Paula Boock (born 1964) is a New Zealand writer and editor.
Born in Dunedin, Boock is a member of a sporting family. She is the sister of four brothers, [1] among them former New Zealand cricket representative Stephen Boock and sports journalist Richard Boock, and has herself represented her province of Otago at cricket. She studied at the University of Otago, after which she began working as an editor and publisher, co-founding Longacre Press in the city in 1994. [2]
Boock's early writing consisted of plays and short stories, but she turned to novel-writing shortly after leaving university. [1] Many of Boock's novels and television scripts are aimed primarily at the young adult market, and have been since her earliest writing. Her first novel, Out Walked Mel was published in 1991 and won the AIM Best First Book Award. Other awards followed for later books including Sasscat to Win (1993), Home Run (1996) and Dare, Truth, or Promise, the latter of which won the 1998 New Zealand Post Children's Book Awards, [2] and was shortlisted in the United States for a 2000 Lambda Literary Award for LGBT-themed fiction. [1]
Boock began writing for the screen in 1995 with an episode of drama series Cover Story . She began scriptwriting more in earnest in 2000, becoming one of four writers working on Gibson Group series The Strip . An episode of this series co-written by Boock and Kathryn Burnett won her a Best Drama Script Award at the 2003 New Zealand Television Awards. Bocck's later television work includes scripts for The Insiders Guide to Happiness and its prequel, The Insider's Guide To Love , and editing and script consultancy work on both Bro'Town and Burying Brian . [2]
In 2007, Boock and Donna Malane inaugurated Lippy Pictures, a production company which was responsible for the children's time-travel drama Time Trackers and tele-movie Until Proven Innocent . Time Trackers was nominated for best children's drama at the 2009 Australian Film Institute Awards, and Until Proven Innocent was a multiple award winner at New Zealand's 2009 Qantas Film and Television Awards. Later scripts co-authored by Boock for Lippy have included Bloodlines , another award-winning series, and Tangiwai - A Love Story , a dramatization of the 1953 Tangiwai train disaster. [2]
Boock was the 1994 Writer in Residence at the Dunedin College of Education and in 1999, was named as the University of Otago's Burns Fellow. She was also named as 2009 Writer in Residence at Victoria University. [3]
Stephen Lewis Boock is a former New Zealand international cricketer who played 30 Test matches and 14 One Day Internationals for the national team.
The Otago cricket team, nicknamed the Volts since the 1997–98 season, are a New Zealand first-class cricket team which first played representative cricket in 1864. The team represents the Otago, Southland and North Otago regions of New Zealand's South Island. Their main governing board is the Otago Cricket Association which is one of six major associations that make up New Zealand Cricket.
Brian Lindsay Turner is a New Zealand poet and author. He played hockey for New Zealand in the 1960s; senior cricket in Dunedin and Wellington; and was a veteran road cyclist of note. His mountaineering experience includes an ascent of a number of major peaks including Aoraki / Mount Cook.
Longacre Press was founded in 1995 in New Zealand, by Barbara Larson, Paula Boock, and Lynsey Ferrari, three former workers at McIndoe Publishing, Dunedin. The company was originally located at Dowling Street, close to the city's Exchange Neighbourhood, but later moved to Moray Place in the city centre of Dunedin.
Ken Catran is a children's novelist and television screenwriter from New Zealand.
Vanda Symon is a crime writer and radio host from Dunedin, New Zealand, and the Chair of the Otago Southland Branch of the New Zealand Society of Authors. Three of her novels have been shortlisted for New Zealand's annual Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Crime Novel.
Fiona Farrell is a New Zealand poet, fiction and non-fiction writer and playwright.
The 2012 New Zealand Television Awards were the new name of the New Zealand television industry awards, following the demise of the Aotearoa Film and Television Awards. The awards were held on Saturday 3 November at The Great Room of the Langham hotel in Auckland, New Zealand, with highlights screening on TV ONE on Sunday 4 November. The New Zealand Television Awards took a similar format to the previous Qantas Television Awards, honouring excellence in New Zealand television and television journalism. This was the final New Zealand television awards presentation organised by Think TV, after Television New Zealand withdrew its support in 2013.
The 2009 Qantas Film and Television Awards were held on Saturday 5 September at the Civic Theatre in Auckland, New Zealand. The craft awards were presented in a separate awards lunch at the Civic Theatre Friday 4 September. Highlights from the main awards evening were broadcast on TV3.
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.
Michael Anthony Noonan was a New Zealand writer, most often associated with his writing for television drama series. He is usually credited under either his full name or as Michael A. Noonan, so as to be distinguished from New Zealand-born Australian writer Michael Noonan.
Sue Wootton is a New Zealand writer, specialising in poetry and short fiction.
Philippa Hall is a New Zealand stage, screen and radio script writer and actor.
Robert Lord was the first New Zealand professional playwright. He was one of the first New Zealand playwrights to have plays produced abroad since Merton Hodge in the 1930s.
William Smith Haig was a New Zealand cricketer. He played 31 first-class matches, almost all of them for Otago between the 1949–50 and 1957–58.
Christine Johnston is a novelist from New Zealand.
Emma Neale is a novelist and poet from New Zealand.
Elspeth Somerville Sandys is a New Zealand author and script writer.
Joanna Orwin is a New Zealand writer of fiction and non-fiction for adults and children. Several of her books have been shortlisted for or have won awards, including Children's Book of the Year in 1985 and the Senior Fiction category of the New Zealand Post Book awards for Children and Young Adults in 2002. She lives in Christchurch, New Zealand.
Sandy McKay is a New Zealand children's writer, freelance author and adult literacy tutor. Several of her books have been shortlisted for or have won awards, including Recycled, which won the Junior Fiction section of the New Zealand Post Book Awards for Children and Young Adults in 2002. She lives in Dunedin, New Zealand.