Authors

Sally Sutton (Author) Aucklander Sally Sutton has been writing picture books, children's novels and plays for two decades. She is celebrated for her witty wordplay and musical language, which make reading her stories a magical moment between parent and child. The author of the bestselling The Cat from Muzzle (illustrated by Scott Tulloch), she has been awarded several Storylines Notable Book Awards for her work, and in 2009 she and illustrator Brian Lovelock won the Best Picture Book category of the New Zealand Post Book Awards for Children and Young Adults for Roadworks. Read more about Sally at www.sallysutton.co.nz Sarah Wilkins (Illustrator) Sarah Wilkins was born in Lower Hutt. The middle child of seven, she dreamt of becoming a solo explorer. Dreaming and drawing, which she loved, go together, so she became an illustrator instead. Her award-winning images can be found on buildings, buses, bags and many other curious places around the world, but they feel most at home on the pages of beautiful books. She is the illustrator of the 2020 Best Picture Book Award-winning Abigail and the Birth of the Sun, with author Matthew Cunningham. Find out more about her work at www.sarahwilkins.net

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Antony Suvalko is an unlikely mix of a foodie-centric technology geek and digital media specialist. He has over 25 years hands-on business experience under his belt including the running of his own successful catering company in NZ. Leanne Kitchen is a well-known food and travel writer and photographer who has morphed from professional chef to, variously, food stylist, food editor, cooking demonstrator, recipe developer, travel and food photographer and cookbook author. She is based in Sydney, Australia.

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Wellington writer Philippa Swan trained as a landscape architect, with degrees from Otago and Melbourne. Her nonfiction book, Life (and Death) in a Small City Garden, was published in 2001 to critical acclaim. In 2006 her award-winning short story 'Life Coach' was selected for the NZ Book Month publication The Six Pack. Another, more recent story was selected for the LitCrawl short story competition. She has been a freelance writer for a number of lifestyle magazines for over 15 years, including a columnist for NZ Gardener and Cuisine magazines. 'Philippa Swan's is an original voice that is articulate, humorous and disarmingly refreshing.' - NZ Books

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Hailing from Edinburgh, Scotland, Gillian Swinton has called New Zealand home for the past 15 years. Initially only meaning to pop over on her OE, she went as far away from home as you could go without coming back again, after falling in love with the Kiwi life - and a good Southland farmer.Ski lift operator, snowmaker, DOC Ranger, farmer, station cook, vet tech, relief milker and calf rearer... she's a bit of a 'Gill of All Trades'. Gillian and her partner Hamish now live on their lifestyle block in Central Otago, trying to live as self sufficiently as possible and remembering to try and have some fun along the way. Animals, food preserving, beekeeping, gardening, trapping - they love it all.

Owen Marshall, described by Vincent O'Sullivan as 'New Zealand's best prose writer', is an award-winning novelist, short story writer, poet and anthologist, who has written or edited 30 books, including the bestselling novel The Larnachs. Numerous awards for his fiction include the New Zealand Literary Fund Scholarship in Letters, fellowships at Otago and Canterbury universities, and the Katherine Mansfield Memorial Fellowship in Menton, France. In 2000 he became an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit (ONZM) for services to literature; in 2012 was made a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit (CNZM) and in 2013 received the Prime Minister's Award for Literary Achievement in Fiction. In 2000 his novel Harlequin Rex won the Montana New Zealand Book Awards Deutz Medal for Fiction. Many of his other books have been shortlisted for major awards, and his work has been extensively anthologised. Grahame Sydney is one of New Zealand's most significant and enduring artists. His work spans over 4 decades and encompasses oils, watercolours, egg tempera, lithographs, etching and photography. Rarely exhibiting, Grahame's works are held in private collections throughout the world and represented in New Zealand's major galleries and museums. Since 2003 he has lived and worked in a remote corner of Central Otago, close to his recurrent subject matter. Sydney is the author or significant contributor to several books including, Grahame Sydney Paintings- 1974 - 2014, Grahame Sydney's Central Otago (photographs, 2011) and Promised Land (2009). He has been awarded an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit (ONZM) for his services to painting. Brian Turner is a well-known writer of creative non-fiction and poetry. His publications include best-selling sports biographies and numerous collections of poetry, including Ladders of Rain (joint winner Commonwealth Poetry prize (1978)), Beyond (winner NZ Book Awards for Poetry (1993)), and Just This (winner NZ Post Book Award for Poetry (2010)). Brian has written plays and television scripts and his work has appeared in countless magazines, journals and anthologies. Amongst his extensive list of accolades, he was the Te Mata Estate NZ Poet Laureate (2003-05), was awarded the New Zealand Prime Minister's Award for Literary Achievement in Poetry (2009) and in 2011 received an Hon D Litt from the University of Otago.

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