Jillian Sullivan

Jillian lives in the Ida Valley in Central Otago. Her thirteen published books include creative non-fiction, novels, memoir, short stories, and poetry. She taught fiction and creative non-fiction in New Zealand and America. Once the drummer in a women’s indie pop band, now a grandmother of nine, she is a passionate practitioner of natural building, including her own strawbale home (which she wrote about in the memoir A Way Home). Her latest book is the collection of her essays, Map for the Heart – Ida Valley Essays (Otago University Press, 2020).

Her awards include the Highlights Fiction Award and Juncture Memoir Award in America, the Elyne Mitchell Writing Award for non-fiction in Australia, the NZ Society of Authors Beatson Fellowship, the Kathleen Grattan Prize for a Sequence of Poems, the Takahe Poetry Prize, and the NZ Heritage Literary Award for poetry. She holds a Master’s of Creative Writing, with Distinction, from Massey University.

A keen environmentalist, Jillian is the secretary for the Central Otago Environmental Society, and co-founder of Under Rough Ridge Writers Retreat. 

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Jillian Sullivan at DWRF 2021:
​Gala Showcase – What Does the Future Hold?
​Walking the Heartland