National Board

NZSA President – Dr Vanda Symon

Dr. Vanda Symon is the Author of the Detective Sam Shephard crime fiction series and the stand-alone thriller The Faceless. Her novels are published internationally. She is a four-time finalist for the Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Crime Fiction novel and was shortlisted for the British CWA New Blood Dagger award. A Dunedin resident, Vanda produced and hosted a monthly radio show for the Otago Southland NZSA called Write On, broadcast on Otago Access Radio for many years. Among the many roles she enjoys, Vanda is the President of the NZSA and a writing mentor for the organisation. She was the Chair of Copyright Licensing New Zealand, where she served on the Board for four years. Vanda is a New Zealander of Fijian descent. Website

Perena Quinlivan – Te Māngai Māori ki te Poari Representative

Perena Quinlivan (Ngāti Ranginui, Ngāi Te Rangi, Waikato-Tainui) is a Tāmaki Makaurau based writer and founder of Te Puna Consulting, which provides business advisory, management consultancy and project management services. He grew up in Hawkes Bay and graduated from Victoria University of Wellington, the University of Auckland, the University of Sydney, the Australian Graduate School of Management, Te Whare Wananga o Aotearoa, and Te Whare Wananga o Raukawa. Perena has worked in the private sector and in a variety of senior roles in central and local government. His fluency in Bahasa Indonesia enabled him to work both as a New Zealand diplomat and a Sydney-based management consultant in the Asia-Pacific region for several years. Perena is a former recipient of an NZSA mentorship. His poetry has been published in New Zealand journals. He is on Te Kaituhi Māori komiti.

Melinda Szymanik – NZSA Vice-President and Northern Districts Regional Delegate

Melinda Szymanik is an Auckland-based award-winning writer of picture books, short stories and novels for children and young adults. She also writes poetry for children and adults. Her picture book, The Were-Nana, won the New Zealand Post Children’s Choice Award in 2009, was a Storylines Notable Book in the same year, and was shortlisted for Japan’s 2010 Sakura Medal. A Winter’s Day in 1939, Melinda’s fourth novel was a Storylines Notable Book (2014), shortlisted for the Junior Fiction Award at the 2014 New Zealand Post Children’s Book Awards, and won Librarian’s Choice at the 2014 LIANZA Awards. Her picture book, Fuzzy Doodle, was a finalist for the Picture Book and Russell Clark Awards at the 2017 NZ Book Awards for Children and Young Adults, a 2017 Storylines Notable Book and was a 2017 White Raven Selection. Melinda’s short stories have appeared in trade and educational publications in New Zealand and Australia and were gathered in the collection Time Machine & Other Stories, a finalist at the 2020 NZ Children’s and Young Adults Book Awards. Melinda has four new picture books coming out over the next two years

Melinda has a Bachelor’s Degree in English Literature and a post-graduate Diploma in Children’s Literature. She also has a Master’s Degree in Zoology. She regularly visits schools as part of Read NZ’s ‘Writers in Schools’ programme, was the 2014 University of Otago College of Education Creative New Zealand Children’s Writer in Residence, and a judge for the New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults in 2016, and for the Storylines Joy Cowley Award from 2019-2021. Currently a trustee on the New Zealand Book Awards Trust board representing NZSA, Melinda has appeared at writers’ festivals across New Zealand, regularly teaches creative writing workshops for adults and children, and blogs on writing.

Melinda has been a member of the NZ Society of Authors for over twenty years. She received mentoring through the Society’s mentoring programme in 2005 leading to her first published novel, Jack the Viking (Scholastic, 2008), and now mentors and advises others through this and other schemes. Melinda is keen to support all Society activities, but particularly advocacy for the protection of authors’ rights, including copyright and the ducational lending right. She is also concerned about the low profile of local literature amongst the New Zealand public and is keen to explore ways to challenge and change this. The Northern Districts region encompasses Northland, Auckland, Waikato, and the Bay of Plenty. Blogspot

NZSA National Board Youth representative

Lauren Middleton (Loz) is the best-selling author of the junior fiction book ‘Pippa and the Sheep Snatchers,’ which is on the Whitcoull’s Kids Top 50 book list as of 2026. Her play ‘The Secret’ was also a winner of Auckland Theatre Company’s 100ish-word play competition in 2020. She is currently working on multiple children’s book projects, including an Aotearoa-themed horror and a YA romantic comedy.

Lauren studied Communications at AUT and works as a Creative Strategist for DIY embroidery kit company Clever Poppy. When she isn’t writing, Lauren loves to act, spend time with friends and family and attempt new online recipes.

As the National Youth Representative of the New Zealand Society of Authors, Lauren is passionate about bringing together and fostering a community of young writers who can survive and thrive in an ever-changing publishing landscape.

Regional Delegates

Emily Makere Broadmore – Regional Delegate for Wellington & Wairarapa

Emily Broadmore is the Director and Founder of Heft, a public relations and advocacy firm in Wellington City, which houses the Wellington Writers’ Studio which she founded in 2023.

Emily is the Editor and publisher of Folly Journal, a bestselling and internationally award-winning literary journal distributed throughout New Zealand and the UK.

Emily’s political and social commentary is published by ReadingRoom, Stuff, The Post, NZHerald, and the Sunday Star Times. Her short stories have been published in Pinch Literary Journal and Monofiction and small literary presses. Her short stories have been shortlisted on multiple occasions for the Commonwealth Prize and Bridport Prize. She lives between Wellington and Kapiti coast with her husband and young twins. www.follyjournal.com

Mikaela Nyman – Regional Delegate for Central Districts

Mikaela Nyman writes poetry, fiction and non-fiction in Swedish and English. Born on the autonomous and demilitarised Åland Islands into Finland’s linguistic minority of Swedish-speakers, she now lives in Taranaki. She’s a keen collaborator with writers in Melanesia and the Nordic countries. In 2024, Mikaela was the Robert Burns Fellow. In 2021, she was the Writer in Residence for Massey University, Palmerston North City and Square Edge Arts Centre. Both her poetry collections in Swedish were nominated for the prestigious Nordic Council Literary Prize, in 2020 and 2024 respectively. Her second collection was awarded a major literary prize in 2024 by the Swedish Society of Literature in Finland. The Anatomy of Sand, published by Te Herenga Waka University Press in 2025, is her first poetry collection in English. Her first novel Sado (‘Shadow/Shadows’), set in Vanuatu after the devastating Tropical Cyclone Pam, came out in March 2020 as New Zealand went into pandemic lockdown. Her work has been set to music and widely anthologised. She was one of twelve poets selected for a musical multi-media performance celebrating 100 years of poetry for the Åland Islands’ centennary in 2022. Mikaela hosts the Sugar Loafing Arts Cast on Access Radio Taranaki 104.4FM. An assessor and mentor for NZSA, she also teaches creative writing. In a past life, she was a diplomat and head of New Zealand’s global humanitarian aid and development aid in Vanuatu. When she doesn’t write, she makes art. Website

Iona Winter – Regional Delegate for Southern Districts

Iona Winter (Waitaha/Kāti Mamoe/Celtic) is a poet, essayist, storyteller and editor. With four published collections of poetry and hybrid fiction, most recently In the shape of his hand lay a river (2024), her work has been anthologised and shortlisted internationally.

In 2022, Iona was awarded the CLNZ/NZSA Writers’ Award for A Counter of Moons, due for publication with Steele Roberts Aotearoa in 2025. She is the founder of Elixir & Star Press, an indie press dedicated to the expression of grief in Aotearoa New Zealand. She holds a Masters in Creative Writing (AUT), is actively involved with writers in Te Wai Pounamu, a committee member with NZSA Top of the South, and has served on several editorial boards, including The Coalition for Books, takahē and Flash Frontier.

Iona’s creative work includes poems spraypainted on fences, collaborative exhibitions with musicians and mixed-media artists, and performances at festivals locally and abroad. When she’s not writing you’ll probably find her in the garden. Iona lives in Reefton, on Aotearoa’s southern West Coast. website