Ruth Paul is an award-winning writer and illustrator of children’s picture books, and a New Zealand Arts Laureate (2019). Her books have been published in New Zealand, Australia, USA, Canada, the UK, China and Korea, with translations into five languages. She has twice won the Picture Book Award at the New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults. Ruth is an experienced presenter at both schools and literary events, and takes up the University of Otago College of Education Creative New Zealand Children's Writer in Residence fellowship in 2023. She is also a champion of her local community Makara, Te Whanganui-a-Tara, where she lives and looks after a large native forest project.