Maria Gill

Maria Gill was born in October 1961 in Auckland, New Zealand.[1] She was educated at schools in Auckland and Southport, Gold Coast, and also studied by correspondence while her family was living in a caravan and travelling around Australia.[2] 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,[3][4] visiting countries such as England, India, Nepal and China.[5] She returned to New Zealand and studied at the University of Auckland and Auckland College of Education,[6] graduating with a Bachelor of Education degree and Teaching Diploma. She taught for about ten years in primary and intermediate schools.[2] Later she also gained a Graduate Diploma of Journalism Studies from Massey University.[5] In 2021 Gill completed a master's degree at Auckland University of Technology.[7]

Maria had wanted to write from childhood and first began to do so seriously when her children were small.[2] She has a special interest in themes to do with native wildlife, conservation and the environment, people, history and war.[6][8] She has also written many books and resources for the educational market.[9]

In 2013-2014, Maria lectured and tutored a Writing for Children paper for Massey University.[10] She co-wrote the Coursera online course Writing for Young Readers: Opening the Treasure Chest for the Commonwealth Education Trust.[11] She also organised two touring exhibitions of displays about war-related children's books: What Lies Beneath, which travelled around New Zealand,[12] and Anzac Stories: Behind the Pages, which featured in libraries in Brisbane, Newcastle, Canberra, Hobart and other parts of Australia.[13][14][15]

Maria visits schools as part of the Writers in Schools programme and is a popular speaker at literary festivals. She appeared at the SCBWI conference, Sydney, 2012 and 2016[4] and the Auckland Writers Festival in 2018.[16] She gives author talks and workshops for several Speakers’ Agencies in New Zealand and Australia.[17]

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.

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,[18] 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.[19] In 2020 she was awarded the Margaret Mahy Medal in recognition of her lifetime contribution to children's literature.[20]

• 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)