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Margaret May Mahy (1936 -)
Margaret Mahy wrote her first story at the age of seven, the start of a literary career that was to make her one of the English speaking world’s favorite writers for young people. She has published more than 100 titles and has won numerous awards, including the prestigious Carnegie Medal of the Library Association of Great Britain (twice) for her full length novels The Haunting (1982) and The Changeover (1985).
Born in Whakatane, Margaret Mahy graduated from the University of Canterbury. gained a library diploma and held library appointments in Petone and Christchurch before becoming Children’s Librarian at the Christchurch City Libraries. As the mother of two small girls she found stimulus, and an audience, for her story telling talent. Their growth to maturity is reflected in her work. Delightful imaginative tales for toddlers were succeeded by vivid and arresting stories and poems for older children and in turn there came novels for mature readers.
Initially Margaret Mahy found few New Zealand outlets for her work, but in 1969 some stories in the School Journal took the attention of a New York publisher. A year later, seven of her picture books were in print there and in London and public and critical attention was focussed on the books that followed. In 1979 she began to write full-time, but she continued to devote generous attention to reading and talking to children about books in schools and libraries.
Margaret Mahy holds an honourary D.Litt. from the University of Canterbury, at which she was writer-in-residence in 1984, is a recipient of the New Zealand Literary Fund Award for Achievement and in 1993, Women’s Suffrage Year, she was awarded the Order of New Zealand.
Sources
The Christchurch Writer’s Walkway, E. Beardsley, Canterbury Branch, New Zealand Society of Authors, 1999.
