HBRW 2024 - The Gavin Bishop Story

Gavin Bishop (ONZM, Ngati Pukeko, Ngati Awa, Ngati Mahuta, Tainui) has long been one of our most beloved authors and illustrators of children's picture books. He has been shortlisted for more NZ book awards than any other author of any kind, and his legacy is immense. Gavin talks to children's author and reading champion, Adele Broadbent, about his work and life.


Gavin Bishop is a highly acclaimed children’s book author and illustrator of more than 70 books, whose work ranges from original stories to retellings of Māori myths, European fairy stories, and nursery rhymes.

Born in Invercargill, he spent his childhood in the remote railway settlement of Kingston on the shores of Lake Wakatipu. Studying under Russell Clark and Rudi Gopas, Gavin graduated from the Canterbury University School of Fine Arts with an honours degree in painting. He taught art at Linwood High School and at Christ’s College in Christchurch.

Among the numerous fellowships and national book prizes that have been awarded to Gavin throughout his career, highlights are his Prime Minister's Award for Literary Achievement - Non-fiction in 2019; his Te Waka Toi Ngā Tohu ā Tā Kingi Ihaka/Sir Kingi Ihaka Award in 2018 recognising lifetime contribution to strengthening Māori art and culture through his children’s books; The Arts Foundation’s Mallinson Rendel Illustrators Award in 2013; and the 2000 Storylines Margaret Mahy Medal for lifetime achievement and his distinguished contribution to children’s literature in New Zealand. Gavin was made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2013, and President of Honour of the NZ Society of Authors.

He has won the supreme Margaret Mahy Book of the Year Award a record five times - and most recently in 2022 with his ATUA: Māori Gods and Heroes, which also won the Elsie Locke Award for Non-fiction and the Russell Clark Award for Illustration.

Chair: Adele Broadbent

Adele Broadbent is the author of five novels for children and a young adult novel – If Only. She also has several educational titles published in the US and Australia.

Adele’s passion is children’s books and she is a self-confessed book nut. She loves collecting outstanding and beautiful children’s books, and feels lucky to be in her dream job as a children’s bookseller at the award-winning Wardini Books in Napier. When Adele isn’t reading or writing or talking about books at Wardini, she is adding reviews to her children’s and teen’s book review site – www.whatbooknext.com

Adele lives on a small lifestyle block in Napier and enjoys working in her garden and hanging out with her family and pets. She says she always has a few writing projects, “…simmering and bubbling.”