Authors

Philippa Werry writes fiction, non-fiction, poetry and plays for children and young adults, as well as articles, reviews and non-fiction for adults. Her work has been widely published, broadcast on National Radio, included in anthologies and shortlisted for a number of awards, including the Manhire Prize for Creative Science Writing three times, as well as the Text Publishing Prize in 2010 and the Joy Cowley Award in 2015, the 2004 Australian Bilby Awards, the New Zealand Post Children's Book Awards (2009 and 2014), the 2014 LIANZA awards, and the New Zealand Children and Young Adults Book Awards (2016, 2018, 2019, 2021 and 2023). Werry was the winner of the Jack Lasenby Award in 2006, and the recipient of the NZSA mid-career writer's award in 2010.

Nora West was born in England and was educated privately from the tender age of eight. She did get to Art School – obtaining degrees in Textiles from Goldsmiths College, London, and later in Art & Design in NZ. She married a New Zealander and they raised their four children in Gloucestershire; the family moved to Auckland in 1982. Nora has lived between Auckland and Waiheke Island since then, lecturing in Community Arts at Unitec and Whitecliffe, managing an art gallery, working in the prison and mental health sectors, and active in women's and environmental issues. She now has six mokopuna and has settled permanently on Waiheke Island, where she helps run a recycled crafts collective called Upcycle. She drives an elderly EV, keeps free-range bantams, composts, and sings with Sister Shout a cappella choir.

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Lower Hutt poet Keith Westwater has received or been shortlisted for awards in New Zealand, Australia and Ireland, and has been selected for ten anthologies. He's published three previous collections of poetry and a chapbook. Keith writes about his work on his blog, Some Place Else.

Wendy Wethey lives in Christchurch, N.Z. Since 2020 she has been setting weekly cryptic crosswords for four Australian Sunday newspapers.

Reina Whaitiri (Kāi Tahu) is a scholar, editor and researcher on Māori and Pacific literature; she lives in Auckland.

Susannah Whaley is studying towards her PhD in Art History and works at a book shop. She has worked for an academic publisher and also assisted in the editing of an academic text. She has a longstanding love of reading and writing, particularly children’s fiction. Tatty Catty is her first children’s book. Hayley Elliott-Kernot is an emerging artist and illustrator living in New Plymouth, Taranaki. She is author of the popular Waffles series. She is the 2018 winner of the People’s Choice Award at the Taranaki Emerging Artists Awards and her first solo exhibition is taking place at the Stratford Percy Thompson Gallery August – September 2020.

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