Marion Day
Marion Day lives in the outer Pelorus Sound in the Marlborough Sounds. She has been writing for ten years. In the first five, she had several published books – but her greatest achievement was Injun Joe, The Legend of Smoking Joe Collins (The Halcyon Press 2013), a biography which made the top ten in the Nielsen’s bestseller list and Whitcoulls’ top five sports books list. Injun Joe underwent three reprints and has been out of print since 2016.
Marion has also won adult and children’s story competitions, including being shortlisted in the annual Joy Cowley Awards 2011. One of her pre-teen stories has been included in the ESA’s New Zealand textbook for secondary school students –Level 1 Literacy Learning Workbook. She has children’s stories published in anthologies. Another success was as winner of the New Zealand Rural Women’s/ MPI short story and photographic competition, which saw her in Parliament to accept her award from the Honourable Nick Smith. Blood Brothers, a second biography completed at the request of The Halcyon Press, was released in November 2016 and reprinted in February 2017. Marion also had the honour of having her poem Heightened Tones included in Bird Words: New Zealand Writers on Birds (Random House) in October 2017. Spiny Sebastian Starfish, her first children’s picture book, was released in 2016. Sebastian is one of a series of nature books where children learn about nature through story. Published by private publisher AM Publishing New Zealand, each book is supported by an information page in the front and back. Black Shag and The Little Feijoa Tree followed in May 2017. Late 2017 saw the release of the The Chestnut Mare (9-11years) and Uncle Tappit (5-7 years), both published by CreateBooks. In April 2018 Pepe & Tute was released. This is the story of a rare New Zealand butterfly, the Forest Ringlet, and is the fourth book in Marion’s nature series. Skiddies, a picture book full of iconic Kiwi elements that deals with ‘accidents’ humorously and helps children handle the adversities of childhood, followed in May 2018. The fifth in the nature series, Kōwhai Kids, was published in April 2019. |
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