Janet Hunt

Profile
Janet Hunt’s natural history titles for children and adults have won major awards. She is a teacher, lecturer and graphic designer.

Selected published works
Hone Tuwhare: A Biography, 1998; A Bird in the Hand: Keeping New Zealand Wildlife Safe, 2003; From Weta to Kauri: A Guide to the New Zealand Forest, 2004; Wetlands of New Zealand: A Bitter-sweet Story, 2007.

Publisher
Vintage
www.randomhouse.co.nz

Biography
Janet Hunt was born in Taranaki in 1951 and now lives and works on Waiheke Island. After completing a Bachelor of Arts with Honours at Massey University in 1974 she went on to complete a Diploma in Teaching at Palmerston North Teacher’s College in 1975. An MA in Literature with Honours, which included a dissertation about the poetry of Hone Tuwhare, was awarded by the University of Auckland in 1996. Hunt worked initially as a primary and secondary teacher. She went on to lecture in design, graphics and media at both the Auckland Institute of Technology and University of Auckland. She has also worked in publishing as a production editor.

Her biography of Hone Tuwhare (1998) details the important influences on the man and the writer, including his close associations with many of this country's most prominent writers and artists, such as R.A.K. Mason, James K. Baxter and Ralph Hotere. A Bird in the Hand: Keeping New Zealand Wildlife Safe (2003) won both the Non-fiction Category and the Book of the Year Award in the 2004 New Zealand Post Book Awards for Children and Young Adults, and the Elsie Locke Award, LIANZA (Library & Information Association New Zealand Aotearoa) in 2004. This book looks at endangered wildlife and how it is protected. Entries cover the kakapo, kiwi, hoiho (yellow-eyed penguin), kaka, kea, black stilt, Hamilton’s frog, the New Zealand falcon, short-tailed bat, giant snail, peripatus, tuatara, black robin and albatross. Her next book From Weta to Kauri: A Guide to the New Zealand Forest (2004) was also short listed for the New Zealand Post Book Awards for Children and Young Adults.

Wetlands of New Zealand: A Bitter-sweet Story (2007) won the Environment Category of the Montana New Zealand Book Awards, and the Montana Medal for Non-Fiction in 2008. Designed by Hunt, it describes the different types of wetlands found in New Zealand and the flora and fauna they support. Wetlands used to occupy twenty per cent of New Zealand’s landmass and are now reduced to just two percent.