Columba College teacher and author Samantha Montgomerie has been invited to the annual HarperCollins author party in London next month.
The garden party event would be held at the Victoria and Albert Museum and involve dinner, Champagne and addresses from accomplished people within the publishing community, she said.
"It’s quite a lovely affair and there’s a lot of high-profile British writers who attend as well.
"It’s a really exciting opportunity."
This was the first time she had received an invitation to the annual event in the five years she had been writing for HarperCollins.
"I feel pretty privileged to have made the list this year," she said.
She has had more than 70 education reader books for early learners published and also enjoys writing poetry and novels for young people.
Ms Montgomerie teaches year 7 at Columba College and runs a year 7 and 8 book club, as well as sharing her expertise with the school’s writing group.
She often drew inspiration from the "joys of being a teacher", she said.
She published her first book in 2018, but she had been a writer for most of her life, she said.
"I was an avid reader as a child, and I’ve always really enjoyed writing.
"I really love the idea of writing for this age group, younger children beginning that journey of becoming readers themselves."
She had an "eternal childlike imagination" and loved the idea of creating engaging stories that could encourage her pupils to become lifelong readers.
"I just think it’s great for students to have an English teacher who enjoys the creative process."
In 2022, Ms Montgomerie won the Janice Marriott Mentor Award for middle-grade novel manuscripts.
She said the novel, The Boy Who Fell from the Clouds, which was almost complete, told a story set at Dunedin’s Allans Beach about a young boy who stumbled across an unusual character in the bushes surrounding his house and discovered that is was a boy who had fallen from the clouds.
She looked forward to connecting with other HarperCollins authors and hoped to return with new ideas for her writing.
"It’s quite isolating being an author — you do most of the work in a room by yourself."
