Jenny Hessell
Jenny Hessell has an MA(Hons) in English and 30 years' experience in secondary teaching, specialising in the area of gifted students. She has published nearly 40 children's books, including the Grandma McGarvey series, and has been the recipient of a number of national awards for children's writing.
"I think there is a good case to be put for arguing that the world presented
in books is more real than what we are accustomed to call 'the real world'."
Alison Robertson
Alison Robertson's first novel Knocked for Six won the Tom Fitzgibbon Award and the Esther Glen medal. Finding Isabella, her second novel is based on the story of her great great grandmother coming to New Zealand and much to her delight is being used in class sets at some schools. The third novel was rejected (boo hoo) and now sits on the study shelf. Alison's short stories include Gibber for New Zealand, Brotherly Love and Stop Kissing My Sister. This year she has been part of the Papakura Writers in Libraries scheme and has taken classes at the Rotorua Writers weekend with Michael Morrisey and Joan Rosier Jones. Most of her days are taken up with writing non-fiction for Waikato University Management School where she works in media relations.
Mark Carthew
Mark Carthew is an award winning editor, author, primary teacher & musician best known for his books and series exploring wordplay, music, movement and drama, he has always loved the joy of writing for children.
Mark's writing credits include the award winning, internationally acclaimed, illustrated play script series VoiceWorks, for which he is Series Editor and contributing author . VoiceWorks has sold approx a million copies worldwide & includes editions in the UK, Canada and the USA. Mark also has numerous books and poetry compilations in the Chatterbox series (Shortlisted for the 2004 and 2006 Literacy Series Australian Publisher's Association Excellence Awards and Winner of APA's Best Designed Primary Books Award 2004) and The Blends Books (Nominated for the APA's Best Educational Series Award).
Mark's latest books include the hilarious book of rhymes, riddles and wordplay, Wicked Wizards and Leaping Lizards (Random House) illustrated by UK illustrator Mike Spoor and the beautiful picture story book Five Little Owls stunningly illustrated by CBCA Crichton award winning illustrator Mini Goss, published by New Frontier Australia.
With two new books scheduled for international release in 2008, The Gobbling Tree, illustrated by Susy Boyer, (May) New Frontier Publishing and Can You Keep a Secret? illustrated by Jobi Murphy, Random House Australia, (Oct) and more to come… Mark is one of Australia's many vibrant and exciting children's book creators.
* In 2006 Mark was awarded a three year Australian Postgraduate Scholarship to pursue his PhD in writing at Swinburne University, Victoria, Australia.
Vince Ford
Vince Ford spent two years researching and writing his Chronicles of Stone series. Set in the Ice Age in the states, it is being released in three instalments this year.
His first book, 2MUCH4U, won the Tom Fitzgibbon Award and went on to win the Junior Fiction category of the 2000 NZ Children’s Book Awards. His last book, Boyznbikes was shortlisted for the 2007 NZ Post Children’s Book Awards. This year he will one of the judges for the 2008 NZ Post Children's Book Awards.
Vince shares a property just out of Gisborne with his wife, daughter, various wwoofers (Willing Workers on Organic Farms), ten chickens, a dog, a cat and a house elf called Deb.
Robyn Belton
Robyn Belton was born in 1947, and grew up on a sheep and cattle farm in Whangaehu, near Wanganui. Her grandmother saved the backs of envelopes for her to draw on, and gave her her first set of watercolour paints. She did a Diploma in Fine Arts at Ilam, studying under Russell Clark. She now lives in Dunedin. Robyn has illustrated some of New Zealand' best-loved picture books, including Greedy Cat, The Duck in the Gun and Bow Down, Shadrach, by Joy Cowley, and The Bantam and the Soldier by Jennifer Beck. She won the Russell Clark Award in 1985, the NZ Post Children's Book of the Year in1997, the Art Council Toi Aotearoa Award in 1997, and the Margaret Mahy Medal in 2006