Mary-anne Scott

Mary-anne Scott was one of nine children in a family where music played a large part. Each child was encouraged to learn two musical instruments (for Scott, these were the cello and guitar), and music practice times were strictly enforced.{{Cite web|url=http://maryannescott.co.nz/music/|title=Music|website=Mary-anne Scott|access-date=23 October 2018}} Scott's father composed songs for school musicals, for which her mother Joy Watson, herself a best-selling author of children's books,{{Cite web|url=https://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=11884104|title=Mary-Anne Scott: parenting inspiration for prose|date=1 July 2017|website=The New Zealand Herald |access-date=14 October 2018}} wrote the lyrics.{{Cite web|url=https://www.penguin.co.nz/authors/mary-anne-scott|title=Mary-anne Scott|website=Penguin Books NZ|access-date=14 October 2018}}

After years of writing short stories, Scott completed a creative writing course at Hawke's Bay's Eastern Institute of Technology.{{Cite web|url=https://www.noted.co.nz/archive/listener-nz-2013/more-ladders-than-snakes/|title=More ladders than snakes|last=Packer|first=Ann|date=30 May 2013|website=Noted|access-date=14 October 2018}} She gained an NZSA mentorship with author David Hill, going on to study the one-year Whitireia Polytechnic’s Diploma in Creative Writing course{{Cite web|url=https://www.markhams.co.nz/clientstory/mary-anne-scott/|title=Mary-anne Scott|date=Winter 2013|website=Moore Stephens Markhams|access-date=14 October 2018}} with tutor Mandy Hager in 2011. Scott has been a speaker at several literary festivals, including the Hawke's Bay Readers and Writers Festival in 2013{{Cite web|url=http://www.voxy.co.nz/entertainment/guest-authors-announced-hawkes-bay-readers-and-writers-festival/5/149798|title=Guest authors announced for Hawke's Bay Readers and Writers Festival|date=12 March 2013|website=Voxy.co.nz|access-date=14 October 2018}} and Featherston Booktown in 2016,{{Cite web|url=https://www.booktown.org.nz/2016-programme|title=Programme of Events Booktown 2016|website=Featherston Booktown|access-date=14 October 2018}} and she judged the Ronald Hugh Morrieson Literary Awards of 2018.{{Cite web|url=https://www.rhmorriesonawards.com/the-judges.html|title=Meet the 2018 Judges|website=Ronald Hugh Morrieson Literary Awards|access-date=14 October 2018}}

Scott and her husband Paul have four sons and two grandsons, and live in Havelock North, Hawke's Bay. As well as being a singer, Scott plays and teaches the guitar.

Scott's personal experience of raising boys, listening to them and their friends, and teaching cello and guitar to high school students has influenced and inspired her writing for young adults. It has also led her to write a newspaper column on parenting teenagers. The publisher of Coming Home to Roost commented on the authenticity of the dialogue and the teenager-parent relationships displayed in her writing, and noted the young adult novel as the first of its kind published in New Zealand to explore unplanned parenthood from the father's point of view.{{Cite web|url=https://www.thesapling.co.nz/single-post/2017/07/10/Book-Awards-the-Young-Adult-fiction-finalists|title=Book Awards: the Young Adult Fiction Finalists|last=Arthur|first=Jane|date=10 July 2017|website=The Sapling|access-date=23 October 2018}}

Snakes and Ladders won the Young Adult category of the Children's Choice Award in the 2013 New Zealand Children's Book Awards and was short-listed for the LIANZA awards. Coming Home to Roost was awarded a Storylines Notable Book Award in 2017 and was short-listed as a finalist for the New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults. Her work has also been short-listed for the National Flash Fiction Awards.{{Cite web|url=https://authors.org.nz/author/mary-annescott/|title=Mary-anne Scott|website=NZSA The New Zealand Society of Authors (PEN NZ Inc) Te Puni Kaituhi o Aotearoa|access-date=14 October 2018}}

Sticking with Pigs was shortlisted in the Young Adult category of the 2018 New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults.{{Cite web|url=http://www.nzbookawards.nz/new-zealand-book-awards-for-children-and-young-adults/2018-awards/shortlist/|title=New Zealand Book Awards for Children & Young Adults: 2018 Awards: Shortlist|website=NZ Book Awards Trust|access-date=13 December 2018}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.noted.co.nz/culture/books/finalists-announced-for-nz-book-awards-for-children-and-young-adults-2018/|title=Finalists announced for NZ Book Awards for Children and Young Adults 2018|date=6 June 2018|website=Noted: New Zealand Listener|access-date=13 December 2018}} The Mess of Our Lives was shortlisted for the same award in 2025.{{Cite web |date=2025-06-05 |title=2025 New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults shortlists |url=https://www.booksandpublishing.com.au/articles/2025/06/05/273553/2025-new-zealand-book-awards-for-children-and-young-adults-shortlists/ |access-date=2025-06-06 |publisher=Books+Publishing}}

• Snakes and Ladders (Scholastic, 2012)
• Coming Home to Roost (Penguin Random House, 2016)
• Sticking with Pigs (OneTree House, 2018)
• Spearo (OneTree House, 2020)
• Fantastic Mr. Bean, illustrated by Lisa Allen (OneTree House, 2020)
• The Tomo (OneTree House, 2021)
• The Mess of Our Lives (OneTree House 2024)

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Category:Living people

Category:New Zealand children's writers

Category:New Zealand women children's writers

Category:Year of birth missing (living people)