Authors

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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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Vanda Symon is a crime writer living in Dunedin New Zealand. She is the author of the bestselling Detective Sam Shephard crime series and the standalone psychological thriller Faceless. She is also a star in The Traitors NZ. www.vandasymon.com

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Michael Szabo is a long-time Wellington resident and writer and well acquainted with the region’s wildlife. He is editor of Birds New Zealand magazine and a contributor to New Zealand Birds Online. He was principal author of Native Birds of Aotearoa (Te Papa Press, 2022), Wild Encounters: A Forest & Bird guide to discovering New Zealand’s unique wildlife (2009), and has written for New Scientist, New Zealand Geographic, the Sunday Star-Times and Wilderness.

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