Authors

nrietta Bollinger (they/them) is a Pākehā writer and activist (a troublemaker for good reasons), born and based in Te Whanganui a Tara Wellington. They live in a house with another disabled artist and a cat with a very short tail. They come from a family who tell stories in lots of different ways. The other story they wrote for young people was published in the School Journal and is called “Discovering George”. That story is about their Great-Great uncle George and the diary he kept while fighting in World War One. Etta writes plays, poetry, and stories about real life, like the one in this book. They first learned to write by reading and writing with other people: their family and their babysitters. You can find some of these people in other Annuals. These were people like their sister Sally, who wrote “Parsley Magic”, and their friend Kirsten, who wrote “A Box of Birds”. These stories were either untrue or mostly true (with some made up bits to keep them interesting.) At the moment, they are writing their first book for adults about being disabled. It is called Articulations.

Nick Bollinger is a Wellington-based writer, broadcaster and critic. He was a music columnist for the Listener for more than twenty years, has written for Mojo and been the voice of Radio New Zealand’s music review programme The Sampler. He is the author of How to Listen to Pop Music (2004), 100 Essential New Zealand Albums (2009) and Goneville: A Memoir (2016), all published by Awa Press. Originally a thesis written for the creative non-fiction programme at the International Institute of Modern Letters, the manuscript of Goneville won the 2015 Adam Foundation Prize in Creative Writing and was longlisted for the New Zealand Book Awards.

No biography

Jansie Bond is a colour therapist, self-discovery facilitator, yoga teacher and author. Through her workshops and individual sessions, she has motivated people all over the world. With her wisdom, gift with words, and healing modalities, she helps people change their fear-motivated lives into lives filled with health, happiness, and love. A wife, mother, and grandmother, Jansie grew up in a farming community in South Africa. She and her husband left South Africa in 2013, moving to New Zealand. Today they live in the Gold Coast, Australia close to their children and grandchildren.

No biography

Kelsi Boocock is a recipe developer and entrepreneur from Auckland, New Zealand. She loves to create and share wholesome recipes as well as photos of her travels and adventures on her instagram @healthykelsii.

Rosie Boom lives with her husband Chris on a small lifestyle block in rural Northland, New Zealand. They have six adult children whom Rosie homeschooled. She is the author of eleven books, including parenting books, children’s picture books, devotionals and the multi-award-winning series The Barn Chronicles. Rosie is a sought-after speaker for homeschooling conventions, women’s and parenting events, and loves to share her stories with children and adults.

Nigel Borell (Pirirakau, Ngai Te Rangi, Ngati Ranginui, Te Whakatohea) is an artist, curator and writer. As Curator, Maori Art at Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki, Nigel curated the ground-breaking 2020-21 exhibition Toi Tu Toi Ora. Prior to that he was Associate Curator Maori at Auckland War Memorial Museum and Kaiwhakahaere Toi o Manukau; Maori Arts Manager, Auckland Council-South. Borell lectures in the University of Auckland Art History Department on Maori art history. He holds a Master of Fine Arts (Hons) from Elam School of Fine Arts in 2002 and is himself a practicing artist.

No biography

Annemarie Hope-Cross was born in Upper Hutt in 1968, obtained a Diploma of Photographic Arts from Whitecliffe Art School in 1989, and in 2011 and 2013 studied photogenic drawing, wet and dry plate collodion and the daguerreotype technique at the Fox Talbot Museum in the United Kingdom. Between 2010 and 2021, she held 13 solo exhibitions at public and private galleries in the Otago region, and her work has been included in numerous group exhibitions in New Zealand and internationally. She held an artist’s residency at the Fox Talbot Museum in 2013), and her series of ‘Still’ photographs is in the collection of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. With Eric Schusser, she produced two photo-books, Still Intrusion (2019) and Dissolving Margins (2020). Jenny Bornholdt has published over a dozen books of poems, most recently Lost and Somewhere Else (2019). She has edited a number of anthologies, including Short Poems of New Zealand (2018), and has worked on numerous book and art projects with artists including Pip Culbert, Mary McFarlane, Noel McKenna, Mari Mahr, Brendan O’Brien and Gregory O’Brien. In 2018 she was the co-recipient, with Gregory O’Brien, of the Henderson Arts Trust Residency and spent 12 months in Alexandra, Central Otago, during which time she met Annemarie Hope-Cross.

James Borrowdale is an award-winning journalist and travel writer, and the former online editor of VICE New Zealand. His essays and features have appeared in Metro, North & South, the Sunday Star-Times, Kia Ora, The Spinoff and VICE, among many other publications. Weed is James's first book. He lives in West Auckland.