Authors

Jock Phillips ONZM is a distinguished historian based in Wellington, New Zealand. Educated at Victoria University, he then studied United States history at Harvard University where he earned a PhD. Phillips was New Zealand's chief historian for 14 years (1989-2002), before initiating and editing Te Ara: the Encyclopedia of New Zealand (2002-2011). He has published 15 books on New Zealand history, established the Stout Research Centre for New Zealand Studies, and in 2014 was awarded the Prime Minister's Award for Literary Achievement. His many governance roles include the National Library Society (president), Fulbright New Zealand (chair for three years), the New Zealand Portrait Gallery, the Victoria University of Wellington Council (2001-2012), and the Guardians/Kaitiaki of the Alexander Turnbull Library. Brendan Graham is a Wellington based digital colourist passionate about photography and history. He strives to understand light and colour harmony to achieve an accurate recreation of the past, and to reimagine historical stories through his work.

Kristen Phillips grew up in Te Awakairangi Lower Hutt and recently returned to Aotearoa after thirty years living in London. While there, she came first-equal in the WriteNow poetry competition and founded a long-running poetry group. She lives in Wellington with her partner, the writer Mia Farlane, and works for Dementia Wellington.

Craig Phillips has worked as a professional illustrator for the US and Australian publishing industries for twenty years. His client list includes Random House, Scholastic, Simon and Schuster, Hachette, Hardie Grant, Bloomsbury, Oxford University Press and many more. His work has appeared in art anthologies such as The Society of Illustrators Annual, Spectrum Fantastic Art Annual and Luerzers 200 Best Illustrators Worldwide, and has been exhibited at the Museum of American Illustration. Phillips also worked on Neil Gaiman's American Gods in 2017. His first solo work, titled Giants, Trolls, Witches, Beasts: Ten Tales from the Deep, Dark Woods (Allen and Unwin, 2017) won the NZ Book Award's Russell Clark Award for Illustration, a Gold Ledger in the Australian Ledger Awards, a Notable Book in the CBCA Awards and was also a finalist in the Aurealis Awards.

Karen Phillips began writing in 2009 winning the Katherine Mansfield Novice award and the Heartland competitions that year and has continued to be successful in other competitions since then. Her stories have been published in Takahe and Flash Frontier and included in the Fresh Ink anthology. Her short story collection A Question of Blood was published by Steele Roberts in 2017. She lives on a hill overlooking the sea with her husband, twenty olive trees and sometimes a big black Labrador dog.

No biography

No biography

Kiri Piahana-Wong is a poet, editor and the publisher at Anahera Press. She is of Ngāti Ranginui, Chinese and Pākehā ancestry. As a poet, Kiri’s writing has appeared in over forty journals and anthologies, including Essential NZ Poems, Landfall, Tātai Whetū: Seven Māori Women Poets in Translation, Ora Nui, Vā: Stories by Women of the Moana and more. She has one full-length collection, Night Swimming (2013), and a second, Give Me An Ordinary Day, is forthcoming. Kiri lives in Whanganui with her family.

Pic's is the market leading peanut butter in New Zealand, ranks as the most engaging FMCG brand on Instagram in New Zealand and has just topped New Zealand's Brand Reputation Index. They also proudly export to Australia (Woolworths & Coles), the UK (Tesco) and China (TMall). The Pic's family is over 100,000 'Picsters' strong on social media.

Robyn Maree Pickens is a poet and art writer who lives in Otepoti Dunedin. Her work has been published in numerous online and print publications in Aotearoa and beyond, including Landfall, Empty Mirror, Into the Void, SAND Berlin, Cordite and the Brotherton Poetry Prize Anthology (Carcanet Press, 2020). In 2018 she won the takahe Monica Taylor Poetry Prize, and was also a finalist in the Sarah Broom Poetry Prize judged by Eileen Myles. In 2020 she was longlisted for two US-based poetry prizes: the Palette Emerging Poet Prize and the 92Y Discovery Poetry Contest. That same year she was shortlisted for the Fish Poetry Prize (Ireland). In 2021, Robyn was placed second in the Vallum Poetry Award (Canada), and won the IWW Kathleen Grattan Prize for a Sequence of Poems. In early 2020, Robyn was awarded the Saari Residence in Finland. Robyn Maree Pickens has twice - in 2019 and 2021 - been a runner-up for the Kathleen Grattan Poetry Award for a complete manuscript. She holds a master's degree in art history and a PhD in English (ecopoetics). Tung is her first published collection.

Russell Pickering is one of New Zealand's leading specialists in effective communication, business storytelling and presentation training. He is founder of The Pickering Group and has helped thousands of people, in some of New Zealand and Australia's most visible organisations, become more confident and compelling communicators. Russell originally trained as a professional actor and director, working in the USA and his home country of New Zealand. He holds MBA and Master of Fine Arts degrees and lives with his partner in Auckland, New Zealand.

No biography

Dr Leonie Pihama (Te Ātiawa, Ngā Māhanga ā Tairi, Waikato) is Professor of Māori and Indigenous Research at Ngā Wai ā Te Tūī, Māori and Indigenous Research Centre, Te Whare Wānanga o Wairaka, Unitec, and Director of Māori and Indigenous Analysis Limited, and is a leading kaupapa Māori educator and researcher. She received the Hohua Tūtengaehe Post-Doctoral Research Fellowship (HRC) and the inaugural Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga Senior Māori Fulbright Scholarship at the University of Washington. In 2015, she was awarded Te Tohu Pae Tāwhiti Award (NZARE) for excellence in Māori educational research and as Director of Te Kotahi Research Institute accepted Te Tohu Rapuora Award (HRC) for significant contribution to Māori health excellence and leadership. Leonie has published widely and served on the Māori Health Committee for the HRC and a number of boards.Dr Linda Tuhiwai Smith (Ngāti Awa, Ngāti Porou, Tūhourangi) is Distinguished Professor at Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiārangi. She is a leading indigenous studies scholar, educationalist and kaupapa Māori researcher and has given many addresses and written many publications in these areas. She was made a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2013 for her services to Māori and education and received a Prime Minister’s Lifetime Achievement Award for Education in 2017. She was awarded the Royal Society of New Zealand Te Puawaitanga Award for Research Excellence in Te Ao Māori and Indigenous Knowledge in 2018, and she received an Honorary Doctorate of Laws from the University of Winnipeg Canada in the same year.