Meet Marion Day

Marion Day grew up on a dairy farm in New Zealand’s Eastern Bay of Plenty. She had always considered herself a tomboy until her father reprimanded her. “Not a tomboy. Daring.” Her siblings called her Muttley. You might remember Dick Dastardly and his dog Muttley from the TV show Wacky Races. Dick had notable sayings like ‘Drat, drat and double drat’ and the catchphrase 'Muttley, do something!'. That may have been Marion’s circumstance, as she was always a bit of a renegade and the eldest girl, or perhaps it was just her chuckle!

Marion had no desire to write or even scribble down words when she was younger. With busy Dutch immigrant parents, she doesn’t recall seeing any books in the house until she was sixteen and took her first job at a bookstore. She thoroughly enjoyed bookselling and completed a year-long bookseller's course.

The closest Marion Day came to writing was when a palmist read her hand and said, “You will be a well-known author by 29.” She laughed. Marion was far too preoccupied with grabbing everything life had to offer in case it passed her by. She was New Zealand's second female microlight pilot, and her NZ Open Herb Garden was featured on National TV’s The Maggie Barry Gardening Show.

After twenty-five years, Marion took a breather and compiled her father’s autobiography at his request, despite having no writing expertise. Then one freezing winter morning, she woke up and told her partner she was going to become a famous writer. He burst out laughing. She was, after all, a pig farmer.

But the dream had begun. The bug was caught.

Marion Day practised writing for the following two years, in between heavy agricultural duties. The decision to relocate to the magnificent Marlborough Sounds was taken in 2010. She started writing full-time here and is still learning every day.

Her Bio:

Marion Day has won adult and children’s writing contests, and she was a finalist in the Storylines Joy Cowley Text Awards. She has had stories published in both children’s and adult anthologies, including an international collection published by Exisle Press. Two of Marion's nature series picture books have been recommended for The Better Start Literacy Approach for primary schools, and one of her pre-teen stories is in the ESA’s New Zealand textbook for secondary school pupils, Level 1 Literacy Learning Workbook. She has also had picture books accepted for Scholastic Book Fairs. Marion’s prose was accepted for publication in Penguin/Random House’s Bird Words, and her story Belladonna was published in Flash Frontier, an adventure in short fiction.

Marion has been named to the Page and Blackmore National Short Story Competition shortlist. Liberated was chosen for Poem in the Window, and she also took first place in the Page and Blackmore Poetry Competition. Marion was highly commended in the Enterprising Rural Women New Zealand Awards for her children’s books. She has also been enrolled as a Branch Member of Honour at the RWNZ National Office for her services in writing, and she won the National Rural Women’s/Ministry of Primary Industry short story and photo competition, which required her to accept her award in Parliament.

Check out her books in more detail here »

Marion is a member of:

• New Zealand Society of Authors (NZSA)
• Storylines
• Rural Women New Zealand
• NZSA Top of the South
• Writers of Marlborough
• Writers in Schools Programme