Barbara Else holds the Prime Minister’s Award for Fiction 2025. She is the author of seven books of fiction for adults and seven for children. Her non-fiction for children is Go Girl – A Storybook of Epic NZ Women. She has also edited several anthologies of stories for children and young adults. Her first novel The Warrior Queen was on the NZ Bestseller list for almost a year, and was a finalist for the Montana New Zealand Book Awards. Several of her novels have been published overseas. Her fantasy quartet for children starting with The Travelling Restaurant had overseas publication and won several awards including an IBBY and a White Raven. In 2024 Barbara’s memoir, Laughing at the Dark, was a finalist in the Ockham Awards for General Non-Fiction.  Her latest book, The Pets We Have Killed, is a collection of short fiction for adults.

She holds an MNZM for services to literature, the Esther Glen Medal and the Margaret Mahy Medal. She has been Writer in Residence at Victoria University of Wellington and Otago University College of Education/Creative New Zealand Children’s Writer in Residence. She has twice been a judge for the NZ Post Book Awards for Children and Young Adults. In 2018 she delivered The Margaret Mahy Memorial Lecture at Christchurch WORD. In 2024 she was NZSA President of Honour and delivered the Janet Frame Lecture.  With her husband, author Chris Else, she runs TFS, an advisory service for writers: this includes a manuscript assessment service. Barbara is co-ordinator of the New Zealand Association of Manuscript Assessors which has established standards for dealing with authors.

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