James T. Guthrie
James T. Guthrie is a children’s writer who lives in Wellington. His first book Bullseye Bella (2018) is about a 12-year-old girl who participates in a male-dominated darts tournament. It won the Tom Fitzgibbon Award in 2017 and was on the 2018 NZCYA Best First Book Shortlist.
GUTHRIE, JAMES T., (1972- ) was born and raised in Christchurch. From 1990 to 1993 he studied at the University of Canterbury and gained a Bachelor of Arts majoring in English Literature. He completed his Honours degree in history in 1995. In 1997, Guthrie completed his Masters in Library Studies from Victoria University of Wellington.
He has played bass guitar in rock bands, been a librarian, hosted an NZ music radio show, created computer graphics for children’s TV and produced a rugby podcast. From 1998- 2008 Guthrie worked as an information analyst for MetService, and currently works as a website developer.
The blog of his online alter-ego (Natalie Biz – International Librarian of Mystery) Bizgirl won best blog in the 2005 Netguide Awards.
Guthrie’s first novel Bullseye Bella (2018) was published by Scholastic NZ. It tells the story of Bella, who after discovering her mother is struggling to pay her younger brother’s school fees, enters a darts competition. NZ Booklovers wrote: “Bella is a strong, young female lead, with plenty of guts … as well as being young, she is passionate about a traditionally male-dominated sport. Darts features a lot of mathematics, so the character breaks a lot of stereotypes. Girls can play darts and do math.”
Bullseye Bella won the Tom Fitzgibbon Award in 2017 and was on the 2018 NZCYA Best First Book Shortlist. It has also been named in the 2020 Storylines Notable Books List.
In March 2020, it was announced that NZ filmmaker Scott Walker had secured the film rights for Bullseye Bella. Walker has worked alongside Barrie Osbourne and Academy Award-nominated and BAFTA Award-winning producer John J Kelly.
LINKS
James’ website
NZ Herald article on casting for Bullseye Bella
