Jillian Sullivan is a writer of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry and a creative writing teacher. Her work has been published in New Zealand and overseas.

Jillian Sullivan
Born1957 (age 66–67)
Masterton, New Zealand
OccupationWriter
Website
jilliansullivan.co.nz

Biography

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Jillian Sullivan was born in Masterton[1] in 1957.[2]

She has written novels and short stories for adults, children and teenagers, as well as creative non-fiction and poetry. Her work has been included in anthologies and published in journals such as Landfall, Takahē, North and South and Headland. She was awarded a Master of Creative Writing, with Distinction, at Massey University in 2011.[3][4][5]

After living in Nelson for many years, she moved to Oturehua in Central Otago. Her memoir A Way Home relates the story of how she achieved her dream to build a straw-bale house.[6][7][8]

She runs workshops at literary festivals[9] and teaches creative writing in New Zealand, in Rosemont College, Philadelphia[10] and at the Highlights Foundation, Pennsylvania.[11]

She has five children and nine grandchildren[1][4][12][13] and worked part-time for several years as a nurse aid at the Maniototo Hospital.[13][14][15]

Awards and Prizes 

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Jillian Sullivan was runner-up in the 2002 Sunday Star Times Short Story Competition.[2] She won the Tom Fitzgibbon Award in 2003 and the Maurice Gee Prize for Children’s Writing in 2005.[1]

She won the Kathleen Grattan Prize for a Sequence of Poems in 2011[16] - this later leading to the publication of her book parallel,[4] as well as the 2016 Takahē Poetry Competition with her poem 'My Mother at the Edge of Town'.[17]

In 2017 she was awarded the New Zealand Society of Authors Peter & Dianne Beatson Fellowship to work on a collection of creative non-fiction essays with a conservation theme.[15][18]

In 2018, she won the Juncture Memoir Contest in America with her essay ‘Between Lands’,[19] and her essay ‘In the Midst of My True Life’ won the Best Non-fiction Bonus Prize in the 2018 Elyne Mitchell Writing Awards.[12][20] She was highly commended in the 2018 Warren Trust Awards for Architectural Writing.[21]

Bibliography 

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Creative Non-fiction

A Way Home - building a new life and a strawbale house in Central Otago (Potton and Burton, 2016)

Fishing from the Boat Ramp - A Guide to Creating (Steele Roberts, 2009) Also published as an e-book: A Guide to Creating

Poetry

parallel (Steele Roberts, 2014)

Children’s novels

Shreve's Promise (Scholastic, 2004) - winner of the Tom Fitzgibbon Award in 2003

What About Bo? (Scholastic, 2005) - named in the Storylines Notable Book Awards 2006

Silverstream (Pearson NZ, 2008)

Short stories

Hey Tony (Orchard Press, 1999)

Launched and Other Stories (Pearson Education NZ, 2005)

Mythology

Myths and Legends – The Gift of Stories from Our Cultures (Pearson Education NZ, 2007)

References

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  1. ^ a b c "Profiles: Jillian Sullivan". Storylines. Retrieved 8 January 2019.
  2. ^ a b "Sullivan, Jillian". New Zealand Book Council Te Kaunihera Pukapuka o Aotearoa. February 2017. Retrieved 8 January 2019.
  3. ^ "Expressive Arts: Our People". Massey University. Retrieved 8 January 2019.
  4. ^ a b c "Jillian Sullivan ANZL Member". Academy of New Zealand Literature Te Whare Matatuhi o Aotearoa. Retrieved 8 January 2019.
  5. ^ Sullivan, Jillian (2012). Equal others : the erotic as the site of power (Masters thesis). Massey Research Online, Massey University. hdl:10179/4169.
  6. ^ "Building a straw-bale house - and a new life - among Central Otago's hills". Noted. 9 July 2017. Retrieved 8 January 2019.
  7. ^ Sullivan, Jillian (23 December 2014). "Falling for mud, glorious mud". Stuff. Retrieved 8 January 2019.
  8. ^ "I built my house with straw". The Australian Women's Weekly. 11 November 2016. Retrieved 8 January 2019.
  9. ^ "Island Inspirations: Rakiura Art Programme" (PDF). Stewart Island Rakiura New Zealand. Retrieved 8 January 2019.
  10. ^ "Rosemont College MFA Summer Retreat with Jillian Sullivan, New Zealand author and Carla Spataro". Rosemont College. 22 June 2017. Retrieved 8 January 2019.
  11. ^ "Workshops: Guided Retreat: Writer in Residence 2014". Highlights Foundation. Retrieved 8 January 2019.
  12. ^ a b "2018 Winning Stories". Elyne Mitchell Writing Award. Retrieved 8 January 2019.
  13. ^ a b "About Jillian". Jillian Sullivan New Zealand Author. Retrieved 8 January 2019.
  14. ^ Sullivan, Jillian (17 October 2016). "A privileged job". Corpus. Retrieved 8 January 2019.
  15. ^ a b "Jillian Sullivan wins NZSA Peter & Dianne Beatson Fellowship". Scoop Independent News. 15 September 2017. Retrieved 8 January 2019.
  16. ^ "2011 Kathleen Grattan Prize for a Sequence of Poems". Beattie's Book Blog. 7 December 2011. Retrieved 8 January 2019.
  17. ^ Bland, Peter (October 2016). "Takahē Poetry Competition 2016 – Results and Judge's Report". takahē. Retrieved 8 January 2019.
  18. ^ Jones, Pam (24 September 2017). "Oturehua writer Jillian Sullivan wins fellowship". Otago Daily Times. Retrieved 8 January 2019.
  19. ^ "Introduction". Juncture. October 2018. Retrieved 8 January 2019.
  20. ^ Green, Paula (31 October 2018). "Jillian Sullivan wins the non-fiction section of the Elyne Mitchell Writing Awards in Australia". NZ Poetry Shelf. Retrieved 8 January 2019.
  21. ^ "Winners of Warren Trust Architectural Writing Awards announced". New Zealand Institute of Architects Incorporated. 24 October 2018. Retrieved 8 January 2019.
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