Dahlia Malaeulu

Dahlia Malaeulu (1983–) is a Wellington-born Sāmoan author with ancestral connections to the villages of Sinamoga and Vaivase Tai in Sāmoa. With a background in teaching and expertise in Pacific education and literacy, she was inspired by her two sons to begin writing children's books, leading to the founding of Mila's Books. 

Beginning with the Mila's My Gagana series in 2019, Dahlia has authored more than thirty books spanning early childhood, picture books, middle-grade, and young adult fiction. Her work celebrates Pacific languages, cultures and identities while creating authentic literacy resources for children, families, and educators across Aotearoa. 

Her young adult novels Teine Sāmoa and Tama Sāmoa explore the lived experiences of Sāmoan youth growing up in Aotearoa and include contributions from students and educators through the Teine Sāmoa and Tama Sāmoa Projects. Tama Sāmoa received a Storylines Notable Book Award in 2022. Dahlia has also written for traditional publishing houses, including Going to Te Papa | Asiasiga 'i le Falemata'aga i Te Papa for Te Papa Press, which won a Storylines Notable Book Award and was highly commended at the 2022 Museums Australasia Multimedia and Publication Design Awards. In 2025, she led Pasifika Navigators, an anthology featuring 52 Pasifika writers from across New Zealand, which won the Australian School Library Association DANZ Children's Book Award for Poetry. A number of her titles are also recommended reading for schools by the Ministry of Education. 

Founded by Dahlia, Mila's Books is the world's only all-Pacific publishing team and has helped publish more than 100 first-time Pacific storytellers while creating culturally authentic books and educational resources for children, schools, and families throughout Aotearoa and beyond. In 2025, Mila's Books received the Bologna Prize for the Best Children's Publishers of the Year – Oceania. 

Through Mila's Books, Dahlia has continued to expand Pacific publishing with award-winning picture books, bilingual resources, and wellbeing journals, including Losi the Giant Fisherman, Mataali'i, Alofa tele atu, Sending All My Love, and the world-first Mila's My Aganu'u series, created entirely by an all-Pacific publishing team. Her books celebrate Pacific languages, histories and values while ensuring tamariki see themselves reflected in the stories they read. 

A passionate educator and literacy advocate, Dahlia regularly visits schools through Storylines and Read NZ Te Pou Muramura's Writers in Schools programme and serves on the Read NZ Te Pou Muramura Board. Her honours include the PANZ Emerging New Zealand Publisher of the Year Award (2023), the Creative New Zealand Arts Pasifika Emerging Pacific Artist Award (2022), and the Wellington Pasifika Business Woman of the Year Award (2020). 

Dahlia has served as the Pacific Curator at the Auckland Writer’s Festival, an Activator Speaker for ULearn, New Zealand's largest conference for educators, and has written for the School Journal (Lift Education) and E-Tangata. Her work has been featured by Lady Pasifika Magazine, Tagata Pasifika, Read NZ Te Pou Muramura, RNZ, Indie Books, Stuff, Sāmoan Observer, Pacific Aotearoa, and other media. She has also been invited to attend, speak or present at the Indigenous Writer’s Festival in Townsville, the Hawaii Library Conference, the Sharjah Publisher’s conference and the Ubud Writer’s Festival. 

Whether as an author, publisher, educator or speaker, Dahlia continues to champion Pacific voices, ensuring tamaiti across Aotearoa and beyond grow up feeling seen, heard and valued through story.