Tessa Duder, one of New Zealand's most honored children's writers, was the president of the New Zealand Society of Authors. She taught a course in children's writing at the Wanaka Autumn Art School and has done much to benefit artists' rights. She has received Esther Glen Awards for Alex, Alex in Winter and Alessandra: Alex in Rome. She also won an AIM Children's Book Award for Senior Fiction for Songs for Alex.
William Taylor was born in Lower Hutt, New Zealand in 1938. He worked in banking before attending Christchurch Teachers' College. His teaching career includes a year in London and seven years as the principal of Ohakune Primary School. He wrote about his early teaching experiences in Burnt Carrots Don't Have Legs, which was published in 1976. His other books include Episode, Pack Up, Pick Up and Off, Beth and Bruno, Knitwits, Numbskulls, Spider, Land of Milk and Honey, and Telling Tales: A Life in Writing. He has won several awards including the Library and Information Association of New Zealand's Esther Glenn Award for most distinguished contribution to New Zealand Literature for children… and young people in 1991 for Agnes the Sheep and the Senior Fiction Award in 1995 for The Blue Lawn.