Margaret Beames (born 18 October 1935) is a multi-award-winning author of children's books who lives in Feilding, New Zealand. [1] [2] [3] Her first book was The Greenstone Summer, published in 1977. [2] Since then, she has had at least 35 books published. [4]
Beames' 2000 book Oliver in the Garden won the Picture Book category and the Children's Choice Award at the 2001 New Zealand Post Book Awards for Children and Young Adults, and was included in the 2000 Storylines Notable Books List (Picture Books category), and the White Ravens list, organised by the International Youth Library. [3] [5] Four other books of hers have been included on the Storylines Notable Books List: Storm on the 2000 Junior Fiction list; Outlanders on the 2001 Senior Fiction list; Duster on the 2003 Junior Fiction list; and Spirit of the Deep on the 2007 Young Adult Fiction list. [3] Two of her books were finalists in the Junior Fiction category of the New Zealand Post Children's Book Awards, Archway Arrow in 1997, and The Shearwater Bell in 1998. [3] She was the University of Otago College of Education Writer in Residence in 2005. [3]
Beames was born in Oxford, England, and lived in Kenya for two years. [1] [2] In 1974, she came to New Zealand and has worked as a teacher for more than 30 years. [3] She is married with two children and six grandchildren. [3]
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.
Fleur Una Maude Beale is a New Zealand teenage fiction writer, best known for her novel I Am Not Esther, which has been published worldwide.
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.
Dame Lynley Stuart Dodd is a New Zealand children's book author and illustrator. She is best known for her "Hairy Maclary and Friends" series, and its follow-ups, all of which feature animals with rhyming names and have sold over five million copies worldwide. In 1999, Dodd received the Margaret Mahy Award.
Elsie Violet Locke was a New Zealand communist writer, historian, and leading activist in the feminism and peace movements. Probably best known for her children's literature, The Oxford Companion to New Zealand Literature said that she "made a remarkable contribution to New Zealand society", for which the University of Canterbury awarded her an honorary D.Litt. in 1987. She was married to Jack Locke, a leading member of the Communist Party.
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.
Ken Catran is a children's novelist and television screenwriter from New Zealand.
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 and young adult's literature in New Zealand. The awards began in 1982 as the New Zealand Government Publishing Awards, and have had several title changes until the present one in 2015, including New Zealand Children's Book Awards. As of 2020 they are administered by the New Zealand Book Awards Trust and carry prize money of NZ$7,500.
Sherryl Jordan is a New Zealand writer for children and young adults, specialising in fantasy and historical fiction. She has written 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. She received the Margaret Mahy Medal for her contribution to children's literature, publishing and literacy in 2001.
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.
Leonie Agnew is a children's writer and teacher. Several of her books have been shortlisted for or won awards, including the Tom Fitzgibbon Award in 2010, the Junior Fiction Section, the Children's Choice Junior Fiction section and the Best First Book Award of the New Zealand Post Children's Book Awards 2012, and the Master of the Inkpot Competition in 2015. She has also been the recipient of a writing residency at the University of Otago. She lives in Auckland, New Zealand.
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.
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.
Shirley Corlett is a writer of fiction for children and adults. She lives in Masterton, New Zealand.
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.