Amanda Hager (born 26 July 1960) is a writer of fiction and non-fiction for children, young adults and adults. Many of her books have been shortlisted for or won awards, including Singing Home the Whale which won both the Young Adult fiction category and the Margaret Mahy Book of the Year in the New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults in 2015. She has been the recipient of several fellowships, residencies and prizes, including the Beatson Fellowship in 2012, the Katherine Mansfield Menton Fellowship in 2014, the Waikato University Writer in Residence in 2015 and the Margaret Mahy Medal and Lecture Award in 2019. Biography Hager was born in Levin on 26 July 1960. Her father, Kurt, was born in Vienna and her mother, Barbara, in Zanzibar. She is the third of four children who grew up in a household where books, reading and writing were encouraged and valued. She has said she and her siblings were all raised with a strong sense of social justice. Hager has worked as a primary teacher, teacher of people with learning difficulties, youth education officer, research assistant, research and resource writer and creative writing tutor. She has a Teaching Diploma (Wellington College of Education), an Advanced Diploma in Applied Arts (Whitireia New Zealand) and an MA in creative writing from Victoria University of Wellington. Her first published book, Tom's Story, was written after the death of her first husband in a boating accident, when she was trying to find picture books that would help her own children understand the nature of death and the emotions they were feeling. Since then, her books have often tackled difficult subjects such as grief, anger, violence, physical and emotional abuse, suicide and self-harm, racism, sexism, bullying and environmental issues. She writes predominately for young adults, although a shift in 2017 saw her publish Heloise (Penguin NZ), a historical novel based on the life of 12th century nun Heloise d'Argenteuil, famed lover of philosopher Peter Abelard. In 2015 her book Singing Home The Whale (Random House NZ) won the Margaret Mahy Book of the Year and the Young Adult Fiction Category in the NZ Book Awards for Children and Young Adults, as well as a Storylines Notable Book Award and was a finalist in the LIANZA Book Awards. Her Blood of the Lamb trilogy has been published in the US by Pyr Books. She also writes