Harsu and the Werestoat

Barbara Else is an acclaimed writer & editor whose writing is distinguished by its acerbic wit & sharp observation & is often concerned with ‘bringing women out of the shadows’. In a career spanning 3 decades, she has written plays, short stories, novels for adults, children’s novels & a non-fiction work, & has edited collections of stories for children. She has held a number of fellowships & residencies: the Victoria University of Wellington’s Writer’s Fellowship 1999; the Creative New Zealand Scholarship in Letters 2004 & the University of Otago College of Education/Creative New Zealand Children’s Writer in Residence 2016. 

She was made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2005. Through her work as a literary agent & assessor, she has discovered & mentored a number of emerging New Zealand writers, many of whom are now award-winning writers in their own right, & she was instrumental in setting up the New Zealand Association of Literary Agents & New Zealand Association of Manuscript Assessors. She has won multiple awards in New Zealand for her children’s books, including Storylines Notable Book Awards, Honour Awards & the Esther Glen Medal, & has been internationally recognised at Bologna with a White Raven. In 2016 Barbara received the Storylines Margaret Mahy Medal in recognition of her services to children’s literature.