Joy Cowley

Cassia Joy Cowley (; born 7 August 1936) is a New Zealand author best known for her children's fiction, including the popular series of books Mrs. Wishy-Washy.

Cowley started out writing novels for adults, and her first book, ''Nest in a Falling Tree'' (1967), was adapted for the screen by Roald Dahl. It became the 1971 film ''The Night Digger''. Following its success in the United States, Cowley wrote several other novels, including ''Man of Straw'' (1972), ''Of Men and Angels'' (1972), ''The Mandrake Root'' (1975), and ''The Growing Season'' (1979). Typical themes of these works were marital infidelity, mental illness, and death, as experienced within families. Cowley has also published several collections of short stories, including ''Two of a Kind'' (1984) and ''Heart Attack and Other Stories'' (1985). Today she is best known for children's books, such as ''The Silent One'' (1981), which was made into a 1985 film. Others include ''Bow Down Shadrach'' (1991) and its sequel, ''Gladly, Here I Come'' (1994).

Cowley has written forty-one picture books, such as ''The Duck in the Gun'' (1969), ''The Terrible Taniwha of Timberditch'' (1982), ''Salmagundi'' (1985), and ''The Cheese Trap'' (1995). ''The Duck in the Gun'' and ''Salmagundi'' are explicitly anti-war books. She has been actively involved in teaching early reading skills and helping those with reading difficulties, in which capacity she has written approximately 500 basal readers (termed ''reading books'' in New Zealand).

Honours and awards

In 1990, Cowley was awarded the New Zealand 1990 Commemoration Medal, and in the 1992 New Year Honours she was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire, for services to children's literature. The following year she was granted an Honorary Doctorate of Letters (D.Litt.) from Massey University, and was awarded the New Zealand Suffrage Centennial Medal.

In 1993, Cowley became the third recipient of the Margaret Mahy Award, whose winners present and publish a lecture concerning children's literature or literacy. Cowley's lecture was titled
Influences
'. The award is presented by th
Storylines Childrens Literature Charitable Trust
who established the Joy Cowley Award in 2002, in recognition of the "exceptional contribution Joy Cowley makes to both children's literature and literacy in New Zealand and internationally". In 2004, she became a patron of th
Storylines Childrens Literature Foundation
and she is one of Storylines' trustees. At least one of her books has been on th

every year since it was established in 2000, other than 2009 and 2011 (in 2012 she was given a "special mention").

In 2002, she was awarded the Roberta Long Medal, presented by the University of Alabama at Birmingham for culturally diverse children's literature. In 2004, she was awarded the A. W. Reed Award for Contribution to New Zealand Literature, and in 2010, she won the Prime Minister's Award for Literary Achievement in the Fiction category.

Cowley has won the overall Book of the Year award three times at the various incarnations of the New Zealand Post Children's Book Awards: first for ''The Silent One'' in 1982; then for ''Hunter'' in 2006; and finally for ''Snake and Lizard'' in 2008. The latter two books were entered into the Junior Fiction category, in which she also won the category award for her books ''Ticket to the Sky Dance'' in 1998, ''Starbright and the Dream Eater'' in 1999, and ''Shadrach Girl'' in 2001. She won the Children's Choice award in this category for ''Friends: Snake and Lizard'' in 2010.

She won the now defunct Fiction category in 1992 for ''Bow Down Shadrach'', and the Picture Book category in 2002 for ''Brodie''. An additional five of her books have been short-listed as finalists in the Picture Book category at the awards, and an additional three in the Junior Fiction category.

Cowley's book ''The Video Shop Sparrow'' was included in the 2000 White Ravens List, administered by the International Youth Library, and five of her books have been finalists for the Esther Glen Award from 1995 to 2010. She won Best Script Television Drama at the 1994 TV Guide Television Awards for ''Mother Tongue'', a 52-minute film shot in 1992, and set in 1953, about an 18-year-old couple who fall in love – although the woman (played by Sarah Smuts-Kennedy) is Catholic, and the man (played by Craig Parker) is Jewish.

In the 2005 Queen’s Birthday Honours, Cowley was appointed a Distinguished Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit (DCNZM), for services to children's literature. In 2009, when the New Zealand government restored titular honours, Cowley declined redesignation as a dame.

Cowley was made a Member of the Order of New Zealand (ONZ), for services to New Zealand, in the 2018 New Year Honours. In 2020, she received an Arts Foundation of New Zealand Icon Award, limited to 20 living people.

Personal life

Cowley has been married three times, first at twenty years old to dairy farmer Ted Cowley, with whom she had four children: Sharon, Edward, Judith and James. After their marriage ended in 1967, Cowley married Malcolm Mason, a Wellington writer and accountant who died in 1985.

In 1989, Cowley married Terry Coles. She lived with him, and an assortment of animals, for many years in the Marlborough Sounds, but in 2004 they moved to a wharf apartment in Wellington so Coles could be nearer medical services. As Coles' health deteriorated, Wellington's stairs and traffic became too much for him, and the couple moved again to Featherston, where Cowley now lives. She has 13 grandchildren and still writes full-time.

In popular culture

In 1999 a VHS about Cowley, her life, and work as a children's writer was published by Wright Group. Called ''A Day Full of Joy'', it was presented by the author and featured her reading one of her picture books, ''The Meanies Come to School'', to an audience of children, interspersed with CGI renderings of the characters in the story.

Elsewhere in the video, Cowley discusses her life with her animals in the Marlborough Sounds and her childhood and answers questions about her creative process. In 2017 the video was selected as a pick for "Best of the Worst", a feature on RedLetterMedia's YouTube channel where obscure video releases are watched, ridiculed, and rated based on which stands out as the highest quality or most enjoyable production.

Recent publications

*1986 – ''Turnips For Dinner'', illustrated by Jan van der Voo, 16pp.,
*1986 – ''The King's Pudding'', illustrated by Martin Bailey, 16pp.,
*2007 – ''Snake and Lizard'', illustrated by Gavin Bishop, 102pp.,(Gecko Press),
*2009 – ''Friends: Snake and Lizard'', illustrated by Gavin Bishop, 144pp.,(Gecko Press),
*2010 – ''The Fierce Little Woman and the Wicked Pirate'', 40pp.,(Gecko Press),
*2011 – ''Stories of the Wild West Gang'', 362pp.,(Gecko Press),
*2013 – ''Dunger'', 156pp.,(Gecko Press),
*2014 – ''Speed of Light'', 208pp.,(Gecko Press),
*2015 – ''The Bakehouse'', 140pp.,(Gecko Press),
*2016 – ''The Road to Ratenburg'', 200pp.,(Gecko Press)
*2017 – ''Helper and Helper'', 128pp.,(Gecko Press)
*2018 - '' Snake and Lizard Anniversary Edition'', illustrated by Gavin Bishop, 102pp.,(Gecko Press)

See also

* New Zealand literature

References

External links

The Joy Cowley Collection
at publisher Hameray (US editions)

Joy Cowley
at publisher Gecko Press
*
*

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cowley, Joy
1936 births
Living people
New Zealand women novelists
Distinguished Companions of the New Zealand Order of Merit
New Zealand Officers of the Order of the British Empire
People from Levin, New Zealand
People from Featherston, New Zealand
20th-century New Zealand novelists
Recipients of the New Zealand Suffrage Centennial Medal 1993
New Zealand people of Scottish descent
New Zealand people of Irish descent
New Zealand people of Swedish descent
New Zealand people of Danish descent
Members of the Order of New Zealand
20th-century New Zealand women writers
New Zealand children's writers
New Zealand women children's writers