Best-loved author Margaret Mahy dies
Yesterday internationally renowned author Margaret Mahy died. Margaret Mahy ONZ is considered one of the world’s greatest 20th / 21st century writers for children and young adults.
A prolific writer and award winner, she published around 200 titles, translated into 15 languages, and won over 50 awards, including many of the world’s major prizes for children’s writers. Fantasy and the liberating power of the imagination were important to Mahy and were regular themes in her writing.
Among her numerous awards are New Zealand Order of Merit (1993), Arts Foundation Icon Award (2005), the Prime Minister’s Awards for Literary Achievement (2005), and in 2006, the Hans Christian Andersen Medal, the world's premier prize for children's writing.
The Prime Minister yesterday said “I am sure her stories will remain firm favourites among children here and overseas for years to come.”
Made in New Zealand - Margaret Mahy is a documentary about acclaimed New Zealand children and young adults writer Margaret Mahy. The film takes a line from her award-winning story The Changeover – “[… ] made in New Zealand, it said, Wisdom Laboratories, Paraparaumu” – and uses it to talk about the importance of New Zealand settings, her international successes, and her life as a writer. Mahy is filmed at her home in Governor’s Bay, speaking to children in her famous rainbow wig, and out and about on Akaroa Peninsula.
Find out more at NZonScreen.com
