Storylines Children’s Literature Charitable Trust of New Zealand | Te Whare Waituhi Tamariki o Aotearoa

Profile

Susan Wardell

Dr. Susan Wardell is a writer, poet, and academic, from Ōtepoti Dunedin, where she lives in a woodland garden overlooking the harbour, with her two children.

Susan (she/her) is Pākehā, trained in social anthropology, and communication studies. She is currently a Senior Lecturer at the University of Otago. As well as academic writing, she writes across a range of different creatives genres – gaining awards for essays and creative prose, poetry, flash fiction, and most recently, children’s literature.

Merging her academic and creative interests, Susan is the Poetry Editor for the Anthropology and Humanism (academic) journal, and current chair of the SHA (international) ethnographic poetry prize.

She also loves to dabble with visual art and performance art, when she has the chance. The Lighthouse Princess, published in 2022, is her first children’s book.

Susan-Wardell

Selected bibliography:

The Lighthouse Princess (Penguin Random House New Zealand, 2022)

Awards:

Storylines Notable Book Awards: Winner (Picture Books) 2022 – for The Lighthouse Princess, Penguin Random House New Zealand

Whitcoull’s Kids’ Top 50 (2022) – for The Lighthouse Princess, Penguin Random House New Zealand

3rd Place, Dunedin National Poetry Day competition (2021)

3rd Place, Landfall Essay Competition (2021)

1st Place, Headlands Tāne a Māra Creative Nonfiction Prize (2021)

3rd Place, NZPS International Poetry Competition, Open Section (2021)

1st Place, National Flash Fiction Day Competition, Open Section (2021)

1st Place, Ethnographic Poetry Competition – Society for Humanistic Anthropology (2020)

1st Place, ‘Writer’ Competition, Staff Poetry category – University of Otago (2020)

2nd place, Micro-Madness International Micro Fiction Competition (2020)

1st Place, Sir John Graham Lecture Essay Competition (Maxim Institute) (2019)

2nd Place, NZPS International Poetry Competition, Open Section (2019)

1st Place, Micro-Madness International Micro Fiction Competition (2019)

2nd Place, Landfall Essay Competition (2018)

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