David Hill (author)
David Hill (born 1942) is a New Zealand author, especially well known for his young adult fiction. His young fiction books "See Ya, Simon" (1992) and "Right Where It Hurts" (2001) have been shortlisted for numerous awards. He is also a prolific journalist, writing many articles for "The New Zealand Herald". Biography. David Hill was born in 1942 in Napier. He gained an MA (Hons) from Victoria University of Wellington in 1964 and taught English in secondary schools in New Zealand and England before becoming a full-time writer in 1982. His work includes fiction, plays and  reviews and articles in newspapers, journals and magazines, both in New Zealand and overseas. His books for young people range from picture books to books for young adults. His novels have been published around the world and translated into various languages and his work has also been broadcast on the radio. He visits schools as part of the Writers in Schools programme and is one of the presenters on the Coursera online course Writing for Young Readers: Opening the Treasure Chest. He enjoys writing for teenagers because he sees them as an exciting and challenging audience to write for: sophisticated  readers, who are at a stage where they are coming across many new ideas and experiences in their lives for the first time. He cites Maurice Gee as his favourite author, and Joy Cowley and Margaret Mahy as his favourite children's authors. Hill currently lives in New Plymouth. Awards and prizes. David Hill was the Robert Lord Writer in Residence in Dunedin from June–August 2003. In 2010, he participated in the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa. He was Artist-in-Residence (co-sponsored by Massey University and the Palmerston North City Council) in Palmerston North  in 2016. He is also a frequent speaker at literary festivals and took part in the Auckland Writers Festival Schools Programme in 2017. He was made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit (MNZM) in 2004. In 2005 Hill became the 15th recipient of the Storylines Margaret Mahy Medal and Lecture Award. Many of Hill's books have won or been shortlisted for awards and named as Storylines Notable Books. "See Ya Simon" won the 1994 Times Educational Supplement Award for Special Needs and was awarded the Storylines Gaelyn Gordon Award for a Much-loved Book in 2002 . In 2013 "My Brother's War" won the Junior Fiction Award at the New Zealand Post Children's Book Awards, and also the children's choice award in that category. In 2021 he received the Prime Minister's Award for Literary Achievement in Fiction.