Leonie Agnew has written stories all her life but used to hide them from the public eye, often writing at night, under the covers and with invisible ink (no pen stains allowed on the sheets). The first story she allowed to become public, Super Finn, won the Storylines Tom Fitzgibbon Award in 2010. This book went on to multiple awards in the 2012 New Zealand Post awards: the Junior Fiction award, the Best First Book award and the Children’s Choice award. It was also a finalist for the LIANZA Esther Glen Finalist that year.  
Since then she has written two more novels, The Importance of Green and Conrad Cooper’s Last Stand (winner of the 2015 Esther Glen Medal). In 2015 she was chosen as the winner of the Master of the Inkpot Competition run by prestigious UK children’s publisher David Fickling Books for her manuscript, The Impossible Boy.  A former advertising copywriter, Leonie works as both writer and primary school teacher.  

She will be forever glad that she joined the South Auckland Critique Group, who keep her supplied with cake and confidence. She is also grateful to her mum who kept her supplied with books throughout her childhood.

Selected bibliography:

• Super Finn (Scholastic 2011)
• The Importance of Green (PenguinRandomHouse 2013)
• Conrad Cooper's Last Stand (PenguinRandom House 2014)
• The Impossible Boy (PenguinRandomHouse, August 2016)

Awards:

• Storylines Tom Fitzgibbon Award 2010.
• New Zealand Post Children's Book Awards 2012 Junior Fiction Winner for Super Finn
• New Zealand Post Children's Book Awards 2012 Children’s Choice Junior Fiction Winner for Super Finn
• New Zealand Post Children's Book Awards 2012 Winner Best First Book for Super Finn
• Storylines Notable Book Awards 2012 Junior Fiction List for Super Finn
• LIANZA Children's Book Awards 2012 Esther Glen Finalist for Super Finn
• Winner of the 2015 Esther Glen Medal for Conrad Cooper’s Last Stand
• Winner of the UK-based 2015 Master of the Inkpot Competition with The Impossible Boy.

Storylines thanks zeald.com for their ongoing support of the Storylines website.

Page checked and updated February 2013.