Leonie Agnew
Leonie Agnew (1977–) is an award-winning junior fiction author and a primary school teacher and creative writing tutor in Auckland, where she grew up. Leonie has a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature and a Graduate Degree in Creative Writing, and it was during the latter that she fell in love with writing children’s books, according to an interview with Otago Daily Times. Formerly an advertisement copywriter, Leonie left the industry in 2009 to pursue a career in education and creative writing. Leonie says writing and imagining have been intrinsic to her life since she was old enough to hold a pen. She’s explained that, as the daughter of a journalist and nonfiction author, she has always understood writing and the publishing world as a reality, not just a dream, and this understanding fuelled fantasies of one day becoming a published author herself.
Leonie began writing her first manuscript for what would become Super Finn in 2011. The story follows two boys in their quest to prove that being a superhero is a viable career for school project, despite being notorious school troublemakers. Super Finn went on to win the Storylines Tom Fitgibbon Award for unpublished manuscripts in 2010, which led to the direct publication of Super Finn through Scholastic NZ in 2011. The following year, Super Finn was the winner of the 2012 NZ Post’s Children’s Book Awards for three categories — Junior Fiction, Best New Author, Children's Choice for Junior Fiction — and was shortlisted for the 2012 LIANZA Esther Glen Medal.
Leonie’s next book, The Importance of Green, was published in 2013 through Penguin Random House. A charming picture book illustrated by Trever Pye, The Importance of Green is about the young boy Liam and his attempts to make sense of the world after running out of his favourite paint colour, green. The Importance of Green was shortlisted for the Joy Cowley Award in 2013.
Conrad Cooper's Last Stand (2014), Leonie’s third book, follows a young Pākehā boy grappling with family issues during the Bastion Point occupation. Published by Penguin Random House, Conrad Cooper's Last Stand was the winner of the Esther Glenn Medal and a finalist for the Junior Fiction Award at LIANZA’s Children's Books Awards in 2015.
In 2015, Leonie’s manuscript for The Impossible Boy was the winner of prestigious UK children’s publisher David Fickling Books’ Master of the Inkpot competition. It was subsequently published by Penguin Random House in 2016 and was a finalist for the LIANZA Esther Glen Junior Fiction Award In 2017. The Impossible Boy is a story about an imaginary friend’s attempts to ensure his own continued existence as he protects his friend and creator, the powerfully imaginative six-year-old Ben, from the harshness of reality.
Described as “spellbinding” by Books+Publishing, Leonie's following book, The Memory Thief (2021), is a junior- fantasy story about a memory troll — turned to stone by day, hungry and prowling by night — and his unlikely alliance with a human girl as they navigate greater threats in the Dunedin Botanic Garden and reckon with what they wish to remember, and what they wish to forget. The Memory Thief was published in 2021 by Puffin Books, an imprint of Penguin Random House, and includes beautiful, yet haunting illustrations by Kieran Rynhart. It was the winner of the 2021 Storylines Notable Junior Fiction Award and in 2022 won the Wright Family Foundation Esther Glen Award for Junior Fiction at the New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults.
In 2023, Leonie branched into young adult fiction with her magical realism novel, The Impossible Story of Hannah Kemp, which was published by Walker Books Australia after winning the 2022 Storylines Tessa Duder Award. In The Impossible Story of Hannah Kemp, the titular character deals with trauma, guilt, and the mysterious arrival of a mobile library containing the damningly true stories of everyone in town — including Hannah’s.
Leonie’s latest junior fiction book, Take Me to Your Leader (2024), is a sincere and comedic story following a rural-town tween, Lucas, and his friends as they try to prevent the closure of their local school. Published by Penguin Random House in 2024, it was the finalist for the 2024 Wright Family Foundation Esther Glen Award for Junior Fiction at the New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults.
In The Only Dinosaur in School (2025), published by Scholastic NZ and illustrated by Julia Hegetusch, a young dinosaur begins his first day of school worried about being different from the other kids. What follows is a charming story about celebrating differences and forging lasting friendships. The Only Dinosaur in School was shortlisted for the BookHub Picture Book Award at the 2026 New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults.
When asked for advice for aspiring authors, Leonie’s top answer is to join organisations like NZSA and Storylines, sign up for in workshops and attend lectures, and get involved with the literary community. True to her word, Leonie has been a member of the Storylines Management Committee since 2016 and chaired the Storylines National Children's Writers and illustrators’ Hui in Auckland in 2017, 2022, and 2026. In 2013, she was the recipient of University of Otago’s Education/Creative New Zealand Children's Writer in Residence, which is where she gained the inspiration to set The Memory Thief in the Dunedin Botanic Gardens. Leonie has appeared in a number of literary events and festivals, including the 2015 Waiheke Literary Festival, 2016 Storylines Festival of New Zealand Children's Writers and Illustrators, and 2018 Auckland Writers Festival. In 2014, her short story “Ophelia Steals the Show” was featured on Radio NZ and has publications within the New Zealand School Journal.
As writer and teacher, Leonie seeks to inspire future generations of creatives as creative writing tutor and through workshops and lectures delivered as part of Read NZ’s Writers in Schools programme.
