Authors

EVANA BELICH was born in Wellington and now lives in Auckland where she has worked as a trade union official, a mediator and an employment relations adviser. She has degrees in law, dispute resolution and a Master's in creative writing from the IIML. She won the Fish Short Story Prize in 2013, was shortlisted for the Bridport Prize in 2016 and came second in the Sargeson Prize in 2020.

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BELINDA O'KEEFE has a degree in Japanese, and worked in the tourism industry before changing career paths to focus on the exciting world of literature, studying book editing, proofreading and publishing. Her previous books include Partners in Slime (Scholastic NZ, 2021) and The Day the Plants Fought Back, illustrated by Richard Hoit (Scholastic NZ, 2019). She lives in Christchurch with her husband, two sons and their cats, including a Russian blue named Enzo. MONICA KOSTER's paintings have been exhibited in Christchurch and Ashburton, as part of the Creator’s Room and ZONTA Female Art Awards exhibitions. She is studying Fine Arts at Canterbury University and loves to run, paint, make music and communicate in Morse. Her companions are two adventurous cats Mischief and Ziggy and a loyal border collie Ruby.

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Avril Bell is a Pākehā New Zealander and honorary associate professor in sociology at the University of Auckland. Her research centres on the legacy of settler colonialism in making sense of Pākehā identities, New Zealand national identity and Māori–Pākehā relations. Her book, Relating Indigenous and Settler Identities: Beyond Domination (Palgrave, 2014) extends this focus to make connections between settler colonialism in New Zealand, Australia, Canada and the USA. She is co-editor of A Land of Milk and Honey? Making Sense of Aotearoa New Zealand (AUP, 2017).

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After growing up on the family farm in Tadmor, (rural New Zealand) I moved to Christchurch to complete my teacher training and then spent many years living, working and raising a family in Nelson. Takaka is home now, where I live with family and Flynn the dog, working on a variety of projects including a church renovation, writing poetry, growing veggies and riding motorbikes whenever the opportunity arises. In amongst it all, I have been fortunate to have had a fairly unique experience - spending time fully immersed in the Lakota culture in South Dakota. What a Journey...

Patricia Bell is an editor, proofreader, and published writer, based in Auckland. She has had her work (short stories, poems, and non-fiction articles) published in magazines, anthologies, and literary journals, and her fiction has twice been highly commended in national competitions. 'The Library of Unfinished Business' is her first novel.

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