Hazel, our eighth Writer-in-residence for the year, is the author of three books: Solo: Backcountry adventuring in Aotearoa New Zealand (MUP, 2022); Wild Westie (Penguin, 2014), a biography of Sir Bob Harvey; and Sell! (Penguin, 2013), a history of the advertising industry. She holds an MA in Media Studies and a Masters in Creative Writing with first-class honours. Her latest book Solo was shortlisted in the New Zealand Mountain, Film & Book Festival book awards (2022) for mountain and adventure narratives.
Hazel has a background in newspaper and magazine journalism, and her writing has been published in Headland journal and in print publications across New Zealand and Australia. She contributed to the forthcoming book ‘Otherhood (MUP, 2024), an essay collection of alternative perspectives on motherhood. Hazel also regularly writers for Wilderness magazine, where her pieces focus on backcountry history and our human interactions with outdoors spaces.
She is currently working on several projects, including a book about Ruapehu’s backcountry history and a piece of creative nonfiction that interrogates fundamentalism and rigid thinking. Hazel lives in Ohakune next to the Mangawhero River, at the foot of Ruapehu.