Kathleen De Goldi (pseudonym Kate Flannery) was born on 18th August 1959 in Christchurch, New Zealand. She lives in Wellington with her partner Bruce Foster.
She is a writer of short fiction, novels and picture books which reach across the spectrum of readers, from young children to teenagers and adults.
Kate launched her career in 1988 by winning the American Express Short Story Award, and three years later won the BNZ/Katherine Mansfield Short Story Award. Her first novel (for adult readers), "like you, really", was published in 1994 under the pseudonym Kate Flannery. Her provocative and challenging stories about contemporary teenagers and their struggle to craft their identity both inside and outside the family dynamic, are set in her native South Island, in Canterbury or Westland.
She has written three books for young adults: "Sanctuary" (1996), which won the New Zealand Post Senior Fiction Award and the Esther Glen Medal; "Love, Charlie Mike" (1997), which was short-listed in the 1998 New Zealand Post Children's Book Awards, and "Closed, Stranger" (2000), which took out the Honours Award in the same competition in 2000.
Kate is a regular reviewer of children's books on National Radio's Kim Hill programme and has a review slot on TVNZ's Good Morning Programme. Her books for young adults are published internationally and regularly feature on school curricula in both New Zealand and across the Tasman. She was named as an Arts Foundation of New Zealand Laureate for 2001, winning a $30,000 cash grant.
In 2004 the Susan Price Collection awarded Kate a scholarship enabling her to work on a memoir of childhood reading. Provisionally entitled "The Secret History of Children's Reading", this book will also act as a guide to the wealth of post-1945 and contemporary international children's literature. From 1999-2006 Kate taught the Children's Writing and Young Adult Novel Workshops at the International Institute of Modern Letters at Victoria University.
Kate's picture book "Clubs" (2004), illustrated by Jacqui Colley, was awarded Best Picture Book and Book of the Year in the New Zealand Post Book Awards for Children and Young Adults 2005 and in the same year picked up a design award, winning the Best Typography category at the Spectrum Print Book Design Awards 2005 and the Russell Clark Award at the LIANZA Children’s Book Award. Her most recent collaborations with Jacqui Colley are "Uncle Jack" (2005) and "Billy" (2006), picture books for all ages. Kate’s latest novel, "The 10pm Question" was published by Longacre Press in 2008.
Kate is a member of the Arts Board of Creative New Zealand.
[her portrait is illustrated; courtesy of New Zealand Book Council]