
Barbara Lillias Romaine Anderson, Lady Anderson was a New Zealand fiction writer who became internationally recognized despite her first book being published in her sixties.

Philippa Ballantine, who also used the pen name Pip Ballantine, is a contemporary New Zealand author of speculative fiction and an avid podcaster. She now lives in Manassas, Virginia, with her husband and collaborator Tee Morris.

Diane Edith Brown is a novelist and poet from New Zealand.

Eleanor Catton is a New Zealand novelist and screenwriter. Her second novel, The Luminaries, won the 2013 Man Booker Prize.

Catherine Chidgey is a New Zealand novelist and short-story writer. Her honours include the inaugural Prize in Modern Letters; the Katherine Mansfield Fellowship to Menton, France; Best First Book at both the New Zealand Book Awards and the Commonwealth Writers' Prize ; the Acorn Foundation Fiction Prize at the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards; and the Janet Frame Fiction Prize. She lives near Hamilton in New Zealand.

Cassia Joy Cowley is a New Zealand author best known for her children's fiction, including the popular series of books Mrs. Wishy-Washy.

Jane (Jean) Devanny was a New Zealand writer and communist. Born in Ferntown near Collingwood in the Nelson district of New Zealand to William and Jane Crook, she migrated to Australia in 1929, eventually moving to Townsville in northern Queensland, where she died at the age of 68.
Joan Druett is a New Zealand historian and novelist, specialising in maritime history.

Tessa Duder is a New Zealand author of novels for young people, short stories, plays and non-fiction, and a former swimmer who won a silver medal for her country at the 1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games. As a writer, she is primarily known for her Alex quartet and long-term advocacy for New Zealand children's literature. As an editor she has also published a number of anthologies.

Lauris Dorothy Edmond was a New Zealand poet and writer.

Janet Paterson Frame was a New Zealand author. She was internationally renowned for her work, which included novels, short stories, poetry, juvenile fiction, and an autobiography, and received numerous awards including being appointed to the Order of New Zealand, New Zealand's highest civil honour.

Patricia Frances Grace is a New Zealand Māori writer of novels, short stories, and children's books.

Karyn Hay is a New Zealand author and broadcaster. She came to fame as the presenter of 1980s music TV show Radio with Pictures before going on to an extensive career in television and radio.

Robin Hyde was a South African-born New Zealand poet.

Annamarie Jagose is an LGBT academic and writer of fictional works.

Stephanie Patricia Johnson is a poet, playwright, and short story writer from New Zealand. She lives in Auckland with her husband, film editor Tim Woodhouse, although she lived in Australia for much of her twenties. Many of her books have been published there, and her non-fiction book West Island, about New Zealanders in Australia, is partly autobiographical.

Elizabeth Fiona Knox is a New Zealand writer. She has authored several novels for both adults and teenagers, autobiographical novellas, and a collection of essays. Her best known works are The Vintner's Luck (1998), which won several awards, has been published in ten languages, and was made into a film of the same name by Niki Caro in 2009. Knox is also known for her young adult literary fantasy series, Dreamhunter Duet. Her most recent novels are Mortal Fire and Wake, both published in 2013, and The Absolute Book, published in 2019.

Sarah Laing is a New Zealand author and cartoonist.

Christine Leunens is an American-born New Zealander-Belgian novelist. She is the author of Primordial Soup, Caging Skies, and A Can of Sunshine, which have been translated into over twenty languages. Caging Skies, the international bestselling novel about a child in the Hitler Youth, was the basis and inspiration for the award-winning film, Jojo Rabbit, by Taika Waititi, which won the Toronto International Film Festival's People Choice Award, and the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.

Elsie Violet Locke was a New Zealand communist writer, historian, and leading activist in the feminism and peace movements. Probably best known for her children's literature, The Oxford Companion to New Zealand Literature said that she "made a remarkable contribution to New Zealand society", for which the University of Canterbury awarded her an honorary D.Litt. in 1987. She was married to Jack Locke, a leading member of the Communist Party.

Brigid Lowry is a New Zealand author.

Margaret Mahy was a New Zealand author of children's and young adult books. Many of her story plots have strong supernatural elements but her writing concentrates on the themes of human relationships and growing up. She wrote more than 100 picture books, 40 novels and 20 collections of short stories. At her death she was one of thirty writers to win the biennial, international Hans Christian Andersen Medal for her "lasting contribution to children's literature".

Mary Jane Mander was a New Zealand novelist and journalist.

Dame Edith Ngaio Marsh was a New Zealand crime writer and theatre director. She was appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1966.

Tamsyn Muir is a New Zealand author of fantasy, science fiction and horror. She has been nominated for several awards, and her first novel was published in 2019.

Emma Neale is a novelist and poet from New Zealand.

Linda Olsson is a Swedish-born novelist who lives in Auckland, New Zealand. Published in 2003, her first novel Let me sing you gentle songs, an international best seller, has been translated into 15 languages. She writes in both English and Swedish.

Emily Justine Perkins is a New Zealand author.

Joan Rosier-Jones is a novelist, playwright, short story writer and nonfiction writer, and teacher. She completed a Teacher's- A Certificate in Christchurch Teacher's College in 1958–59 and a Bachelor of Arts majoring in History and English.

Rosie Scott was a novelist and lecturer, with dual Australian and New Zealand citizenship.
Nalini Singh is a New Zealand author of numerous paranormal romance novels.

Laura Solomon was a New Zealand / British novelist, playwright and poet. Best known as a novelist, her poetry and short stories have also been widely published and short listed for awards and prizes.

Vanda Symon is a crime writer and radio host from Dunedin, New Zealand, and the Chair of the Otago Southland Branch of the New Zealand Society of Authors.

Cherry Barbara Grimm, better known by the pseudonym Cherry Wilder, was a New Zealand science fiction and fantasy writer.