Kyle Mewburn | |
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| Born | 1963 (age 59–60) Brisbane, Queensland, Australia |
| Occupation | Writer |
| Nationality | Australian New Zealander |
| Website | |
| kylemewburn | |
Kyle Mewburn (born 1963) is an Australian-New Zealand writer whose books have won many prizes and awards. She lives in Millers Flat, Central Otago, writes picture books and junior fiction and is a popular and well-known speaker at schools and literary festivals.
Kyle Mewburn was born in 1963 in Brisbane, Australia. [1] She completed a Bachelor of Business Degree at the Queensland Institute of Technology, then travelled across Europe and the Middle East and settled in New Zealand in 1990.
After working at a variety of jobs including journalist, EFL teacher, Environment Centre manager, dishwasher, interviewer, traffic surveyor, apple-picker, machine operator and Kibbutznik, Mewburn became a full-time writer in 1997. [1] She has always loved writing and sees writing for children as her "dream job". [2] Her favourite book as a child was The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster, which she loved for its word games and puns, [3] qualities which also appear in her own work. [4]
Kyle was President of the New Zealand Society of Authors (PEN NZ Inc) from 2012 to 2016. [5] She visits schools to speak to students about being a writer and to take workshops [1] and has often appeared at literary festivals such as the New Zealand Mountain Film and Book Festival at Wānaka in 2016, [6] the Storylines National Children's Writers and Illustrators' Hui in 2017, [7] the Tamar Valley Writers Festival in Tasmania in 2018 [8] and the National Writers Forum in 2018. [5]
After more than 25 years of hiding her true identity, Mewburn told her wife, Marion, she was transgender. [9] [10] With Marion's support, Kyle travelled to Argentina in 2017 to receive facial feminisation surgery. [11] [12] In April 2018, she was a panellist in the inaugural Dunedin Pride Festival [13] and in June 2018, she took part in a series of events for Pride Fest, celebrating International Pride Month, organised by Palmerston North City Library. [14] In 2021 her memoir, Faking It: My life in transition, was published by Penguin. [15]
She has spoken out in favour of the move for a New Zealand children's laureate [16] and the recent decision by the World Health Organisation (WHO) to change its definition of transgender from being a mental health disorder. [9]
Kyle lives with her wife, Marion (a well-known potter), two cats and 24 chickens, in a self-built house with a grass roof [17] in Millers Flat, Central Otago. [18] [5]
Mewburn's books have been published in 27 countries and won numerous awards including New Zealand Children's Book of the Year with Old Hu-hu in 2010 and a number of Storylines Notable Book Awards. [17] Mewburn won the Joy Cowley Award (presented by Storylines Children's Literature Foundation of New Zealand) in 2005, and won both the Picture Book Category and the Children's Choice Category with Kiss! Kiss! Yuck! Yuck! at the 2007 New Zealand Post Book Awards for Children and Young Adults. [1]
Kyle was the University of Otago College of Education / Creative New Zealand Children's Writer in Residence at Otago University in 2011. [17]
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.
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Ruth Paul is a children's picture book author and illustrator from Wellington, New Zealand.
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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.
Maria Gill is a writer of children's non-fiction books, educational resources and freelance articles. A number of her books have been shortlisted for or have won awards, including Anzac Heroes which won the Non-fiction Award and the Supreme Book of the Year prize in the New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults in 2016. She lives in Auckland, New Zealand.
Melinda Szymanik, born 1963, is an author from New Zealand. She writes picture books, short stories and novels for children and young adults and lives in Auckland, New Zealand.
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Mere Whaanga is a New Zealand writer, illustrator, historian, researcher and academic whose work includes bilingual picture books, history books and conference papers. Several of her books have been shortlisted for or won awards and she herself has received a number of awards, grants, fellowships and writing residencies. She lives in Māhia, Hawke's Bay.
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Jillian Sullivan is a writer of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry and a creative writing teacher. Her work has been published in New Zealand and overseas.
Shirley Corlett is a writer of fiction for children and adults. She lives in Masterton, New Zealand.
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Elizabeth Pulford is a writer of fiction, poetry and non-fiction for children, teenagers and adults. Several of her books have been shortlisted for awards, and many of her short stories have won or been highly commended in national competitions. She lives in Outram, Otago, New Zealand.
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Donovan Paul Bixley is an author and illustrator from Taupō, New Zealand. He has created or co-created over 100 books, published in numerous countries and languages. In 2017, Bixley received the Mallinson Rendel Illustrators Award, presented by the Arts Foundation of New Zealand for lifetime achievement as an illustrator.
Diana Noonan is a New Zealand children's author. In 2022 she was awarded the Storylines Margaret Mahy Medal for her outstanding contributions to New Zealand literature for young people.
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