Paul Maunder lives with his family in Blackball, on the West Coast of the South Island.  He studied drama and film in Sydney and London before he returned to New Zealand and established Amamus, an innovative theatre group, and made a series of groundbreaking films. In the 1980s he became involved in bicultural theatre, the union movement and community arts. His latest collection of stories, Tornado (Maitai River Press, 2011), explores the social dramas which occur on our journeys through time and place. His book, Coal and the Coast, published by Canturbury University Press, 2012) is a reflection on the Pike River Mine Disaster. In 2013 CUP published Rebellious Mirrors, community-based theatre in Aotearoa/New Zealand, a book based on his PhD thesis. He is involved in community projects, including co-ordinating the Blackball Museum of Working Class History and Kiwi/Possum Productions, a Community-based theatre group who have explored the issue of 1080, the Pike Disaster, a play about race relations on the Coast, and the closure of Spring Creek Mine. Several of his stories have been produced on National Radio.

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