Aimee McNaughton grew up in Wellington in a house full of books. In 2009, she gained an honours degree in English literature from Victoria University, with a particular focus on children’s and young adult fiction. At university, she took two courses through the International Institute of Modern Letters and won the Maurice Gee Prize in 2008 for the best portfolio of children’s writing. She was also shortlisted for the Katherine Mansfield Short Story Award in 2009.
 
Aimee now lives in Tauranga and teaches English at Otumoetai College, where she also coaches the debating team and runs a creative writing group. She loves to travel, is a constant reader, writes whenever she has a spare moment, and is very competitive about her cake-baking skills. She won the 2013 Storylines Joy Cowley Award for her first picture book manuscript.

Awards:

• Maurice Gee Prize 2008.
• Storylines Joy Cowley Award 2013