HBRW 2024 - Personal Histories

History comes most alive when we experience it through the lens of individual people. Join Cristina Sanders (Okiwi Brown) in conversation with Kyle Mewburn, whose historical debut Sewing Moonlight illuminates a German immigrant's life in 1930s New Zealand, and Saige England who takes us back 100 years earlier to the first encounters of Pakeha and Maori, told by female characters in The Seasonwife.

Kyle Mewburn:

Kyle is one of New Zealand’s finest and most eclectic writers. From multi-layered picture books Old Hu-hu, Kiss!Kiss! Yuck!Yuck! and Melu to laugh-out-loud junior fiction series – notably Dinosaur Rescue and Dragon Knight; memoir (Faking it: my life in transition) to historical fiction (Sewing Moonlight), her titles have been translated into eighteen languages and won numerous awards including Children’s Book of the Year.

She was Children’s Writer-in-Residence at Otago University in 2011 and President of the New Zealand Society of Authors from 2013-2017.

Originally from Brisbane, Kyle lives with her wife, Marion, two contented tomcats, Monty and Rupert; Hanni and Nanni the boisterous boer goats; Liese and Lotte the fluffy Shropshire sheep; 22 chickens and a rooster called Robert, in a self-built house with a grass roof near the sleepy village of Millers Flat. When she’s not writing she’s either searching for hidden eggs or exploring the exciting world she discovered in her closet.

Saige England:

Saige England is the author of the highly acclaimed debut novel,The Seasonwife. She has received funding from the NZSA and CLA towards her next novel/s: No Graves For Ghosts.

Saige has an MA in Creative Writing from the International Institute of Modern Letters (IIML) at Victoria University of Wellington.

In her previous career as a journalist, Saige won a number of Qantas Media Awards for feature writing and the New Zealand Media Peace Award. Her poetry has been published in many journals and anthologies. As a journalist, she has worked in various conflict zones including Romania, the former Yugoslavia, and the Middle East. Her journalism and feature articles have been published in the Daily Telegraph. the Financial Times, and the NZ Listener.

Saige also spent some years reporting on claims to the Waitangi Tribunal. Saige’s short fiction has been anthologized by Penguin New Zealand. Her poetry has been published in journals and anthologies including Turbine, Blackmail Press, Reed NZ, and muse-pie Shotglas Journal.

Chair: Cristina Sanders

Cristina Sanders is an historical novelist, book reviewer and trail runner who grew up in Wellington and now lives in Hawke’s Bay.

She is a volunteer crew member for the Spirit of Adventure Trust, and a member of the New Zealand Society of Authors.

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