Your favourite authors
Authors under the spotlight
We’ve put two of your favourite authors under the spotlight to tell us more about their work. You can click their names to read more information in their Book Council Writer Files.
Bill O'Brien
writer, profile published in BRAT, Summer 2000
Apart from a select few, writing is not the most rewarding career in a monetary sense. However the independence and satisfaction of being the author of your own destiny is, for me, immeasurable. In the striving for accuracy and authenticity I devote a lot of time to research, but the personal benefits are great. Whether it is in studying why our bodies change shape in space, how ship-wrecked sailors survived on a sub-antarctic island, or how the ancient Egyptians lived, the increase in knowledge is refreshing. Being able to pass on this knowledge to children in an entertaining way is, as a job, all I wish it to be.
John Parker
profile published in BRAT, Winter 2000
I've written over 70 children's books, ranging from emergent readers to novels for early teens. And I've also contributed many plays, poems, stories and articles to Learning Media publications, along with radio writing--plays for BBC children's programmes, stories for Radio NZ and so on. Variety is spice.
I like visiting schools and sharing with the kids the rewards, the tough bits, and the strategies involved in the writing process. They learn that I, too, have to look up the dictionary and the thesaurus, and that I can run out of ideas just like them. So we're all writers, working towards that satisfying moment when the final full stop completes something worth doing well.
I enjoy reading and talking to classes of all ages, and love those moments when the fidgeting stops and the eyes open as they are gripped by a good story. 'Where do you get your ideas from?' they ask. From under my nose, I tell them. Write what you know about--and jot those ideas down before they go away and are never seen again.
Learn more about your favourite authors
Click on a letter below or use the box to search for your favourite New Zealand children’s writers, then click on a name for more information about the author’s life and work.
Can’t find the author you’re looking for? Try searching from our Writers Files home page.
