Bill Nagelkerke

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Bill Nagelkerke (1958–) is a children’s author and translator, and former children’s librarian, living in Ōtautahi Christchurch.

‘I suspect I’m one of those writers,’ he says, ‘who thinks, deep down, that the story should do the telling, not the person who wrote it. Nevertheless, I know from talking with other writers, and children in schools, that making the connection between the story and the writer is important.’

Bill’s stories, poems and plays have appeared in many New Zealand and overseas magazines and anthologies including, most recently, in Roar Squeak Purr: a New Zealand Treasury of Animal Poems (Penguin Random House, 2022) selected by Paula Green. His self-published collection of poems, The night the moon fell down (2019), contains many pieces previously published in magazines such as The School Journal.

Bill’s first book for children was Dream Boat (1997). It was followed by The Walk (2002), a ‘green level’ reader and an account of a walk from the city to the sea. The pictures, by Bruce Potter, show a landscape that will be familiar to those who know the Port Hills of Christchurch. Going Bananas (2003) was a title in the Kiwi Bites series. Hot Money (2009) and Hippo Ears and the Stargazer (2011), were both titles in the Nitty Gritty series, published by Pearson.

Old Bones (Scholastic, 2006) was Bill’s first full-length children’s novel. It is set in Christchurch by the banks of the Avon River. Reviewers commented: ‘Bill Nagelkerke conjures up a classy ghost story…’ (The Dominion Post); ‘Unputdownable’ (Around The Bookshops); ‘This is writing of the highest quality, taking a difficult subject and making it exciting and moving’ (The Source). Old Bones was selected as a Storylines Notable Book for 2007.

Bill’s novel Sitting on the Fence: The Diary of Martin Daly (Scholastic, 2007) tells the story of the controversial Springbok rugby tour in 1981. Sitting on the Fence was a finalist in the Junior Fiction section of the 2008 New Zealand Post Book Awards for Children and Young Adults (now known as the New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults). A new edition was published in 2021 with the title Stop the tour!

The Ghosts on the Hill (The Cuba Press, 2020) - a short historical novel as well as a ghost story - was a 2021 Storylines Notable Book as well as joint winner of the 2021 Storylines What Now Kids’ Pick Award. Bill’s most recent book The ghost house (The Cuba Press, 2022) is another ghost story and is set in the Christchurch residential red zone more than a decade after the Canterbury earthquakes and at the time of the Covid-19 pandemic. The ghost house was a 2022 Storylines Notable Book.

As well as writing his own books Bill has, since 2006, been translating other people’s books from Dutch to English. These have included picture books, novels and information texts, commissioned by publishers in New Zealand, South Korea and the United States. A recent translation I’ll keep you close, written by Jeska Verstegen and published in 2021 by Levine Querido in the USA and in 2022 by Allen & Unwin in Australia, received a starred review in Kirkus Magazine.

WRITERS IN SCHOOLS INFORMATION

Bill Nagelkerke is available to talk to students over the age of 5 as part of the Writers in Schools programme. He is happy to discuss being a writer and a translator. Bill can give an introduction and talk, readings, a Q&A session, a writing workshop: all to fit in with the school’s requirements. He would prefer to talk to groups of around 30 to 60 students (considerably fewer for writing workshops) but is also happy to address assemblies. He is prepared to travel out of town for school visits.

MEDIA LINKS AND CLIPS

• Review of Old Bones
• Review of Sitting on the Fence
• Bill reads an extract from The Ghosts on the Hill
• Review of I'll Keep You Close
• Read and comment on a short story by Bill Nagelkerke, The young magicians' club here
• Interview with Bill Nagelkerke
• How I Write feature on Stuff