About Jane

Photo by Ebony Lamb

Jane Arthur is a poet, children's writer and editor. She was born in New Plymouth, and lives in Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand.

Jane has a Master of Arts (Distinction) in Creative Writing from the International Institute of Modern Letters at Victoria University of Wellington, a Diploma in Publishing from Whitireia Polytechnic, and a Master of Arts (Honours) in English Literature from the University of Auckland. She won the 2018 Sarah Broom Poetry Prize, judged by US poet Eileen Myles. In 2020, she was awarded an Emerging Writers Residency from the Michael King Writers Centre, and was a "40 Under 40" inspiring alumni of the University of Auckland.

Jane was a founding editor of children's literature website The Sapling, was on the judging panel for the 2019 New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults, and was the convenor of the judging panel for the 2020 awards. Jane was on the judging panel of the poetry category for the 2022 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards.

Her first poetry collection, Craven, was published in 2019 by Victoria University Press. It was selected as one of the Top 10 Best New Zealand Poetry Collections of 2019 by The Spinoff and was on the longlist for the 2020 Ockham NZ Book Awards, where it won the 2020 Jessie Mackay Prize for Poetry (Best First Book Award). ​A second collection, Calamities!, was published in 2023 by Te Herenga Waka University Press (formerly Victoria University Press) and was longlisted for the 2024 Mary and Peter Biggs Poetry Prize at the Ockham NZ Book Awards.

Jane's debut children's novel, Brown Bird, was published in May 2024 with Puffin/Penguin Random House NZ.