Janet Paterson Frame

For more than 20 years Frame had been annually nominated by PEN (the New Zealand Society of Authors) for the Nobel Prize for Literature. She was shortlisted twice, the second time in 2003, the year she was diagnosed with leukaemia. That year, along with Hone Tuwhare and her biographer Michael King, Frame was the recipient of an inaugural Prime Minister’s Award for Literary Achievement.

Continue reading

Muriel Wallace May

In 1960, when the government set up the Commission on Education in New Zealand, she was appointed a member. She had had wide educational experience, including service from 1938 to 1946 as the first woman on the Council of the University of Otago.

Continue reading

Marianne Williams

Marianne Williams was the first substantial witness to record, from a woman’s point of view, early domestic interaction among Māori and Pākehā.

Continue reading

Joanna Margaret Paul

Prolific and multi-talented, Joanna Paul was one of the most gifted artists of her generation. Intensely responsive to the world around her, she depicted her surroundings, constantly reworking the conventions of drawing and watercolour painting. Paul also documented her environment in photographs and experimental short films, and published poetry, criticism and non-fiction.

Continue reading

Elsie Violet Locke

Elsie Locke was a writer, environmentalist, historian, peace activist, one-time communist, and a battler for women’s rights. She is best known as a writer for children, though her writing encompassed adult non-fiction, journalism, pamphlets and poetry. Her writing and campaigning made a major contribution to New Zealand’s social, cultural and political life over many decades.

Continue reading

Margaret May Mahy

Margaret Mahy is New Zealand’s most celebrated writer for children and young adults. In a 55-year career she published more than 120 titles: novels, picture books, short stories, poems and educational texts, as well as writing for film and television. Translated into more than 15 languages, her books reflect her delight in fantasy, magic, adventure, humour, the supernatural and the transformative power of language.

Continue reading