Authors

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Stephanie Johnson is the author of several collections of poetry and of short stories, some plays and adaptations, and many fine novels. The New Zealand Listener commented that 'Stephanie Johnson is a writer of talent and distinction. Over the course of an award-winning career - during which she has written plays, poetry, short stories and novels - she has become a significant presence in the New Zealand literary landscape, a presence cemented and enhanced by her roles as critic and creative writing teacher.' The Shag Incident won the Montana Deutz Medal for Fiction in 2003, and Belief was shortlisted for the same award. Stephanie has also won the Bruce Mason Playwrights Award and Katherine Mansfield Fellowship, and was the 2001 Literary Fellow at the University of Auckland. Many of her novels have been published in Australia, America and the United Kingdom. She co-founded the Auckland Writers and Readers Festival with Peter Wells in 1999. She is the 2023 recipient of the Prime Minister's Award for Literature. The Oxford Companion to New Zealand Literature describes Johnson's writing as 'marked by a dry irony, a sharp-edged humour that focuses unerringly on the frailties and foolishness of her characters . . . There is compassion, though, and sensitivity in the development of complex situations', and goes on to note that 'a purposeful sense of . . . larger concerns balances Johnson's precision with the small details of situation, character and voice that give veracity and colour'.

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Stephen Johnson is an Australian-born writer, journalist, TV producer, kayaker and traveler who now plots thrillers in Auckland, New Zealand. His debut novel, Tugga's Mob, was inspired by three seasons working as a tour guide and driver on double decker buses around Europe in the '80s. Tugga's Mob was a finalist in the 2020 Ngaio Marsh Awards for Best First Novel. The second crime fiction novel, Boxed, was published in November 2021 and is set in the world of animal rights activism and the Melbourne media. Both books are published by Clan Destine Press. Stephen's first historic novel, Peace Stick, goes behind the Iron Curtain during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. It features two East German schoolgirls dealing with a world on the edge of a nuclear abyss. One of the former students now lives in Auckland, where Peace Stick will be published in October to mark the 60th anniversary.

Andrew Johnston was born in 1963 and grew up in the Hutt Valley. Since 1997 he has lived in France. After more than 25 years as a journalist, he is now a trainer and consultant for the United Nations and non-government groups. He is the author of five previous collections of poems, including How to Talk, which won the New Zealand Book Award for Poetry and the New Zealand Society of Authors Best First Book Award, and most recently Fits & Starts, which won the 2017 Ockham New Zealand Book Award for Poetry.

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Kirsty Johnston is an investigative journalist with an interest in inequality, gender and social justice. Her work has helped to change lives, such as the banning of seclusion rooms in primary schools, and the repeal of a law that discriminated against family carers for the disabled. She began her career at the Taranaki Daily News, and has worked at Stuff, the Sunday Star-Times and the New Zealand Herald. She was awarded Best Investigation at the national media awards in 2014, Best Crime and Social Issues reporter in 2019, and Reporter of the Year in 2022. She has made two documentaries. James Hollings is an associate professor of journalism at Massey University in Wellington. He is the author of A Moral Truth: 150 Years of Investigative Journalism in New Zealand (Massey University Press) as well as numerous academic articles on journalism. At Massey he teaches investigative journalism, among other things. Before joining Massey he was a journalist for newspapers and radio both in New Zealand and overseas. He has also made two documentaries.

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