TESSA DUDER trained as a journalist and has published more than
forty works of fiction, non-fiction and anthologies for both
children and adults. Her debut novel Night Race to Kawau (1982),
recently re-issued in a 40th anniversary edition, was followed by
the classic young adult novel Alex
(1987) published in five languages and adapted for a 1993 movie.
Recent works include biographies of Margaret Mahy, Sir Peter Blake
and Auckland's pioneering 'First Lady' Sarah Mathew. Her latest is
about the charting of New Zealand by James Cook and in 2019 the
four Alex books were published
as Alex the Quartet.
Her awards include a number of children's fiction prizes, the
Storylines Margaret Mahy Medal, the Katherine Mansfield Fellowship
to Menton, an Artists to Antarctica award, the OBE and in 2021 the
CNZM. She holds an honorary doctorate from the University of
Waikato and won the 2020 Prime Minister's Award for Literary
Achievement (Fiction) She serves on the board of the Storylines
Children's Literature Trust of New Zealand Te Whare Waituhi
Tamariki o Aotearoa and was for twenty years a Trustee of the
Spirit of Adventure Trust. She has four daughters and two
grandchildren and lives in Devonport, Auckland, where she enjoys
sailing, concertgoing, teaching creative writing and reading.
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