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Once upon a time … Leigh authors Sharon Fergusson and Madeleine Roberts (née Eskedahl) were both recognised at the 2025 Storylines Margaret Mahy National Awards Day, which was held in Auckland on April 6.
The day celebrates the achievements of New Zealand writers, illustrators and publishers who have contributed to children’s literature.
Roberts was the recipient of the Storyline’s Janice Marriott Mentoring Award for her story ‘The Goose Bay Gang and the Secret Treasure’.
Meanwhile, Fergusson was shortlisted for the Storyline’s Joy Cowley Award in partnership with Scholastic New Zealand for her submission ‘Cat Flap Slap’.
Roberts and Fergusson are both independently published and prolific, popular with the book reading public and critics alike.
Roberts says they’re both immensely proud to be representing the Rodney and Leigh areas, and thrilled to be recognised with prestigious New Zealand awards.
“I just find this country so inspirational for my writing. It’s the landscape, the way people are, it’s so much, it’s gold. I just pick bits up from everywhere and have a whale of a time,” she says.
For Fergusson it was the first time she had been shortlisted and says it was really validating.
“It’s no mean feat. There were about 186 manuscripts and only three shortlisted. If you win they offer you a publishing deal. And it’s judged blind, there’s no names at all, it’s just manuscripts,” she says.
“You never know what they’re looking for. It’s just got to be the best that you can possibly get it. It’s given me the confidence to take on more projects.”
Roberts, who started writing full time around six years ago, says ‘The Goose Bay Gang and the Secret
Treasure’ is an adventure story, like the Famous Five but set in New Zealand – and Goose Bay is loosely based on Matheson Bay.
“I’ve always written stories. I actually started with children’s stories because of whatever my kids were going through when they were younger. One was really afraid of the dark so I wrote about that.
“The exciting thing with writing for children is that you can just let your imagination run absolutely wild,” she says
Roberts is also a well-known crime fiction writer and her popular thriller novels Blood On Vines and Rings On Water in the Matakana Series are both New Zealand bestsellers.
Fergusson, who was already an accomplished artist, began writing and illustrating children’s picture books in 2023.
Her often whimsical stories include: ‘The Cake Bake’, ‘A Frog, On A Log, Beside A Deep Bog’ and ‘The Singing Pipi’.
Her latest release is ‘Little Dot and the Strange Green Orb’.
Fergusson says her shortlisted story ‘Cat Flap Slap’ was inspired by a news item about a kiwi.
“Up in Russell a woman found a kiwi in her kitchen that had come in through the cat flap, which gave me the idea,” she says.
“Sometimes I feel a funnel in my head, and all this stuff just pours in from the universe. It might sound fruity, but that’s what it’s like.”
The pair say the community has been very supportive and that they owe a lot to local booksellers.
Theirs is an inspirational story, and one that looks set to continue.
