Gaelyn Gordon
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Gordon, Gaelyn, (1939 – 1997) wrote fiction for children and adults.
Gaelyn Gordon was born in Hawera in 1939. She taught English and Drama at Hamilton Girls’ High School until 1987, when she took a year’s sick leave and used the time to write, which she continued to do full-time until her death in 1997. Gordon wrote that she enjoyed the process of letting her writing unfold and being surprised by the results: 'which is why I haven’t gone back to teaching. I know the people I teach are going to turn out to be adults, and often have a fairly good idea of what sort of adults they’ll be; I haven’t the faintest idea what the story I’m writing at the moment is going to turn out to be.'
Gordon’s first novel for young adults, Stonelight (1988), and its sequel, Mindfire (1991), are supernatural adventure stories. Many of her books combine myth, fantasy and science fiction. Other books include Several Things are Alive and Well and Living in Alfred Brown’s Head (1990), a science fiction story for children in which Alfred Brown’s brain is taken over by aliens, and Above Suspicion, a crime fiction novel for adults.
Gordon was awarded the 1990 Choysa Bursary for Children’s Writers. In 1992, she was the Buddle Findlay Sargeson Fellow.
The Gaelyn Gordon Award for a Much-Loved Book was established in 1998 by the Children’s Literature Foundation and is awarded to a children’s book that may have been unheralded at the time of publication, but has remained in print and proven itself popular with children.
The Life-Size Inflatable Whale, by Gaelyn Gordon and John Tarlton, won the Children's Choice Award at the 1999 New Zealand Post Book Awards for Children and Young Adults.
