Authors

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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Doc Drumheller was born in Charleston, South Carolina and has lived in New Zealand for more than half his life. He has worked in award-winning theatre and music groups and has published ten collections of poetry. His poems have been translated into more than twenty languages, and he has performed in Cuba, Lithuania, Italy, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, Japan, India, China, Nicaragua, USA, Mexico, El Salvador, and widely throughout NZ. During his travels he represented the Waimakariri District as a Cultural Ambassador to Enshi, China, in a Sister City Cultural Exchange, was appointed as the New Zealand Director of the Silk Road Poetry Project, and represented New Zealand at several international poetry festivals in China and India. Doc Drumheller lives in Oxford, where he edits and publishes the literary journal Catalyst. His most recent collection is Election Day of the Dead, Seventy Haiku from the Americas (Cold Hub Press, 2020). Liang Yujing is a Chinese poet, translator and scholar who writes in both English and Chinese. He was born in Changde and studied for his BA and MA in Wuhan. From 2014 to 2020, he lived in New Zealand and completed his PhD in Chinese literature at Victoria University of Wellington. In late 2020, he returned to China and started working as a lecturer at Hunan University of Technology and Business. His poems and translations have appeared in over seventy literary magazines across the world, including Landfall,  Poetry NZ, Sport and takahē in NZ. His books of translation from Chinese into English include Zero Distance: New Poetry from China (Tinfish Press, 2017) and Dai Weina’s Loving You at the Speed of a Snail Traveling around the World (Cold Hub Press, 2018). He is also the Chinese translator of Best New Zealand Poems 2014 (Wai-te-ata Press, 2016) and Kim Addonizio’s What Is This Thing Called Love (Beijing: Xiron Books, 2020).

J. W. Du

Isaac du Toit is a New Zealand artist, author and illustrator of picture books. From a young age Isaac has been creating books (often collaborating with friends and family). Since 2020 Isaac has been increasingly experimenting with the medium of handmade dioramas in his art and illustration.

Maurice Dubey and John Burns have extensive experience working with businesses to successfully implement digital workforces and automated processes. Together they offer more than 50 years of insights and learnings in commercial strategy, technology implementation, and business growth. They have worked with leading organisations across multiple countries and sectors, and are thought leaders when it comes to utilising technology to achieve business improvement

Claude K. Dubois was born in Belgium. She has published nearly eighty children’s books for which she has received several awards. She is also a sculptor and painter.

Avi Duckor-Jones trained as a lawyer before gaining his MA in creative writing from Victoria University's International Institute of Modern Letters in 2013. His travel writing has been published with BBC Travel, The NZ Listener and Lonely Planet, among others. Avi has worked as a writing instructor and trip leader for National Geographic, directed a school in Ghana, and is the winner of the reality television competition Survivor New Zealand. His first book, Swim, won the 2018 Viva la Novella award. He currently lives on Waiheke Island with his wife and two children, where he enjoys open-water distance swimming and works as an English Teacher at Waiheke High School.