Marie Connolly

Marie has published over thirty books across a range of areas of fiction and non fiction. Her academic published work focuses on child welfare, human rights and child protection systems. She has also written a series of children’s stories, the Our Backyard books, and in 2023 she published a collection of blogs that help separate the film-streaming wheat from the chaff.

Her first crime novel, published by Quentin Wilson Publishing, was shortlisted in the 2025 Ngaio Marsh Awards for Best First Novel.

In 2025, her new book, The Orion Powerhouse Gallery Akaroa: A Half Century of Art, was published by the Orion Art Gallery celebrated the first fifty years of the community gallery.

She lives in Akaroa with her partner George.