zealand Post Children's Book Awards 1997 Picture Book Winner and Book of the Year, and the Russell Clark Award in 1985 and 2009. She herself has been recognised with the prestigious Storylines Margaret Mahy Award and the inaugural Ignition Children's Book Festival Award. She lives in Otago, New Zealand.
The Gaelyn Gordon Award is awarded annually by the Children's Literature Foundation to a well-loved work of New Zealand children's fiction.
The Storylines Notable Book Awards constitute an annual list of exceptional and outstanding books for children and young people published in New Zealand, by New Zealand authors and illustrators, during the previous calendar year.
Juliette MacIver is a New Zealand children’s picture book writer. Her work has been widely reviewed and shortlisted for a number of awards, and her book That’s Not a Hippopotamus! won the picture book category of the 2017 New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults. She has four children and lives near Wellington, New Zealand.
Bob Kerr is an author, illustrator and artist based in Wellington, New Zealand. He writes and illustrates children’s books and has won several awards for his work. He lives and works in Wellington, New Zealand.
John Millen Lasenby, commonly known as Jack Lasenby, was a New Zealand writer. He wrote over 30 books for children and young adults, many of which were shortlisted for or won prizes. He was also the recipient of numerous awards including the Margaret Mahy Medal and Lecture Award in 2003 and the Prime Minister's Award for Literary Achievement for Fiction in 2014.