Amanda Hager was born on 26 July 1960 in Levin. Her father, Kurt, was born in Vienna and her mother, Barbara, in Zanzibar. She is the third of four children who grew up in a household where books, reading and writing were encouraged and valued and who were all raised with a strong sense of social justice. Hager has worked as a primary teacher, teacher of people with learning difficulties, youth education officer, research assistant, research and resource writer and creative writing tutor. She has a Teaching Diploma, an Advanced Diploma in Applied Arts and an MA in Creative Writing from Victoria University of Wellington. Her first published book, Tom's Story, was written after the death of her first husband in a boating accident, when she was trying to find picture books that would help her own children understand the nature of death and the emotions they were feeling. Since then, her books have often tackled difficult subjects such as grief, anger, violence, physical and emotional abuse, suicide and self-harm, racism, sexism, bullying and environmental issues, but she handles them with sensitivity, insight, compassion and understanding. She writes predominately for young adults, although a shift in 2017 saw her publish Heloise, a historical novel based on the life of 12th century nun Heloise d'Argenteuil, famed lover of philosopher Peter Abelard. In 2015 her book Singing Home The Whale won the Margaret Mahy Book of the Year and the Young Adult Fiction Category in the NZ Book Awards for Children and Young Adults, as well as a Storylines Notable Book Award and was a finalist in the LIANZA Book Awards. Her 'Blood of the Lamb' trilogy has been published in the US by Pyr Books. She also writes adult fiction, short stories, non-fiction, educational resources, blogs and articles. She has had work published in various journals including Fresh, Broadsheet and the 4th floor Literary Journal, and has written many educational resources for Learning Media and other publishers. Her work as a resource writer for the Global Education Centre dealt with topics such as Weather Wars – The Politics of Climate Change, Parihaka and the gift of non-violent resistance, Healing the World – Back to the Future, Get Up! Stand Up! Music For Change, Take Action, Money Matters, Who Are You: the search for self in the Global Village?, Cook Me Some Eggs, Woman! and Slaves to Fashion: the threads that bind us. She has run many creative writing workshops, is a frequent visitor to schools and has appeared at numerous literary festivals, including the National Writers Forum, the Auckland Writers Festival and Verb Wellington. Hager worked for ten years as a tutor and mentor on the Creative Writing Programme at Whitireia New Zealand until the Novel Writing course she taught was disestablished. She is married with two children and two grandchildren, and lives on the Kapiti Coast. She is a sister to Nicky Hager, a prominent investigative writer and journalist.
Awards and prizes
Many of Mandy Hager’s books have been shortlisted for or won awards. She has won the LIANZA Book Award for Young Adult fiction three times, the New Zealand Post Book Award for Young Adult fiction, an Honour award in the Aim Children's Book Awards, Word Weavers Excellence Award, Golden Wings Award and five Storylines Notable Book Awards. Tom’s Story received an Honour Award in the Picture Book category of the 1996 AIM Children’s Book Awards. Juno Lucina received a Golden Wings Excellence Award in 2002 and Run for the Trees received a Golden Wings Award in 2003. Smashed won theEsther Glen Award in the 2008 LIANZA Book Awards. The Crossing won the Young Adult Fiction category of the New Zealand Post Children’s Book Awards in 2010. Into the Wilderness was nominated for the Best Young Adult novel in the Sir Julius Vogel Awards in 2011. The Nature of Ash won the Young Adult fiction section of the LIANZA Book Awards in 2013 and Dear Vincent won the same section in the LIANZA Book Awards in 2014. Singing Home the Whale won both the Young Adult fiction category and the Margaret Mahy Book of the Year in the New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults in 2015, as well as an IBBY Honour Book in 2016. Heloise spent several weeks on the bestseller list and was longlisted for the 2018 Ockham Book Awards. Mandy Hager has been the recipient of a number of awards and residencies, including the Beatson Fellowship in 2012, the University of Waikato Writer in Residence in 2015 and the D’Arcy Writer’s Grant in 2017. On 7 November 2013, it was announced that Hager had been awarded the 2013 Katherine Mansfield Menton Fellowship. The prize provides for a NZD$75,000 award and the opportunity to take up residency for at least six months in Menton, a port town on the French Riviera and is one of New Zealand's most long-standing and prestigious literary awards. In 2019, Hager also received the Margaret Mahy Medal and Lecture Award, which acknowledges lifetime achievement and a distinguished contribution to New Zealand’s literature for young people. She delivered her lecture, titled “Channelling our greater good", on 31 March 2019.
