Convenor of judges Jeannie Skinner is an experienced facilitator with the National Library’s Services to Schools, based in the Bay of Islands working with schools in Northland Te Tai Tokerau. She provides professional leadership and advice through a programme of educator development around learning, literacy and libraries. A School Library Association of NZ Aotearoa honorary life member, Jeannie is passionate about the vital importance of engaging children with reading for pleasure, the power of story to enrich their lives, and the crucial role school libraries play in helping this happen.

Crissi Blair has been writing about children’s books and their makers for nearly 20 years, including seven years for the Book Council’s e-news The School Library, reviews and articles for Magpies magazine, and her own publication New Zealand Children’s Books in Print 2005-2013. She has a long involvement with Storylines, including three years as festival manager. Crissi has a Bachelor in Design and Visual Arts, with a specialist interest in picture book illustration, and is currently studying for library qualifications while working as a librarian at Rangeview Intermediate School in Auckland.

Maureen Crisp is a writer and blogger who lives in Wellington. She taught for many years in primary schools and then switched to learning and sharing information with other children’s writers and publishers in New Zealand. She has programmed specialist conferences for children’s writers and writes a popular weekly blog on news in publishing and writing craft for an international audience. Maureen received the 2017 Betty Gilderdale Award for outstanding services to children’s literature.

Darryn Joseph (Ngāti Maniapoto) completed a PhD about Māori figures of speech in 2008 and currently lectures at Massey University’s Manawatū campus. He is the author of over twenty books, including five chapter books written in Māori for tamariki; Hewa won the 2010 LIANZA Kura Pounamu Award. Darryn is a Storylines trustee who has cherished two Storylines author tours and a current long-serving judge of the Ngā Kupu Ora awards that celebrate Māori books and journalism. He has been an avid collector of comic books for over four decades.

Bridget Schaumann is the librarian and careers advisor at King’s High School, Dunedin. She is a past president of the School Library Association of NZ Aotearoa (SLANZA) and currently sits on its national executive. In 2017 she was made a SLANZA life member. Her passions are reading and encouraging young people to pick up books and enjoy an escape from the real world through their pages. She loves turning the idea that teenagers don’t read books on its head. She is a trustee of the Dunedin Writers and Readers Festival.

Moana Munro

Ko Tākitimu, Ko Kurahaupō ōku waka

Ko Rongomaiwahine, Ko Ngāti Kahungunu ōku iwi

Te Kura Pounamu Award convenor Moana Munro is kaitiakipukapuka Māori for Hastings District Libraries, delivering services and resources to a growing Māori and Polynesian population in Hawke’s Bay. She’s one of the ngā kaiwhakahau o Te Rōpū Whakahau representing Te Mātau o te Ika rohe (East Coast, Hawke’s Bay to Wairarapa regions). “Being an information provider is extremely rewarding; being entrusted with taonga and participating in tangata experiences, that’s special, that’s incredibly humbling,” she says. “Reading to my mokopuna: priceless.”

Anahera Morehu

He uri ahau o te Whare tapu o Ngāpuhi, arā, ngā iwi e rima. Ko Te Rarawa, ko Te Aupōuri, ko Ngāti Kahu, ko Ngāti Whātua, ko Ngāpuhi.

Anahera is currently the library manager for the Faculty of Arts, Māori and Pasifika Team of Te Tumu Herenga at the University of Auckland. A LIANZA Hikuwai regional councillor and Kaiāwhina of Te Rōpū Whakahau, she was a judge of the Te Kura Pounamu award in 2017. Anahera is part of the team which supports the Mātauranga Māori and Tukua workshops for those working in the information industry.

Jacqueline Joyce Snee (Ngāti Porou, Ngāti Kahungunu) is the Poukōkiri Rangahau Māori, senior librarian Māori Research at Auckland Central Library. In 2017 she was the recipient of the Robyn Hakopa Te Reo Māori award for promoting te reo and tikanga within the library profession. Jacqueline has worked in heritage, academic and public libraries and her library career has centred on improving and protecting access for Māori to information. Prior to her career in libraries she worked at Kohanga Reo. She has a few mokopuna and reads to them often.