After a career spent in research and writing, plus 15 years tertiary teaching, Linda Hansen’s seven fiction and nonfiction books reflect her commitment to women’s issues and social justice. Her latest text, Hidden Stories of Heroism for a Peaceful Planet (adults and teens) brings together for the first time the Moriori covenant of peace; Parihaka’s nonviolent resistance; boys forced into militarism; Kiwi peacemakers on the battlefield; Samoans inspired by Parihaka, and other such stories – up to the present day.
In her YA novel, An Unexpected Hero, young Matt Turner, bullied because of his stammer, finds his own courage through understanding NZ’s WW1 pacifist Archibald Baxter Baxter.
Linda’s other YA books look at the 200 million missing women identified by Amartya Sen, Nobel-prize winning economist, plus climate change and deforestation, in particular the loss of orangutan habitat and NZ’s unwitting involvement. She won a Jack Lasenby Senior Award for Children’s Writing for Socks, her story on homelessness. An author in schools, Linda also gives creative writing sessions and works as a professional storyteller.
