Briar Grace Smith
Briar Grace Smith descends from the Ngapuhi tribe in the north of New Zealand. She writes for theatre, television and film and her short fiction has been included in various anthologies. Her plays have toured both New Zealand and internationally and include Purapurawhetu, Haruru Mai, When Sun and Moon Collide and Potiki’s Memory of Stone. She was an inaugural recipient of the NZ Arts Foundation Laureate Award in 2000 and the writer in residence at Victoria University in 2003. She was selected to attend the Sundance screenwriters Laboratory in Utah in 2006 and her first screenplay The Strength of Water premiered at Rotterdam and Berlin film festivals in 2009.