Jillian Sullivan was born in Masterton in 1957 and now lives on a small farm near Motueka. She has five children and three granddaughters and they are all an inspiration to her writing.
Jillian has published 17 books for children and teenagers and over 60 short stories for adults and teenagers. Her writing has won awards here and in the United States. They have given her the chance to travel to Russia and England and a scholarship to New York State to study children’s writing.
During many years of writing, raising children and picking apples, she has completed her BA extramurally and is now studying for her BA(Hons) and teaching creative writing part time at the Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology.

Selected bibliography:

• Two Homes for David (Learning Media 1995).
• Shreve's Promise (Scholastic 2004).
• What about Bo? (Scholastic 2005).
• Launched and Other Stories (Pearson Education 2005).
• Myths and Legends: The Gift of Stories from our Cultures (Pearson Education 2007).
• Silverstream (Raupo Publishing 2008).

Awards:

• Storylines Tom Fitzgibbon Award 2003.
• Maurice Gee Prize for Children’s Writing 2005.
• Storylines Notable Book Awards 2006 Junior Fiction List for What about Bo?