Rosemary Wildblood is a novelist and poet. She has published fiction, poetry, children’s fiction and non-fiction in numerous literary journals and anthologies — and two novels, Joybird (David Ling, 2004) and Pentimento (Wily Publications Ltd 2013). Her awards include the Lillian Ida Smith Award, the ITC Award for Communication, the NZSA/Readers Digest/Stout Fellowship, the Bravado International Poetry Award and a residency in the Robert Lord Cottage in Dunedin. From 1988 until 2006 she occupied a central role in literary arts development in New Zealand through her employment at the QEII Arts Council and its successor, Creative New Zealand, where she initiated many fellowships, residencies and scholarships and managed both Children’s and Adult Book Awards in addition to  The Authors Fund, which was the precursor to the PLR Scheme. A former National President of P.E.N (NZ), she has also served on the National Council of NZSA and remains on its Wellington Branch committee.  She chaired the Wellington Writers Walk Committee from 2006-2018 and  is a Trustee of the Winn Manson Menton Trust which oversees the Katherine Mansfield Menton Fellowship. She was previously a member of the Book Awards Governance Group that oversaw  the New Zealand Post Book Awards prior to its transition into the current Ockham Book Awards. Born in the UK, she lived in Zambia for a time, before coming to New Zealand in the late 1970s. In 2019 she was made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit (MNZM) for services to literature. She lives in Onepoto, Titahi Bay, north of Wellington, New Zealand.

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