Sheil Land Associates Ltd.

Rachael King

Rachael King is a writer, reviewer, former literary festival director and ex-bass player living in Ōtautahi Christchurch. Her novels for young people include The Grimmelings, which has won several awards and is published worldwide; the Violet and the Velvets series, inspired by her time as a teenage bass player; and Secrets at Red Rocks, which won the Esther Glen Medal in 2013 (as Red Rocks) and was relaunched to coincide with a television adaptation released on Sky/Neon in March 2025. Song of the Saltings is her first novel for young adults.

Rachael was named Best Reviewer at the Voyager New Zealand Media Awards in 2023, received a Waitangi Day Honour Award for her work at WORD Christchurch in 2020, and was awarded the 2025 Frank Sargeson Fellowship. She sometimes writes for adults too: Magpie Hall (2009), and The Sound of Butterflies (2006), which won the award for the best novel at the 2007 Montana Book Awards and was published in ten languages. 

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