14 Facts About Barbara Else

Barbara Else has written novels for adults and children, plays, short stories and articles and has edited anthologies of children's stories.

Barbara Else has received a number of awards and fellowships including the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to literature, the Storylines Margaret Mahy Medal and the Victoria University of Wellington's Writer's Fellowship.

Barbara Else was born in Invercargill, New Zealand in 1947.

Barbara Else lived in Riverton until age two, when her family moved to Wellington.

Barbara Else has lived in various parts of New Zealand, including Auckland, Oamaru, Christchurch and Dunedin as well as in San Diego, California.

Barbara Else graduated with an MA from Otago University in 1969 and has worked as a university tutor, an editor and a freelance writer.

Barbara Else has served on the New Zealand Book Council and on the National Council of the New Zealand Society of Authors.

Barbara Else was a judge for the New Zealand Post Book Awards for Children and Young Adults in 2004 and Judge Convenor for the 2014 New Zealand Children's Book Awards, and has appeared at local and international writer and reader festivals.

Barbara Else works as a literary agent and manuscript assessor with Chris Else who is a writer, as is her daughter Emma Neale.

Barbara Else's books have won or been shortlisted for a number of awards and several of her children's books have been named as Storylines Notable Books.

Barbara Else was a visiting writer at Vancouver International Writers' Festival and the Winnipeg International Writers' Festival.

Barbara Else was Writer in Residence at Victoria University of Wellington in 1999.

Barbara Else delivered the Storylines Margaret Mahy Medal Lecture, titled "Making it up as I go along, or Finding the Cornerstones of Creativity", on 3 April 2016.

In 2024 Barbara Else was named New Zealand Society of Authors President of Honour.