Biography

Margaret Mahy was born and raised in Whakatane and began writing children's books in earnest at the age of eighteen. After graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in 1955, Margaret trained as a librarian and in 1967 began work at the School Library Service in Christchurch. During this time she had stories published in the New Zealand School Journal, however her big break came in 1968 when an American publisher found the text of A Lion in the Meadowand bought it – along with all the other work Margaret had produced over the years. Consequently, eight books were published simultaneously.

Margaret became a full-time writer in 1980. Her novel The Haunting won the Carnegie Medal of the British Library Association – the first writer outside the United Kingdom to do so. Margaret's work has been translated into fifteen languages and won the Carnegie Medal three times (1982, 1986 and 1987); the Young Observer Fiction Prize (1986); the Italian Premier Grafico Award (1976) and the Dutch Silver Pencil Award (1977). She has also been awarded the Esther Glen Medal of the New Zealand Library Association six times, the first in 1970 for The Lion In The Meadow.

Margaret has been appointed a writing fellow in New Zealand, Australia, and in the United States. Her works have won awards and been included in prestige listings by journal editors, librarians and educationalists. The Australian animated television show The Magical World of Margaret Mahy is based on Margaret's children's stories. In 1999, A Summery Saturday Morning won Best Picture Book at the New Zealand Post Children's Book Awards, and 24 Hours received an Honour Award at the 2001 New Zealand Post Children's Book Awards. Alchemy (2002) was shortlisted for the 2003 LIANZA Esther Glen Medal and won the Best Senior Fiction at the New Zealand Post Children's Book Awards 2003.

In 2005 Harper Collins published Margaret Mahy: A Writer's Life by Tessa Duder. In the same year, Margaret was awarded the $60,000 Prime Minister's Award for Literary Achievementand was awarded an Arts Foundation Icon Award.

Her books Maddigan's Fantasia (HarperCollins, 2005) (Junior Fiction section), and Kaitangata Twitch (Allen & Unwin 2005) (Young Adult section) were nominated in the 2006 New Zealand Post Book Awards for Children and Young Adults. 2006. Kaitangata Twitch won the Honour Award in the Young Adult section. In the same year Margaret was announced as the winner of the world's premier prize for children's writing, the Hans Christian Andersen Award. Often called the "Little Nobel", the award is given biennially by the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY) to honour an author who has madea lasting contribution to international children's literature.

In 2008 Margaret was nominated as one of two New Zealand candidates (with Joy Cowley), out of an international total of 153, for the 540,000 EURO Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award 2009 for children's literature.

Margaret won the  2011 NZ Post Children's Book Awards with The Moon and Farmer McPhee - illustrated by David Elliott. The book also won the Best Picture Book Award

Margaret lives in Governors Bay in the South Island.

Author Margaret Mahy celebrated her 75th birthday in March 2011.  At the time she was author of more than 200 books, translated into more than 15 languages.

 

Book Cover, The Word Witch by Margaret Mahy, Illustrated by David Elliot

 

The Making of the Word Witch is an exhibition that was curated by Kathryn Mitchell and toured by Ashburton Art Gallery.  The exhibition shows the poetic and illustrative magic of Margaret Mahy and David Elliot. Cued by Mahy's 2006 award of the prestigious Hans Christian Anderson Medal, Tessa Duder and publisher HarperCollins set out to create an illustrated book of Margaret Mahy's verse. This inspiring exhibition gives a window into the imaginative world of the  children's writer and illustrator, David Elliot, as they work towards publication of The Word Witch.

100 framed drawings and a collection of Margaret Mahy ephemera. This exhibition of working and finished drawings is a window into the magical world of imagination, a celebration of the creativity that, along with a good deal of hard work, lies behind this handsome book.  The exhibition toured in 2010/2011.