Author Interview

Bren and Gerri: Grass Wants to be Grazed

Australia-based New Zealander Bren MacDibble has been a published writer for many years, but only recently broke into the trade children’s publishing market. Last year, she won both the Young Adult and the Junior Fiction Awards at the NZ Book…

Tales of Tauranga: Debbie McCauley

Debbie McCauley is an award-winning author, historian, indie publisher, librarian and poet with a passion for telling the stories of her local area and community. Philippa Werry finds out how she goes about it all. I first met Debbie in…

Rachel Eadie interviews Jessica Townsend

October 2017 saw Sunshine Coast local Jessica Townsend hit the big time. Her children’s novel Nevermoor was the biggest-selling Australian children’s debut since records began. It swept the world into a frenzy and propelled her into literary stardom. The second…

Donotello and Roofael in conversation

Two of New Zealand’s most celebrated, funny and prolific author-illustrators let us eavesdrop on a chat they had recently. Here are Ruth Paul and Donovan Bixley, sharing their thoughts about making money, embarrassing art, hard work and hats. They have…

Interviewing the legendary Paul Jennings

Paul Jennings is a legend of Australian children’s literature. He burst onto the literary scene in 1985 with his first anthology of short stories featuring weird, spooky and humorous tales with a twist, and never looked back. He has countless…

Sherryl Jordan: The Deep Quiet Pools of the Mind

In an interview with writer Sherryl Jordan as her two most recent works are published, Catherine Woulfe gets to the heart of what makes her work taonga. I’m at a kid’s birthday party at McDonald’s and comprehensively hating it –…

Scott Tulloch and Myles Lawford Co-Interview

Humour authors Scott Tulloch and Myles Lawford interview one another about their careers, and about their most recent books – Where’s Kiwi Now? for Lawford, and Keep an Eye on that Kiwi, for Tulloch. The two do quite different things…

Across the Ditch: Allison Rushby & The Mulberry Tree

Australian author Allison Rushby is a prolific children’s and YA writer with many well-known books to her name, including The Turnkey (2017). Publishing with Walker Books, Rushby’s The Mulberry Tree (July 2018) is a spooky tale aimed at intermediate readers….

Ant Sang, Helen and the Go-Go Ninjas

Adrian Kinnaird talks to Ant Sang about his career so far, and his magnificent new collaboration with Michael Bennett, Helen and the Go-Go Ninjas (Penguin Random House NZ). Over the last decade I’ve watched Ant Sang build an impressive career,…

Author interview: The Hager-Hill Histories

In this fascinating insight into the minds of two of our best children’s literature writers, Mandy Hager and David Hill talk to each other about their new books, Ash Arising and Finding, and about writing for teens. David Hill: Mandy,…