Belinda O'Keefe
Location: Canterbury
Preferred audience: Years 0-8
Children’s Author Belinda O’Keefe was born in Greymouth, and moved to Canterbury when she was six.
She grew up surrounded by books, learning that no tale is too tall to tell. She now lives in Christchurch with her two boys and two cats, who give her great inspiration for her writing.
Belinda has a degree in Japanese, and worked in the tourism industry before changing career paths to focus on the exciting world of literature, studying book editing, proofreading and publishing. She adores books, and loves reading so much that she does it for a living! She’s a magazine sub-editor and freelance copy editor.
Belinda took part in the Storylines National Story Tour 2022 which was the highlight of her writing journey so far, travelling to 13 different schools across the West Coast of the South Island, sharing her love of books and storytelling.
Blog for Children: wordcrazybee.blogspot.com
Publications
•Tales Through the Cat Door, Bateman Books 2025
•You Don’t Know How Lucky You Are, Oratia Media 2023
• Journey Through the Cat Door, Bateman Books 2022
• Partners in Slime, Scholastic NZ 2021
• The Day the Plants Fought Back, Scholastic NZ 2019
Awards
•Runner-up for the 2025 NZSA Laura Solomon Cuba Press Prize
•Shortlisted for the Storylines Joy Cowley Award in 2016, 2017, 2021 and 2025
•Named a Top Children’s Book for 2022 in the NZ Listener for Journey Through the Cat Door
•Highly Commended in the 2021 Notable Book Awards for Partners in Slime
•Finalist for the 2020 NZ Book Awards ‘Best First Book’ Award for The Day the Plants Fought Back
•Winner of the 2020 Tom Fitzgibbon Award for junior novel Partners in Slime