Lisa Tui
Lisa Tui is a singer, songwriter, music teacher and facilitator.
We are delighted to have her back at Summer School!
Introducing your Summer School 2026 Workshop Tutors and Mentors
Desna Wallace
Desna is a poet, blogger and children's book writer (Canterbury Quake: My NZ Story).
She is gaining accolades for micro and flash fiction!
Gail Ingram
Gail Ingram writes and lives on the tussock-clad Heathcote hills of Ōtautahi Christchurch. She is the author of four poetry collections. She holds a First Class Masters of Creative Writing from Massey University, and graduated cum laude from Hagley Writers Institute in 2006.
Her poetry and fiction is widely published in New Zealand and internationally. She is an experienced editor and teacher of writing.
Josiah Morgan
Josiah Morgan (Kāi Tahu, Ngāti Maniapoto) is a writer/actor/creative based in Ōtautahi. He is the author of three poetry collections and on the publication of his 2024 collection was identified by The Spinoff as one of Aotearoa’s finest young writers.
He believes in the power of words to transform things. We like to think that Josiah learned some of that as a student at Write On.
Harley Bell
Harley Bell is a poet from Aotearoa, New Zealand. He is currently working on a book of poems, called Wild Altar. He has been published in various journals. He spends his time in cafes, libraries, forests and parks. He draws inspiration from the conversation between the natural world and cityscapes.
Philomena Johnson
Mena is the winner of the 2023 John O'Connor Prize and her first poetry collection Not Everything Turns Away was published in 2024.
Mena graduated from The Hagley Writers’ Institute in 2017 where her portfolio was short-listed for the Margaret Mahy Award. Mena says that tutoring and mentoring young writers adds a dimension to her writing life that she hadn’t realised she had been missing.
Heather McQuillan
Heather is the director of Write On and is an award-winning writer of books for young people, short stories, and flash fiction.
Her Dystopian YA Novel Truth Needs No Colour was released in 2025.
Heather holds a First Class Master of Creative Writing.