Jillian Sullivan is a writer of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry and a creative writing teacher. Her work has been published in New Zealand and overseas.
Biography
Jillian Sullivan was born in
Masterton
Masterton () is a large town in the Wellington Region, Greater Wellington Region of New Zealand that operates as the seat of the Masterton District (a territorial authority or local-government district). It is the largest town in the Wairarapa ...
in 1957.
She has written novels and short stories for adults, children and teenagers, as well as creative non-fiction and poetry. Her work has been included in anthologies and published in journals such as
Landfall
Landfall is the event of a storm moving over land after being over water. More broadly, and in relation to human travel, it refers to 'the first land that is reached or seen at the end of a journey across the sea or through the air, or the fact ...
, Takahē, North and South and Headland. She was awarded a Master of Creative Writing, with Distinction, at
Massey University
Massey University () is a Public university, public research university in New Zealand that provides internal and distance education. The university has campuses in Auckland, Palmerston North, and Wellington. Data from Universities New Zealand ...
in 2011.
After living in
Nelson
Nelson may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* ''Nelson'' (1918 film), a historical film directed by Maurice Elvey
* ''Nelson'' (1926 film), a historical film directed by Walter Summers
* ''Nelson'' (opera), an opera by Lennox Berkeley to a lib ...
for many years, she moved to Oturehua in Central Otago. Her memoir ''A Way Home'' relates the story of how she achieved her dream to build a straw-bale house.
She runs workshops at literary festivals and teaches creative writing in New Zealand, in
Rosemont College
Rosemont College is a private Catholic university in Rosemont, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded in 1921 as a women's college by the Sisters of the Holy Child Jesus, the undergraduate program opened to male students beginning in fall 2009. ...
, Philadelphia and at the Highlights Foundation, Pennsylvania.
She has five children and nine grandchildren
and worked part-time for several years as a nurse aid at the Maniototo Hospital.
Awards and Prizes
Jillian Sullivan was runner-up in the 2002 ''Sunday Star Times'' Short Story Competition.
She won the
Tom Fitzgibbon Award
The Storylines Tom Fitzgibbon Award is a New Zealand award for writers of children's literature. The award is open only to previously unpublished writers for an original work of fiction intended for children between 7 and 13 years of age. It is ...
in 2003 and the Maurice Gee Prize for Children’s Writing in 2005.
She won the Kathleen Grattan Prize for a Sequence of Poems in 2011 - this later leading to the publication of her book ''parallel'',
as well as the 2016 Takahē Poetry Competition with her poem 'My Mother at the Edge of Town.''
In 2017 she was awarded the
New Zealand Society of Authors Peter & Dianne Beatson Fellowship to work on a collection of creative non-fiction essays with a conservation theme.
In 2018, she won the Juncture Memoir Contest in America with her essay ‘Between Lands’, and her essay ‘In the Midst of My True Life’ won the Best Non-fiction Bonus Prize in the 2018 Elyne Mitchell Writing Awards.
She was highly commended in the 2018 Warren Trust Awards for Architectural Writing.
Bibliography
Creative Non-fiction
''A Way Home'' - ''building a new life and a strawbale house in Central Otago'' (Potton and Burton, 2016)
''Fishing from the Boat Ramp - A Guide to Creating'' (Steele Roberts, 2009) Also published as an e-book: ''A Guide to Creating''
Poetry
''parallel'' (Steele Roberts, 2014)
Children’s novels
''Shreve's Promise'' (Scholastic, 2004) - winner of the Tom Fitzgibbon Award in 2003
''What About Bo?'' (Scholastic, 2005) - named in the
Storylines Notable Book Awards 2006
''Silverstream'' (Pearson NZ, 2008)
Short stories
''Hey Tony'' (Orchard Press, 1999)
''Launched and Other Stories'' (Pearson Education NZ, 2005)
''Mythology''
''Myths and Legends – The Gift of Stories from Our Cultures'' (Pearson Education NZ, 2007)
References
External links
* Biography o
Jillian Sullivanat New Zealand Book Council: Te Kaunihera Pukapuka o Aotearoa
* Jillian Sullivan'
author website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sullivan, Jillian
Living people
1957 births
New Zealand children's writers
New Zealand women children's writers
New Zealand women memoirists