Lauren Keenan

Lauren Keenan (Te Āti Awa ki Taranaki) is a writer of creative non-fiction, novels, short stories and popular psychology. Lauren was a winner at the 2017 Pikihuia Awards for Māori writers and a finalist in the 2019 awards. She was also a participant in Te Papa Tupu mentoring programme. Her short stories have appeared in Huia Short Stories collections in 2015, 2017 and 2019. In 2020 her book The 52 Week Project: How I Fixed My Life by Trying a New Thing Every Week for a Year was published, and in 2022 her children’s novel Amorangi and Millie’s Trip Through Time was published. It was a finalist in the 2022 NZ Book Awards for Children and Young Adults and longlisted in the ARA Historical Novel Prize. It also won the 2023 Book Lovers Award. Her debut historical fiction novel The Space Between (Penguin Random House, 2024), set against the backdrop of the New Zealand Wars, is a national bestseller. Lauren has a Master of Arts in Taranaki Māori History.