Authors

No biography

Ruth Paul is a multi-award-winning children's author and illustrator. Her work includes Stomp, The King's Bubbles, Bad Dog Flash, the Mini Whinny series (with Stacy Gregg) and I am Jellyfish, which won the 2018 Best Picture Book award at the New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults. Her books, which have sold around the world with translations in five languages, are distinguished by playful language, adorable illustrations, giggle-inducing humour and delightful characters. In 2019 Ruth was invited to attend the Sharjah Children's Reading Festival in Dubai and the Bookaroo Festival of Children's Literature in India. Back at home in New Zealand, Ruth lives and works in a straw-bale house at Makara Beach, near Wellington.

Tangaroa Paul (Te Whare Tawhito o Muriwhenua), a poi expert who identifies as gender-fluid, is a lecturer in te reo Māori at the Auckland University of Technology, where they have recently submitted a doctoral thesis in gender studies. Rere Atu Tāku Poi is Tangaroa’s first book. Rebecca Gibbs (Rongowhakaata) has been a primary school teacher and gained a Bachelor of Design (VisCom) in 2015, since when she has worked in illustration and publishing. She lives in Christchurch.

No biography

Dr Brian PaulingBrian founded the New Zealand Broadcasting School at the Christchurch Polytechnic (now Ara Institute of Canterbury) in 1983 where he maintains a role as associate researcher. In 2020 he was made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for his services to broadcasting and education. Dr Bronwyn Beatty Bronwyn is research leader at the New Zealand Broadcasting School, Ara Institute of Canterbury where she has taught for ten years. Her interest in the media’s ubiquity and its impact on everyday lives informs her research, with particular emphasis on audience encounters with popular culture.

No biography

Francis Payne and Ian Smith are New Zealand's foremost cricket statisticians and have been editing the Cricket Almanack for many years. Payne, in particular, is well known to all cricket followers. He is a regular guest on both radio and television as well as fulfilling the role as chief statistician for New Zealand Cricket.  

Francis Payne and Ian Smith are New Zealand’s foremost cricket statisticians and have been editing the Cricket Almanack for many years. Payne, in particular, is well known to all cricket followers. He is a regular guest on both radio and television as well as fulfilling the role as chief statistician for New Zealand Cricket.

Ōtaki writer Robin Peace lives in the margin land of Otepua wetland with her partner, observing and interacting with the natural world. A retired geographer, teacher and academic, her first collection of poetry, A Passage of Yellow Red Birds, was published in 2018. She contri­buted a poem ‘In the Moment’ to More Favourable Waters: Aotearoa poets respond to Dante’s Purgatory, and ‘Intricate Relationships’ to The Power in Our Truth: the Truth of Our Power.

No biography

Douglas Pearce is an emeritus professor of tourism management at Victoria University of Wellington. His teaching, research and consulting projects have taken him to Europe, Asia, South America and the South Pacific. He has written numerous academic papers and five scholarly books on tourism. His books have been translated into French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and Japanese. Lepan's Shadow is his debut novel. Douglas lives in Wellington with his wife Chantal.