Authors

Laurence Fearnley is an award-winning novelist. Her novel The Hut Builder won the fiction category of the 2011 NZ Post Book Awards. In 2014 her novel Reach was longlisted for the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards, and, in 2008, Edwin and Matilda was runner-up in the fiction category of the Montana New Zealand Book Awards. Her second novel, Room, was shortlisted for the 2001 Montana New Zealand Book Awards. In 2004 Fearnley was awarded the Artists to Antarctica Fellowship and in 2007 the Robert Burns Fellowship at the University of Otago. In 2016 she won the NZSA/ Janet Frame Memorial Award and in 2017 she was the joint winner of the Landfall essay competition. She was named a New Zealand Arts Foundation Laureate in 2019. She lives in Dunedin.

No biography

No biography

Brigid Feehan was born, raised and educated in Wellington. She studied law at Victoria University and travelled overseas for a few years before returning to Wellington. She now lives in Island Bay with her family and her probably not very bright, but definitely very handsome cat, Magnus. Brigid has worked for the government in a number of roles, none of which have involved meeting the Prime Minister. Stella Star, Brigids first novel, won the Tom Fitzgibbon Award and was included in the Storylines List of Notable Books in 2006. A sequel, Maybe Stella, was published in 2007.

Peter Feeney's professional acting career began in 1994 after an Honours degree in Politics and History from Melbourne University, graduate study in Moscow and a Drama Diploma from Auckland University. Since then his square jaw has been a familiar screen presence, on both sides of the Tasman, in Australian, Kiwi, US and UK TV and film roles. On the other side of the camera, Feeney has been a casting director (including for the TV series The Amazing Extraordinary Friends, in which he also acted). Since 2001 he has taught acting; from 2004 at his boutique acting school in Auckland, Actors Lab Studio. Feeney has also turned his hand to theatre acting and directing. His New Zealand adaptation of Australian play Milo's Wake was a hit for its Auckland and nationwide seasons in 2005 and 2006. His one-man show A Night with Beau Tyler (an adaptation of his Memphis Meltdown persona that ran in a series of television commercials) toured New Zealand in 2008 and 2009. Peter is currently writing and developing various projects, including a television adaptation of his acclaimed coming of age novel Blind Bitter Happiness. Peter is represented by Kathryn Rawlings in New Zealand and Lisa Mann Creative Management in Australia. He lives with his wife and three children in Castor Bay, Auckland, New Zealand.

Dr Warren Feeney has written on the visual arts for the past 30 years, with a particular interest in Aotearoa New Zealand's social and cultural histories. He is the author of OUT THERE: SCAPE Public Art 1998-2018, and of CSA: The Radical, the Reactionary and the Canterbury Society of Arts, 1880-1996 (Canterbury University Press, 2011) and the co-author, with Peter Alsop, of the biography, Marcus King: Painting New Zealand for the World (Potton & Burton, 2015). He contributes regularly to the Press, www.eyecontactsite.com and to arts publications such as Art News, World Sculpture News and Asian Art News. Warren is also the publisher and editor of Art Beat, a monthly arts newspaper established in 2018, reporting on all aspects of the visual arts in Otautahi Christchurch and Waitaha Canterbury.

Rhys Feeney is a high school teacher and volunteer mental health worker in Te Whanganui-a-Tara. He has a BA (Hons) in English literature as well as an MTchLrn (Secondary) from Victoria University of Wellington. His poetry has previously appeared in ANNEXE, elsewhere, Mimicry, Sponge, Starling and various zines. He tweets occasionally at @rhysfeeneybot

Paul W. Feenstra is a historical fiction novelist. His character-driven novels are meticulously researched and detailed and create a dramatic window into our complex past. Set in beautiful and mysterious New Zealand, Paul’s first novels, Boundary, The Breath of God, and For Want of a Shilling, portray early colonial life and colonialism’s controversial impact on native Māori. Gunpowder Green is a lighthearted collection of short stories that chronicle New Zealand life as it once was. Humorous and even thought-provoking, each story is varied and highlights rural living, a diverse culture and a forgotten yet very familiar lifestyle. In February 2022, he released the dynamic spy novel Into the Shade, an adventure set in 1914. The medieval ‘Falls Ende’ series are emotional and captivating, beginning with Falls Ende – Primus. Since then, Paul completed a much-anticipated sequel, Falls Ende – Secundus, a third, Falls Ende – Tertium, book four in the series, Falls Ende - Quartus, and Falls Ende – Quintus.

Faumuina is a daughter of the Pacific. Born in 1971 and raised in Otautahi Christchurch, New Zealand, her bloodlines stretch back to Mulifanua, Fasito'o-Tai, Asaga, and Salelologo in Samoa. Her parents are Nivaga and Mau'u Lopeti Ifopo. Her surname comes from the late Patrick Tafuna'i, and she is mother to Oliver. Faumuina wrote her first poem when she was 13 but was too cool to write another until 17 years later after she heard Pacific poet Konai Thaman, Tusiata Avia, and Selina Marsh. It was then she realized poetry could speak in different rhythms and accents. Faumuina is a member of Fika, a group of Pasifika writers within Otautahi. She has a background in media and communications. She is also a sailor with Te Toki Voyaging Trust and an Edmund Hillary Fellow for her work in creating wayfinding strategies under the guidance of voyaging leader Hoturoa Barclay-Kerr.

Flora Feltham is a writer and weaver from Poneke. She has an MA from the

Flora Feltham is a writer and weaver from Pōneke. She has an MA from the International Institute of Modern Letters at Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington. Her work has appeared in Turbine Kapohau, ArtNow and The Guardian. Bad Archive is her first book.

Rachel J Fenton is a writer, graphic artist and anthologist, living in Oamaru and a curator at the Janet Frame House. She has won fiction competitions in Aotearoa and overseas, including the Laura Solomon NZSA Cuba Press Prize 2022, was shortlisted for The Royal Society of New Zealand Manhire Prize and is a Pushcart nominee. She is co-editor with Sarah Laing and Indira Neville of Three Words: An Anthology of Aotearoa/NZ Women's Comics, and as Rae Joyce, she is an award-winning graphic poet.