Neville Douglas Peat MNZM (born 1947) [1] is a New Zealand author and photographer, based at Broad Bay on the Otago Peninsula. He specialises in topics about natural history, notably that of southern New Zealand and New Zealand's subantarctic islands. He has written over 40 titles since the late 1970s and has been writing full-time since 1986. [1]
Peat's heritage is Scottish, described as a fifth-generation descendant of Scottish pioneers in Otago. [2]
Peat has been a Councillor on the Otago Regional Council since 1998, and was its Deputy Chairperson from 2004 to 2007. [3]
In 2004, Peat was behind moves to create an official flag for Otago. This culminated in a competition run through the auspices of the Otago Daily Times newspaper and Otago Polytechnic School of Art towards the end of that year. [4]
In 2007, because of the Creative New Zealand Michael King Writers' Fellowship, he completed a comprehensive book on the Tasman Sea The Tasman: Biography of an Ocean. [3]
1994 - Dunedin Citizen of the Year because of his books on the region and establishing the Dunedin Environmental Business Network. [3]
1996 - Peats and co-author Brian Patrick won the Montana New Zealand Book Awards for the book Wild Dunedin. [5]
2007 - Peat was awarded the Creative New Zealand Michael King Writers' Fellowship, New Zealand's largest literary award. [6]
2016 - CLNZ Writers' Award for his project The Invading Sea. [7] [8] [9]
2018 New Year Honours - Peat was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to conservation. [10]
Janet Paterson Frame was a New Zealand author. She is internationally renowned for her work, which includes novels, short stories, poetry, juvenile fiction, and an autobiography, and received numerous awards including being appointed to the Order of New Zealand, New Zealand's highest civil honour.
Michael King was a New Zealand historian, author, and biographer. He wrote or edited over 30 books on New Zealand topics, including the best-selling Penguin History of New Zealand, which was the most popular New Zealand book of 2004.
The Robert Burns Fellowship is a New Zealand literary residency. Established in 1958 to coincide with bicentennial celebrations of the birth of Robert Burns, it is often claimed to be New Zealand's premier literary residency. The list of past fellows includes many of New Zealand's most notable 20th and 21st century writers.
Priscilla Muriel McQueen is a poet and three-time winner of the New Zealand Book Award for Poetry.
Alison Wong is a New Zealand poet and novelist of Chinese heritage. Her background in mathematics comes across in her poetry, not as a subject, but in the careful formulation of words to white space and precision. She has a half-Chinese son with New Zealand poet Linzy Forbes. She now lives in Geelong.
Sir Vincent Gerard O'Sullivan is one of New Zealand's best-known writers. He is a poet, short story writer, novelist, playwright, critic, editor, biographer, and librettist.
Fiona Farrell is a New Zealand poet, fiction and non-fiction writer and playwright.
David Eggleton is a New Zealand poet, critic and writer. Eggleton has been awarded the Ockham New Zealand Book Award for poetry and in 2019 was appointed New Zealand Poet Laureate, a title he held until 2022. Eggleton's work has appeared in a multitude of publications in New Zealand and he has released over 18 poetry books (1986–2001) with a variety of publishers, including Penguin.
Paula Jane Kiri Morris is a New Zealand novelist, short-story writer editor and literary academic. She is an associate professor at the University of Auckland and founder of the Academy of New Zealand Literature.
Sarah Quigley is a New Zealand-born writer.
Emma Neale is a novelist and poet from New Zealand.
Elspeth Somerville Sandys is a New Zealand author and script writer.
Diane Edith Brown is a novelist and poet from New Zealand.
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.
The University of Otago College of Education/Creative New Zealand Children's Writer in Residence is a six-month Fellowship for children's writers who normally live in New Zealand.
Laurence Fearnley is a New Zealand short-story writer, novelist and non-fiction writer. Several of her books have been shortlisted for or have won awards, both in New Zealand and overseas, including The Hut Builder, which won the fiction category of the 2011 NZ Post Book Awards. She has also been the recipient of a number of writing awards and residencies including the Robert Burns Fellowship, the Janet Frame Memorial Award and the Artists to Antarctica Programme.
The CLNZ Writers’ Award is made annually with the support of the Copyright Licensing New Zealand (CLNZ) Cultural Fund. It is open to New Zealand writers of non-fiction, including educational material.
Lloyd Spencer Davis is a New Zealand-based author, filmmaker, scientist and science communicator. Born in Napier in 1954, he is known particularly for his creative nonfiction writing about science and nature subjects. He has published ten books and been co-editor of another two, as well as authoring over 150 scientific papers.
Atholl John Anderson is a New Zealand archaeologist who has worked extensively in New Zealand and the Pacific. His work is notable for its syntheses of history, biology, ethnography and archaeological evidence. He made a major contribution to the evidence given by the iwi (tribe) Ngāi Tahu to the Waitangi Tribunal.