Elena de Roo

de Roo, Elena (1959– ) is a children’s book writer, poet, and former librarian who lives with her family in Tāmaki Makaurau. She has a degree in English from the University of Auckland and a post-graduate Diploma in Librarianship from Te Herenga Waka University. In 2019, Elena earned a Master of Creative Writing (first class honours) from Auckland University of Technology. 

Elena’s book The Rain Train, illustrated by Brian Lovelock, was published in 2010 by Walker Books and led to the publication of four more books with the Australian publisher. Three of these received Storylines Notable Book Awards: The Rain Train (2011), Ophelia Wild, Deadly Detective (2015), and The Name at the End of the Ladder (2015). Since then, she has had three further picture books published: Rush! Rush! illustrated by Jenny Cooper (One Tree House, 2021), To Catch a Cloud, illustrated by Hannah Peck (Faber & Faber UK, 2022), and Ring Ting Tūī!, illustrated by Paul Beavis (Penguin Random House New Zealand, 2024).  

Elena was awarded the Creative New Zealand Todd New Writer’s Bursary in 2010 and devoted her time to writing poetry for children. In the same year, one of her poems won the Manawatū International Poetry for Performance Competition. Her poetry has appeared in publications in the US, UK, Australia and New Zealand. All together, twenty of her poems were selected for A Treasury of New Zealand Children’s Poetry and Roar Squeak Purr, edited by Paula Green and illustrated by Jenny Cooper. A collection of seventy five of her children’s poems, Wizardry to Wētā Verse, is coming out with Cuba Press (Ahoy) in 2024.

She was awarded the University of Otago College of Education/Creative New Zealand Children’s Writer in Residence Fellowship in 2020. 

Elena loves exploring the slopes of Maungakiekie and the fields of Cornwall Park, dreaming up a poem or a story as she walks.