Young Minds Take the Library

Manawatū born and raised, Josh Morgan (Te Aitanga-a-Māhaki, Rongowhakaata) is a freelance illustrator and musician living in Wellington, New Zealand with his partner, the author Sacha Cotter, and their wee family. Together they form the amazing storytelling / song writing / award-winning-picture-book-making team Cotter & Morgan.

Kawerau born Sacha, is an award-winning children´s writer based in Wellington, New Zealand. She is the author of picture books Keys/Ngā Kī, The Marble Maker/Te Kaihanga Māpere, and the 2019 Margaret Mahy Book of the Year, The Bomb/Te Pohū – all published by HUIA and illustrated by her partner in both books and life, Josh Morgan. Sacha is also involved in writing for children’s television. She has written for both The Kiddets and The Book Hungry Bears, two animated shows produced by Pukeko Pictures. Sacha loves lots of things including stop motion animation, daydreaming, biscuits, books, dancing, curly dogs, space noodles and woolly mammoths named Stanley.

Vincent O’Malley is a founding partner of HistoryWorks, a group of historians specialising in Treaty of Waitangi research. He is the author of a number of books on New Zealand history including The Meeting Place: Māori and Pākehā Encounters, 1642–1840 (Auckland University Press, 2012), which was shortlisted in the general non-fiction section at the New Zealand Post Book Awards in 2013, and Beyond the Imperial Frontier: The Contest for Colonial New Zealand (Bridget Williams Books, 2014).

Whiti Hereaka is an award-winning novelist and playwright of Ngāti Tūwharetoa, Te Arawa and Pākehā descent, based in Wellington. She holds a Masters in Creative Writing (Scriptwriting) from the International Institute of Modern Letters. She is the author of three novels: The Graphologist’s Apprentice, the award-winning YA novel Bugs and Legacy. She is also co-editor, with Witi Ihimaera, of an anthology of Māori myths — Pūrākau. Whiti has been involved with Te Papa Tupu, an incubator programme for Māori writers, as a writer, a mentor and a judge. She is also a board member of the Māori Literature Trust and the Michael King Writers Centre.