Winning New Zealand’s oldest book prize is no mean feat, but NorthTec Applied Writing tutor, Diana Menefy has pulled it off.

Last Monday night in Wellington at the LIANZA Children’s Book Awards, Diana took out the top prize, the Esther Glen medal, for her book The Shadow of the Boyd published by HarperCollins (NZ) Ltd which was the most hotly contested of the five book prize categories.

Based on a true story, Diana’s book is a powerful tale from the colonial past about a bitter clash of two cultures told from a first-hand account by Thomas Davidson, an apprentice sailor, who survived the infamous massacre of the sailing ship, The Boyd.

The Esther Glen medal is awarded for only the most distinguished fictional contributions to New Zealand literature for children. Esther Glen was a journalist and writer in the 1920’s and one of New Zealand's finest writers for children.
ENDS

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