Bruiser

Gavin Bishop is a highly acclaimed children’s book author and illustrator of more than 60 books. His work spans original stories, retellings of Maori myths, European fairy tales, and nursery rhymes.

Born in Invercargill, Bishop spent his childhood in Kingston, a remote railway settlement on the shores of Lake Wakatipu. He studied under Russell Clark and Rudi Gopas, graduating from the Canterbury University School of Fine Arts with an honours degree in painting. He later taught art at Linwood High School and Christ’s College in Christchurch.

Throughout his career, Bishop has received numerous fellowships and national book awards. Notable accolades include:

• 2018: Te Waka Toi Nga Tohu a Ta Kingi Ihaka/Sir Kingi Ihaka Award for his lifetime contribution to strengthening Maori art and culture through his children’s books.
• 2013: The Arts Foundation’s Mallinson Rendel Illustrators Award.
• 2000: Storylines Margaret Mahy Medal for lifetime achievement and distinguished contribution to children’s literature in New Zealand.
• 2013: Appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit.
• 2013: Appointed President of Honour of the NZ Society of Authors.

In 2018, his book Aotearoa: The New Zealand Story won the supreme Margaret Mahy Book of the Year Award and the Elsie Locke Award for Non-fiction at the New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults. The judges praised it as a “masterful in its execution - a work of art that bears repeated and thoughtful viewing and reading of its vibrant and informative illustrations. It is also a book of enduring significance in the canon of New Zealand children’s literature - a landmark title which will stand the test of time.” The same year, Aotearoa received a Storylines Notable Non-Fiction Award and was named Best Children’s Book at the PANZ Design Awards.

Other significant awards include:

• 2003: Weaving Earth and Sky won the non-fiction section and the Book of the Year Award at the NZ Post Children’s Book Awards and was shortlisted for the LIANZA Elsie Locke Medal.
• Four-time winner of the LIANZA Russell Clark Medal for Illustration:
  • Mrs McGinty and the Bizarre Plant (1981)
  • Kiwi Moon (2006)
  • Rats! (2008)
  • There was a Crooked Man (2010) The judges of the 2006 award for Kiwi Moon described it as having “all the appeal and promise of a future folktale classic. It is an outstanding example of how text and illustrations can be interwoven to produce a marvellous whole.”
• 2008: Friends: Snake and Lizard (with writer Joy Cowley) won Best in Junior Fiction and Book of the Year at the NZ Post Children’s Book Awards.

Additional award-winning and recognized titles include:

• Mrs McGinty and the Bizarre Plant (Russell Clark Medal 1981)
• The Year of the Yelvertons (illustrator; 1981 Esther Glen Medal)
• Mr Fox (Noma Concours 1984 Grand Prize)
• Hinepau (New Zealand Picture Book of the Year 1993)
• The House that Jack Built (Book of the Year and Best Picture Book at the 2000 NZ Post Book Awards)
• Mister Whistler (written by Margaret Mahy, Best Picture Book at the 2013 NZ Post Children’s Book Awards)

Several of Bishop’s books have been shortlisted for the NZ Post Children’s Book Awards, including:

• Stay Awake, Bear! (2000)
• Tom Thumb (2001, picture book category)
• Taming the Sun (2005, also a finalist for the Russell Clark Award)
• Riding the Waves (2007)
• Rats! (2008)
• Piano Rock (2009, which won the 2009 PANZ Book Design Award in the children’s category)
• Cowshed Christmas (2010)

Many of his works have been listed as Storylines Notable Books, most recently Aotearoa: The New Zealand Story (2018). Other Storylines Notable Books include Tom Thumb (2002), The Three Billy Goats Gruff (2004), Taming the Sun: Four Maori Myths (2005), Kiwi Moon (2006), The Waka (2006), Te Waka (2006), Riding the Waves: Four Maori Myths (2007), Snake & Lizard (2008), Rats! (2008), Piano Rock: A 1950s Childhood (2009), There Was a Crooked Man (2010), Cowshed Christmas (2010), Friends: Snake & Lizard (2010), Counting the Stars: Four Maori Myths (2010), and Teddy One Eye: The Autobiography of a Teddy Bear (2015).

Bishop’s artwork has been featured in international exhibitions in Japan and Czechoslovakia. He has also written and designed two ballets for the Royal New Zealand Ballet Company: Terrible Tom and Te Maia and the Sea Devil. In 2003, he shared the Ursula Bethell Residency with Catherine Chidgey.

The Storylines Gavin Bishop Award for Picture Book Illustration was established in 2009 to encourage emerging illustrators and to recognize Bishop’s significant contributions to children’s picture book writing and illustration.

Gavin Bishop lives and works in Christchurch, New Zealand.

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