Lorraine Orman

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Orman, Lorraine (1948 –) was born in Auckland. She was educated at the University of Auckland, and completed her training as a librarian in Wellington in 1970. A career librarian, Orman worked in a secondary school library and a teachers’ training college library. When she retired from library work she was able to dedicate her time to writing and reviewing New Zealand children's books. She has been a judge for the LIANZA Awards, the NZ Post Children’s Book Awards, and the Tessa Duder Award.

Orman’s short stories have been published in the School Journal, and numerous anthologies such as The Puffin New Zealand Storybook (Puffin, 1991, 1996) and Hideous & Hilarious: 30 New Zealand Historical Stories (Random House, 2006).

Orman’s first novel for young adults, Cross Tides (Longacre), was published in 2004. It won the Best First Book Award at the 2005 New Zealand Post Book Awards for Children and Young Adults, and made the 2005 Storylines Notable Young Adult Fiction list. Kev and Borax (Penguin Australia, 2005) was published in the Aussie Bites series. Penguin New Zealand published three titles in its Kiwi Bites series: Ratso (2005), Furze The Fixer (2005), and Fish Tale (2006).

Orman has written two novels for Scholastic New Zealand's historical My Story series: A Long Walk From Home: The Diary of Lillian Glenmore, Warkworth, 1943 (2005) and Land of Promise: The Diary of William Donahue, Gravesend to Wellington, 1839-40 (2008). The first book was re-issued in 2012 as Here Come the Marines, Warkworth, 1943.

In 2007, Longacre published Orman's second novel for young adults, called Hideout. Hideout was listed as a 2008 Storylines Notable Young Adult Fiction Book. In the same year Out of the Deep and Other Stories from New Zealand and the Pacific (Reed/Storylines Trust) was jointly edited by Lorraine Orman and Tessa Duder.

Orman is author of the Top 100 New Zealand Children’s Books of the 20th Century, which was published in The Inside Story: Year Book 2001 (Children’s Literature Foundation, 2001). She writes book reviews for Magpies and the KidsBooksNZ blog.

Land of Promise: The Diary of William Donahue, Gravesend to Wellington (1839-40) (Scholastic New Zealand) was listed as a 2009 Storylines Notable Junior Fiction Book.

Orman's ninth book Haunted (2009) is a title in the Lightning Strikes series published by Walker Books Australia.

Orman’s most recent book is a young adult e-book called Touchstone, published in 2013 by Ashmore Books.

In 2020, Lorraine was received the Storylines Better Gilderdale Award for her outstanding service to children's literature and literacy.

Lorraine Orman now lives in Christchurch.