Whitireia Tutor Gains Second Award Nomination

Whitireia Writing Tutor Gains Second Award Nomination This Year.

Mandy Hager, tutor on the Whitireia Creative Writing Programme, has just received her second award nomination for The Crossing, the first book in her Young Adult trilogy, Blood of the Lamb.

The Crossing is a finalist in the New Zealand Post Children’s Book Awards to be announced on Wednesday 19th May and has now been nominated as a finalist in the Sir Julius Vogel awards to be decided in August.

As well as tutoring a course in writing the novel, Mandy has written educational resources for organisations such as the DARE foundation and Global Focus Aotearoa. Her main audience for these resources is teenagers, the same as her books. Her previous book Smashed won the Ester Glenn Award in 2009 and has been acclaimed as a resource for young people who are dealing with big moral issues in their lives.

Hager’s books have a strong social message for young people on the brink of adulthood but she is skilful in delivering the message through a well told, pacey story. Margaret Mahey has described The Crossing as “1984 for teenagers”. The second book in the trilogy The Wilderness was launched recently and Hager intends having the third book finished this year.

ENDS

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