John Cranna

The Creative Hub was founded by John Cranna, a former Chair of the Auckland Society of Authors. John has published two books of fiction, Visitors and Arena, one of non-fiction and has won the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best First Book, and the NZ Book Award for Fiction. He grew up in NZ but lived for ten years in Kings Cross, London where he worked as a community organiser and editor. His books have been published in Australia, UK and France. His screenplay for the short film Accidents was shown at the Venice Film Festival and other festivals around the world. From 2000 to 2005 he was editor of AA Directions, which then rose from fifth to most-read magazine in NZ. He founded the AUT University Centre for Modern Writing in 2007 where he designed the Master of Creative Writing course, and was voted Best Post-Graduate Teacher by students at the University in 2008.

Graham Reid

Graham is one of New Zealand's most respected journalists and authors, who writes travel, arts, music and political journalism, and has taught journalism and feature writing at AUT University. He currently lectures part-time in music at Auckland University and is a regular commentator on public radio. He was a senior journalist at the New Zealand Herald for 17 years where he became synonymous with lively and wide-ranging articles on music, travel, politics and books.  During his time at the Herald, he interviewed a number of world-renowned musicians, writers, artists and political figures. Since then, as a freelancer, his writing has appeared in the Herald, the Listener, Art News, Idealog, Life and Leisure, Weekend magazine, the Herald on Sunday, Real Groove and elsewhere. He has travelled extensively through Europe, Asia and the United States. Graham was described by the Herald’s editor-in-chief as a “true renaissance man”, and has a long list of writing awards.  His first book Postcards From Elsewhere won the 2006 Whitcoulls' Travel Book of the Year award; his second, The Idiot Boy Who Flew, won the Whitcoulls' Readers' Choice Award in 2010. Graham hosts his own music/arts/travel website at www.elsewhere.co.nz

Paula Morris

Paula Morris is of pakeha and Ngāti Wai ancestry, was born in Auckland, went to Auckland University and is the author of four novels, and the editor of The Penguin Book of Contemporary New Zealand Short Stories (2009). Her first novel, Queen of Beauty, won the Adam Foundation Prize in Creative Writing. Her short story collection, Forbidden Cities (Penguin, 2008) was a regional finalist in the 2009 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize. Paula has worked in London for the BBC and in New York as a publicist for several record companies. A graduate of Bill Manhire’s Victoria University Creative Writing Course and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, she teaches creative writing at Tulane University, New Orleans. She was a guest at the 2010 Auckland Writers and Readers Week. www.trendybutcasual.typepad.com  

Roger Hall

Roger is New Zealand's most successful playwright. His best-known play in New Zealand is probably Glide Time (1976). It gave rise to the popular 1980s television series Gliding On and a sequel play, Market Forces (1995), set in the "restructured" public service environment of the post-Rogernomics era. Roger's best-known works internationally are Middle Age Spread (1978), which had a run in the West End and was also filmed in 1979, and Conjugal Rites (1991) which was made into a situation comedy series in the UK. Roger’s more recent work includes The Book Club (1999), and Take a Chance on Me (2001). A Way of Life (2001) was a new departure, a drama about three generations of a farming family in NZ. Roger has also published an autobiography, Bums on Seats (1998). www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Hall

Tessa Duder

Tessa Duder has published fiction and non-fiction for both children and adults. Her best-known work Alex (OUP, 1985, now available in Puffin) was adapted for a 1993 movie, and her awards include the Margaret Mahy Medal (1996), the Katherine Mansfield Fellowship (2003), an OBE (1994) and an honorary doctorate from the University of Waikato (2008). She has acted in and co-written a number of plays, and was an active member of the drama quartet Metaphor. She is a former national President of the NZ Society of Authors and served on the Children’s Literature Foundation of New Zealand. She has also edited a number of anthologies, including stories themed on sport, the sea and romance. She has four daughters, two grandchildren and lives in Auckland. Her website is www.TessaDuder.com

Sarah Laing

Sarah Laing is a fiction writer and graphic designer. She was born in the USA and has lived in New York and Germany before coming to NZ at the age of 17. Her first collection of short stories, Coming up Roses (2007), was released after she won the 2006 Sunday Star-Times Short Story Competition. Sarah was Writer in Residence at the Michael King Writers Centre in 2008, and is one of the 2010 Buddle Findlay Sargeson Fellows. She published her first novel Dead People’s Music (Vintage) in 2009, and lives in Auckland. Sarah writes, “I come from a visual background and spend quite a lot of time describing the concrete world. I started off thinking I was going to be a poet so I pay a lot of attention to words. I also love pretending to be an analyst, trying to figure out motivations for people’s peculiar behavior.” www.poppyshock.com

Martin Edmond

Martin’s first book of poems Streets of Music (1980) won the Jessie Mackay Award for Best First Book of Poetry 1980. His first book of non-fiction The Autobiography of My Father (1992) won a prize in the Goodman Fielder Wattie Book Awards, 1993. Martin’s career as a scriptwriter includes the screenplays for the award-winning feature films: Illustrious Energy (1988); The Footstep Man (1992) and Terra Nova (1998). Edmond’s other non-fiction works including Chemical Evolution: Drugs & Art Production 1970-80 (1997), The Resurrection of Philip Clairmont (1999) and Fenua Imi: the Pacific in History & Imaginary (2002) and Chronicle of the Unsung (2004). Luca Antara: Passages in search of Australia (Addenda, 2006) was described by Nobel Prize literature winner J M Coetzee as 'a book lover's book, a graceful and mesmerising blend of history, autobiography, travel, and romance”. He was the Michael King Centre Writing Fellow in 2010. http://lucaantara.blogspot.com

Tina Shaw

Tina Shaw is the author of many books for adults, children and young adults. Her most recent literary novel for adults is The Black Madonna (Penguin Books). Her short stories have been published in anthologies, literary journals and magazines. She is a winner of the Buddle Findlay Sargeson Fellowship, has held the Creative New Zealand Berlin Writers’ Residency, and was Writer in Residence at the University of Waikato in 2005. She has also written junior and young adult fiction, including Into the Hinterland, and its sequel Dogs of the Hinterland as well as books for the 'Kiwi Bites' and 'Mainsails' series. Her young adult novel About Griffen's Heart was published by Longacre Press in 2009. Tina has been a mentor for the AUT University of Master of Creative Writing course, and has many years experience as a manuscript assessor. Tina Shaw also runs the national mentoring programme for the NZ Society of Authors. Her website is www.tinashaw.co.nz

Judith White

Judith has won a number of awards for her short fiction, including the 1989 BNZ Katherine Mansfield Short Story Award. She has twice won the Auckland Star short story competition, in 1987 and 1990. In 1996, White was the Buddle Findlay Sargeson Fellow.  White's first collection of short fiction Visiting Ghosts (1991) was shortlisted for the fiction section of what is now known as the Montana New Zealand Books Awards. Her novel Across the Dreaming Night (1999) is shortlisted for the fiction section of the 2000 Montana New Zealand Book Awards.  In the Sunday Star Times Iain Sharpe writes: 'White is second to none when it comes to depicting states of anxiety, both comic and poignant. And the brilliance with which she enters into her characters' aberrant states of mind, signals a major talent.'

Maggie Tarver

Maggie is currently the Chief Executive of the New Zealand Society of Authors www.authors.org.nz and conducts a presentation to Fiction Course students on the services available through the Society of Authors to new writers. She conducts a separate workshop on voice presentation and reading in her capacity as a skilled actor and director. Maggie originally trained as an actor in the UK and worked in the West End circuits before coming to NZ in 1989.  She acted in TV productions including Outrageous Fortunes, Marlin Bay, Homeward Bound, and Shortland Street.  Her theatre performances in NZ have included Kindertransport, Quills and Don’t Misunderstand Me, and she wrote, produced, directed and acted in the theatre production adaptation of Estralita.  Maggie was employed full time as a tutor of acting for screen for South Seas for 8 years. During that time she directed numerous theatre productions including Marat/Sade, Carpe Jugulum, Under Milkwood, Abigails Party, Find Me and wrote and directed several short films. She has been a script writer on a number of feature film adaptations including Holy Days, Gunner Inglorious, Classical Music, Angelina and Arnwood.

Linda Olsson

Linda was born in Sweden, came to New Zealand and worked in banking and finance then completed a creative writing degree at Auckland University. Linda’s first novel Let me sing you gentle songs was released in 2003 to critical acclaim, and it was the first time Penguin published a best-selling first novel. The book follows a young woman who strikes up an unlikely friendship with her elderly neighbour: the novel then slowly reveals their personal stories of grief and loss. Let me sing you gentle songs has been published in a range of countries, including Sweden, the USA, the UK, Holland and Italy. Her website is www.lindaolsson.net In 2003 Linda also won the Sunday Star Times Short Story Competition. Her second novel, Sonata for Miriam (The consequence of silence), appeared in 2009, and it has also been published internationally.