For a long time, Heather McQuillan was a teacher who wrote; now she is a writer who teaches. The two roles keep getting tangled. 

 

Heather is an award-winning writer of junior, middle-grade and young adult fiction, and she is the director of Write On, a charitable writing school in Ōtautahi | Christchurch, giving agency to diverse young writers. 

 

In 2005, Heather won the Storylines Tom Fitzgibbon Award, which set her off on a new writing path. Over the years, she has been awarded the Storylines Notable Books Award four times and been shortlisted for the Tessa Duder Award and for the Tom Fitzgibbon Award twice. In 2021, she was the University of Otago College of Education/Creative New Zealand Children’s Writer-in-Residence.

 

Heather has a Master of Creative Writing with distinction from Massey University. She also writes short fiction and poetry, with publication and awards internationally, including: Radio NZ Short Story Prize 2022, National Flash Fiction Winner 2016, Best Small Fictions (International) 2017, 2019 and 2020 and Meniscus and Australian CAL Best Prose Prize, 2018 Best Microfictions UK 2019 and 2026. Her first collection of very short stories, Where Oceans Meet, was published in the UK with Reflex Press in 2019.

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Heather is available for writing workshops from Year 1, and presentations regarding her books from Year 4.

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Website: https://www.heathermcquillanwriter.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/heather.mcquillan

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/heathermcqwriter/