HBRW 2024 - In the Pink

Women writers are the dominant force in publishing, outperforming male authors overall in sales and readership. Women's fiction, romance in particular, makes billions annually. Bestselling romance writer, Kate O'Keeffe, talks with Danielle Hawkins (Take Two), Nicky Pellegrino (Marry Me in Italy) and Catherine Robertson (Corkscrew You) about their writing and why they believe women's fiction is in such glowing good health.

Danielle Hawkins:

Danielle Hawkins has written five bestselling novels, including Chocolate Cake for Breakfast and When It All Turned to Custard, and the bestselling memoir, Two Shakes of a Lamb Tail. She lives on a sheep and beef farm near Ōtorohanga with her husband and two children. She works part-time as a large animal vet and writes when the kids are at school and she's not farming. She is a keen gardener, an intermittently keen cook and an avid reader.

Nicky Pellegrino:

Nicky Pellegrino is the author of 15 bestselling novels, including Marry Me in Italy, Tiny Pieces Of Us and To Italy, With Love. Her stories have readers around the world and have been translated into over 12 languages. She is also an award-winning journalist, writing about health, science and lifestyle topics for a number of publications. Her non-fiction title about menopause Don’t Sweat It: How to Make ‘The Change’ a Good One was also a bestseller. Raised in the UK, she now lives in Auckland, New Zealand with a husband, an adopted greyhound and a lot of books.

Catherine Robertson:

Catherine Robertson is a #1 New Zealand bestselling author, best known for her Gabriel’s Bay trilogy and the children's picture book Pearl in a Whirl, illustrated by Fifi Colston. Catherine is a regular guest on Jesse Mulligan’s Book Critic slot on RNZ, and is current chair of the Hawke’s Bay Readers & Writers Trust. The first two books in Catherine’s debut spicy contemporary romance series are out now.

Chair: Kate O'Keeffe

Kate O'Keeffe is a USA TODAY bestselling and award-winning author who writes exactly what she loves to read: laugh-out-loud romantic comedies with swoon-worthy heroes and gorgeous feel-good happily ever afters.

She lives and loves in beautiful Hawke's Bay, New Zealand with her family.

When she's not penning her latest story, Kate can be found hiking up hills (slowly), traveling to different countries around the globe, and eating chocolate. A lot of it.