Author Interview

Across the Ditch: Author and editor Sue Whiting

Australian author Sue Whiting has written numerous books in a variety of genres: fiction and nonfiction, picture books through to YA, including the best-selling The Firefighters, and the award-winning A Swim in the Sea. As well as writing for children,…

Author interview: Pauline (Vaeluaga) Smith

NZ-Pasifika writer Pauline (Vaeluaga) Smith has recently published her first book, Dawn Raid, as a part of Scholastic’s ‘My New Zealand Story’ series. Leilani Tamu catches up with Pauline to find out more about her writing journey and the experience…

Writer Interview: Maria Gill and Glyn Harper

Glyn Harper’s and Maria Gill’s latest books are both part of the final year of publishing in commemoration of the centenary of WWI. Bobby the littlest war hero, for 4- to 8-year-old children, is about a canary in the tunnels…

NZ Festival Interview: Sonny Liew

The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye tells a tale encompassing stories strewn over decades of the creation of Singapore. The apathetic yet significant cartoonist, Charlie Chan, has documented the era of agitated independence that the Lion City faced at…

Across the Ditch: Kate and Jol Temple

Terri-Rose Baynton, the New Zealand-based illustrator of much-talked-about new picture book Room On Our Rock, interviews Kate and Jol Temple, the Australian authors of Room On Our Rock… The book has one story that can be read two different ways….

NZ Festival Interview: R. A. Spratt

R. A. Spratt is an award winning author and television writer, best known for her two series’ Nanny Piggins and Friday Barnes, Girl Detective. Her first book The Adventures of Nanny Piggins was published in 2009 and she has continued…

Writer Interview: Eileen Merriman and Ella West

Eileen Merriman’s and Ella West’s latest books were on the bookshop shelves as we headed to the beach this summer. Catch Me When You Fall is for older teens, and is about 17-year-old Alex in Christchurch who is fighting leukaemia…

The great Wardini, debut steampunk novelist

Earlier this month, we treated you to an excerpt from Gareth Ward’s award-winning debut steampunk adventure novel, The Traitor and the Thief. Here’s an interview with the fascinating, hardworking author himself. Your bio notes read like an adventure novel of…

Across the Ditch: Author Zana Fraillon

Australian author Zana Fraillon is an observer of the unseen: ‘As an author, I am drawn to the absences and the silences in our world.’ She is drawn in by those voices that aren’t being listened to, the stories that…

Author Interview: David Riley – Reading Warrior

David Riley is a Reading Warrior. The biographical niche-cramming South Auckland teacher-turned-author’s mission: to get books into the hands of those for whom reading hasn’t come easily. A sense of urgency regarding his students’ needs compelled David to pursue a…