Stacy Gregg (Ngāti Mahuta/Ngāti Pukeko/Ngāti Maru Hauraki) is the acclaimed writer of Nine Girls which won the supreme Margaret Mahy Award at the NZ children's book awards in 2024. She’s also the undisputed queen of pony fiction: her Pony Club Secrets series (totalling 13 books) sold over 1.5 million copies globally in English alone and later became the CBBC TV series Mystic which ran for three seasons. Stacy is HarperCollins NZ’s third best-selling children’s author of all-time after David Walliams and Dr Seuss. Her latest book is the beautiful and very moving The Last Journey, an animal adventure with cats and a strong environmental message.
Come along to The Children’s Bookshop for drinks, snacks and conversation about what it takes to be a best-selling children’s author and what inspires her work. Stacy will be in conversation with writer Lauren Keenan.
Drinks and nibbles included in the ticket ($15). Under 12 tickets are free. Presented in partnership with HarperCollins NZ.
Stacy Gregg
Lauren Keenan
About the author
Stacy Gregg (Ngāti Mahuta/Ngāti Pukeko/Ngāti Maru Hauraki) is the international bestselling author of books for middle-grade readers including 2025's The Last Journey published by Simon & Schuster UK. Her novel Nine Girls, is set in her hometown of Ngāruawāhia in New Zealand and won the Supreme Margaret Mahy Award at the Children's Book Awards in 2024. Her Pony Club Secrets series (totalling 13 books) sold over 1.5 million copies globally in English alone and later became the CBBC TV series Mystic which ran for three seasons. She is HarperCollins NZ's third-best selling author of all-time behind David Walliams and Dr Seuss.
A nine-times finalist in the NZ Children's book awards, a consecutive three-time winner of the NZ Book Awards Children’s Choice Award, and the two-time winner of TV's WhatNow Children’s Choice Award for middle-grade fiction, Stacy's other titles for younger readers include junior fiction series, Spellbound Ponies, the picture books In or Out and The Easter Bunny Hunt for HCUK, and the popular Mini Whinny series for Scholastic. Her screen writing credits include Mystic and the current Acorn TV series, My Life Is Murder, starring Xena Warrior Princess' Lucy Lawless.
We are delighted to have Lauren Keenan interview Stacy for this event. 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.