Literature and Languages

Pathfoot A16a

School of Arts and Humanities

Division of Literature and Languages

University of Stirling

Stirling

FK9 4LA
Scotland

UK

B.A. (Auckland), M.A. (Victoria), M.F.A. (Iowa), D.Phil (York)

Paula Morris, a novelist and short story writer of English and Maori descent, was born in New Zealand. For almost a decade she worked in the record business in London and New York; she has also worked as an advertising copywriter and brand strategist. Paula is a regular contributor of reviews and arts features to various New Zealand magazines.

A graduate of the Iowa Writers Workshop, she has taught creative writing at the University of Iowa, and at Tulane University in New Orleans, where she was an Assistant Professor. She has also served as visiting writer, mentor, or examiner at numerous creative writing programmes in the US and New Zealand.

Paula’s first novel, Queen of Beauty (Penguin, 2002), won best first work of fiction at the 2003 New Zealand Book Awards. She has published two other novels with Penguin: Hibiscus Coast (2005), a literary thriller set in Auckland and Shanghai; and Trendy But Casual (2007), a satire set in New York City. Her first collection of short stories, Forbidden Cities (2008) was a regional finalist for the 2009 Commonwealth Prize.

In 2009 she published her first YA novel, a supernatural mystery called Ruined (Scholastic US). Another ‘haunted city’ mystery, Dark Souls, will be published by Scholastic in 2011.

Both Hibiscus Coast and Ruined have been optioned for film.