Ken Catran visits Waihi School

 Waihi boys were excited to have author, Ken Catran visit our school on Friday 30 April.  He spoke of his interesting life of writing.  Before he left he signed a tie to help our Centenary Campaign for Pyne House, a new boarding and dayboys facility.

The New Zealand Book Council says this about Ken Catran:
Catran, Ken (1944 –) is a children's writer and scriptwriter who has written for some of New Zealand's best-loved television series including ‘Close to Home’ and ‘Shortland Street’.

His novel Voyage with Jason (2000) won Best in Senior Fiction and was named Book of the Year at the 2001 New Zealand Post Book Awards for Children and Young Adults. A second novel, Talking to Blue (2000) was also shortlisted in the same category.

In 2007, Catran received the Margaret Mahy Medal and Lecture Award for distinguished contribution to children's literature. In the same year, he was the Writer in Residence at Waikato University.    ‘Ken Catran writes well,’ writes Jo Noble in Well Read. ‘Hes compelling, he puts the reader right there sharing all the horror, the fear and the hopelessness with his characters.’

Ken's advice to budding writers was to never end a story with "and then I woke up"!  He has judged many writing competitions and he has seen this device used too many times.