Maria Gill
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Maria Gill is a writer of children's non-fiction books, educational resources and freelance articles. A number of her books have been shortlisted for or have won awards, including ''Anzac Heroes'' which won the Non-fiction Award and the Supreme Book of the Year prize in the New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults in 2016. She lives in Auckland, New Zealand.


Biography

Maria Gill was born in October 1961 in
Auckland Auckland ( ; ) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. It has an urban population of about It is located in the greater Auckland Region, the area governed by Auckland Council, which includes outlying rural areas and ...
, New Zealand. She was educated at schools in Auckland and
Southport Southport is a seaside resort, seaside town in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton in Merseyside, England. It lies on the West Lancashire Coastal Plain, West Lancashire coastal plain and the east coast of the Irish Sea, approximately north of ...
, Gold Coast, and also studied by correspondence while her family was living in a caravan and travelling around Australia. After leaving school and doing office work for a few years, Maria worked in a variety of jobs, including barmaid, nanny, shepherdess and grape picker, while she travelled overseas, visiting countries such as England, India, Nepal and China. She returned to New Zealand and studied at the
University of Auckland The University of Auckland (; Māori: ''Waipapa Taumata Rau'') is a public research university based in Auckland, New Zealand. The institution was established in 1883 as a constituent college of the University of New Zealand. Initially loc ...
and Auckland College of Education, graduating with a Bachelor of Education degree and Teaching Diploma. She taught for about ten years in primary and intermediate schools. Later she also gained a Graduate Diploma of Journalism Studies from
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 2021 Gill completed a master's degree at
Auckland University of Technology Auckland University of Technology ( AUT; ) is a university in New Zealand, formed on 1 January 2000 when a former technical college (originally established in 1895) was granted university status. AUT is New Zealand's third largest university i ...
. Maria had wanted to write from childhood and first began to do so seriously when her children were small. She has a special interest in themes to do with native wildlife, conservation and the environment, people, history and war. She has also written many books and resources for the educational market. In 2013-2014, Maria lectured and tutored a Writing for Children paper for Massey University. She co-wrote the
Coursera Coursera Inc. () is an American global massive open online course provider. It was founded in 2012 by Stanford University computer science professors Andrew Ng and Daphne Koller. Coursera works with universities and other organizations to offe ...
online course Writing for Young Readers: Opening the Treasure Chest for the Commonwealth Education Trust. She also organised two touring exhibitions of displays about war-related children's books: What Lies Beneath, which travelled around New Zealand, and Anzac Stories: Behind the Pages, which featured in libraries in Brisbane, Newcastle, Canberra, Hobart and other parts of Australia. Maria visits schools as part of the Writers in Schools programme and is a popular speaker at literary festivals. She appeared at the
SCBWI The Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) is a nonprofit, 501(c)3 organization that acts as a network for the exchange of knowledge between writers, illustrators, editors, publishers, agents, librarians, educators, booksellers ...
conference, Sydney, 2012 and 2016 and the
Auckland Writers Festival Auckland Writers Festival Waituhi o Tāmaki is the largest annual literary festival in New Zealand since 1999. It has about 200 public events each year featuring local and international writers as guests. History and staff The inaugural festi ...
in 2018. She gives author talks and workshops for several Speakers’ Agencies in New Zealand and Australia.


Awards and prizes 

Many of her books have been selected as Storylines Notable Books and shortlisted for awards such as the LIANZA Elsie Locke Non-Fiction Award and the
New Zealand Post Children's Book Awards The New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults are a series of literary awards presented annually to recognise excellence in children's and young adult's literature in New Zealand. The awards were founded in 1982, and have had severa ...
. ''New Zealand Hall of Fame'' won the Children's Choice Award in the non-fiction category of the 2012 New Zealand Post Children's Book Awards, and ''Anzac Heroes'' won the Elsie Locke Award for Non-Fiction and the Supreme Book of the Year prize in the 2016 New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults. In 2020 she was awarded the Margaret Mahy Medal in recognition of her lifetime contribution to children's literature.


Bibliography 

* ''Queen of the Cosmos: Beatrice Hill Tinsley'' ill. Alistair Hughes (Upstart Press, 2024) * ''The King's Medal'' ill. Alistair Hughes (Upstart Press, 2021) * ''Remarkable Animal Stories from New Zealand and Australia'' ill. Emma Huia Lovegrove (Scholastic, 2021) * ''New Zealand Disasters: Our response, resilience and recovery'' ill. Marco Ivancic (Scholastic, 2021) * ''Ice Breaker!'' ill. Alistair Hughes (Upstart Press, 2020) * ''On the Brink'' (New Holland, 2019) * ''Kate Sheppard: Leading the way for Women'' (Scholastic, 2018) * ''Earthquakes! Shaking New Zealand'' (New Holland, 2018) * ''Anzac Animals'' (Scholastic, 2018) * ''Toroa’s Journey'' (Potton & Burton, 2017) * ''Abel Tasman: Mapping the Southern Lands'' (Scholastic, 2017) * ''Volcanoes: DK Find Out!'' (Dorling & Kindersley, 2016) * ''Anzac Heroes'' ill. Marco Ivancic (Scholastic, 2016) * ''New Zealand Sports Hall of Fame'' ill. Marco Ivancic (New Holland, 2014) * ''Operation Nest Egg Chick'' ill. Bruce Potter (Long White Cloud Books, 2014; Pixel Books, 2013) * ''The Last of Maui’s Dolphins'' ill. Bruce Potter (New Holland, 2014) * ''Running Our Country: A look inside New Zealand’s Government'' ill. Malcolm Evans (New Holland, 2013, reprinted 2018) * ''Eruption! Discovering New Zealand Volcanoes'' (New Holland, 2012) * ''The Call of the Kokako'' ill. Heather Arnold (New Holland, 2011) * ''New Zealand’s Hall of Fame: 50 Remarkable Kiwis'' ill. Bruce Potter (New Holland, 2011) * ''Rangitoto'' ill. Heather Arnold (Penguin, 2009; Long White Cloud Books, 2014; Pixel Books, 2013) * ''Save Our Seas'' ill. Vivienne Lingard (New Holland, 2009) * ''Eco-agents mission: Save our Planet'' (New Holland, 2009) * ''Dogs on the Job'' (Reed, 2008) * ''Operation Nest Egg'' (Reed, 2007) * ''Bird’s-eye View'' (Penguin Books, 2006)


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gill, Maria Living people New Zealand children's writers New Zealand women children's writers 1961 births Auckland University of Technology alumni Massey University alumni