Lauren Keenan

Keenan, Lauren (Te Atiawa ki Taranaki) (1980–) writes across a range of styles and for a range of audiences. Based in Wellington, she is currently employed as a Chief Policy Advisor, and holds a Master of Arts in History from Otago University.

Lauren’s short stories have been published in the Huia Short Stories collections 11, 12 and 13 (published in 2015, 2017 and 2019). In 2016 she participated in the Te Papa Tupu writing incubation programme, and in 2017 she was the recipient of Pikihuia awards for best short story. In 2019 she was a finalist for best emerging Māori writer in the same awards.

Published in 2020, Lauren’s first book, The 52 Week Project, is a personal development book combining her own experience trying 52 new things in 52 weeks with psychological research.

In 2022, Amorangi and Millie’s Trip Through Time was published by Huia. The book was longlisted for the 2022 ARA Historical Novel Prize, was a finalist for the 2022 New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults (Wright Family Foundation Esther Glen Award for Junior Fiction), and won the NZ Booklovers Award for Best Junior Fiction Book in 2023.

Lauren’s blog, 'Modern Mothercraft', was active from 2014 to 2016, and applied a 1945 handbook on parenting to her own experiences as a mother with her trademark humour. Modern Mothercraft was listed by the New Zealand Herald as one of Aotearoa’s top four parenting blogs in 2014, and excerpts have been republished by Natural Parenting Magazine. Lauren has also been published in The Spinoff and Capsule Magazine.

In 2021, Lauren was awarded a 2021 CLNZ and New Zealand Society of Authors grant to write a middle-grade novel. This book, the sequel to Amorangi and Millie's Trip Through Time, will be released later in 2024. Another of Lauren’s books is forthcoming: The Space Between, her first adult novel, which will be published by Penguin in March.