Authors

Peter Dowling

Falstaff Dowling-Mitchell is an international theatre performer turned award-winning children's novelist. He's had a vibrant career on stage, playing Shrek in Shrek the Musical across five countries, starring as the Fish in Cat in the Hat Live on Stage for seven years, and bringing Melman to life during the Madagascar New Zealand Tour. When not performing, Falstaff is also a dedicated teacher, screenwriter, and filmmaker, with his award-winning works being showcased at international film festivals. His latest book, The Tour, is a heartfelt and hilarious Kiwi novel that takes readers behind the scenes of show business. His novel, White Lies, Maori Legends and Fairytales, is an award-winning story used in over 300 schools nationwide to engage students with the history of Aotearoa. It tells the powerful and engaging story of a boy named Petera and his best mate Hone, growing up in small-town Aotearoa.

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Joe Davis is the co-founder of Nanogirl Labs with Dr Michelle Dickinson and is an innovator and leader. David Downs is a regular speaker and presenter on innovation. He is passionate about innovation and technology in long-term growth, and in his day job as a General Manager at New Zealand Trade and Enterprise, he gets to work with innovative companies from around the country to help them grow internationally. He is also well-known as a stand-up comedian, and started one of the many initiatives to support local businesses during lockdown.

Joanne Drayton is an acclaimed New Zealand author whose output is globally recognised. Her book Hudson & Halls- The Food of Love was the winner of the Royal Society Te Aparangi Award for General Non-Fiction at the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards in May 2019, and was a cover story for the NZ Listener in October 2018. Joanne's The Search for Anne Perry was numbered in the top 10 non-fiction books on the New York Times BESTSELLER list. It was a finalist in the prestigious New Zealand Book Awards in August 2013, the subject of a 60 Minutes programme and a cover story for the NZ Listener. It is an 'important' and 'beguiling' read that has received excellent reviews. Both The Search for Anne Perry and Hudson & Halls- The Food of Love have been optioned for feature films. Her critically acclaimed Ngaio Marsh- Her Life in Crime (2008) was a Christmas pick of the Independent newspaper when it was released in the UK in 2009. Her other biographies of expatriate painters include Frances Hodgkins- A Private Viewing (Random House, 2005); Rhona Haszard- An Experimental Expatriate NZ Artist (CUP, 2002); and Edith Collier- Her Life and Work (CUP, 1999). She has curated exhibitions and publishes in art history, theory and biography. In 2007, she was awarded a National Library Fellowship, and in 2017 the prestigious Logan Fellowship at the Carey Institute in Upstate New York. Joanne is a research associate at the University of Auckland and an English teacher at Avondale College. She lives in Auckland, New Zealand, with her partner and three cats.

Barbara Dreaver was born in Kiribati, moving to Aotearoa New Zealand at the age of ten. After gaining a Bachelor of Arts and Diploma in Pacific Journalism, she worked in Rarotonga for Cook Islands News and Cook Islands Press. In 1998 she returned to New Zealand, reporting for NZ Listener, National Business Review and Radio NZ. In 2002, she joined Television New Zealand' s 1News and in 2003 became its Pacific Correspondent. In 2019, she won multiple awards at the Voyager Media Awards for her coverage of the deadly Samoa measles outbreak. In 2022 she was named Reporter of the Year.

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