Interview: Jasmine Donaldson on publishing her first novel

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Jasmine Donaldson has just published her first novel, The People I Know Now. Krysana Hanley caught up with her to chat about writing as a young person and discovering local young adult fiction.

As a reader of YA novels I often find myself drawn to the titles written by international authors. Though I know that there are many wonderful YA books by Kiwi writers—the likes of Kate De Goldi, Chloe Gong, Tessa Duder, Fleur Beale and Eileen Merriman among others come to mind—the rate at which these books are being published in Aotearoa, compared to America or the UK, is akin to being drip fed.

Looking at the National Reading Survey conducted by Horizon Research in March 2025, of the people who read fiction in Aotearoa, 29% (an estimated 961,000 people) had read young adult fiction in the last 12 months. This percentage increased to 64% when they looked at readers aged under thirty-five. They also found that the average reader under thirty-five had read 7.5 books in the preceding 12 months.

For one or more of those 7.5 books to be a YA book written by a New Zealand author, we need to be publishing more in this area. In 2025, there won’t have been more than fifteen YA books released in New Zealand.

So, when I saw that Jasmine Donaldson had written a YA book based in a beachy New Zealand town, I wanted to ask for her perspective on the market she’d published into.

Kia ora Jasmine, tell us a bit about yourself!

Hi, my name is Jasmine Donaldson. I work as a library assistant and am a recently published YA author living in New Zealand. Originally born in England, my family moved to New Zealand when I was in primary school, and I have been living here ever since. 

I am passionate about the arts and using creativity as a form of expression. I love reading and writing, and the release of my contemporary YA novel The People I Know Now is an achievement I am very proud of. 

As someone who struggled to find books to read in my teen years, I now have a strong appreciation for books written for that age group …

As someone who struggled to find books to read in my teen years, I now have a strong appreciation for books written for that age group, and I am happy to say that I enjoy them more now than I did back then!

What’s the last YA book you read that you couldn’t put down?

I have read a lot of great YA books lately, but the last one I read that I absolutely could not put down is the 2015 novel One by Sarah Crossan. It follows sixteen-year-old conjoined twins, Grace and Tippi, who are joined at the hip. The story is written from Grace’s viewpoint, and we see over the course of the book how things begin to change for the girls. Something is happening to them and their odds for survival are running out. I found the story’s prose beautifully written, and the content was honest, hopeful, and heartbreaking all at the same time. I also thoroughly enjoyed the 2025 novel The Edge of Everything by Australian author Miranda Luby.

Can you remember the moment you decided you wanted to write a YA novel? Or had the idea always been in the back of your mind?

I had always wanted to write a novel since I was young but had never quite found my stride. I would often begin writing a story and then decide it wasn’t good enough, or else the plot would get lost somewhere along the way. Because I had struggled to find books that captured my attention as a teenager, I’d always thought it would be a good idea to write my own. 

When I found myself with a bit more time up my sleeve at the end of 2023, I decided it was time to plan out a story chapter by chapter and put my creativity to good use. I made it my goal to write every day and to not give up, even if I got stuck or didn’t like what I had written. 

It’s hard sometimes to see the potential when you are writing, and I had to be happy with knowing that I could go back later and write another draft to make the story exactly how I wanted it to be. I was writing about themes I really cared about such as finding your people and finding the place that you feel you belong. I created characters whose stories I wanted to tell—that helped motivate me to see the novel through. 

The YA landscape is notoriously difficult to break into. While most YA readers could rattle off a list of international YA titles I think many would struggle to name a local YA book. Why do you think that is?

I have to admit that up until recently I had not delved into many local YA books, and I am making a greater effort to look into the titles that are available. We definitely have talented authors here in Aotearoa! I think that, in general, young people are not reading a lot of books. There are many reasons this could be, including having to read literature for school and therefore not reading for pleasure at home, and choosing screentime over picking up a novel in a bookstore or library.

I think that, in general, young people are not reading a lot of books

I think there is possibly a disconnect where young people might not know how to find the books they would like to read, other than following the trends of what is popular on social media and looking at the big publishing companies for options. New Zealand has a smaller pool of published work, especially for YA novels, and I feel that because it is difficult to compete in this industry, these titles can be overlooked.

What do you think is missing from YA publishing in Aotearoa?

This is a really good question. Because I have had the privilege of getting a YA book published as a young writer, I think that might be a good place to start. 

We need stories that resonate with young adults, and who better to write those stories than young people! I think if more young people had the idea that reading can be for fun, and that writing is a positive outlet, then there would be more interest. I have been very lucky to have a positive experience with getting published, but for a lot of people getting published can be tricky. I did a lot of research before deciding that Mary Egan would be the right publisher for my book. I started by sending them a synopsis which led them to asking for the completed manuscript—the whole process felt like a collaboration between author and publisher, which was really important to me for my first book.

We need stories that resonate with young adults, and who better to write those stories than young people!

It’s daunting starting out. Knowing where to find information isn’t always straightforward. I think spreading awareness of where you can go for help, educating people from a young age on how the industry works, and finding support in the writing community would fill in some gaps and create more excitement for YA publishing in Aotearoa.

What are your favourite local YA books? What did you like about them?

I recently read It’s a Bit More Complicated Than That by Hannah Marshall. I was so happy to see that another local young adult author had been published, and that her book was a work of contemporary fiction. I have noticed that fantasy and romance are very popular at the moment, and it was nice to see that a young author had chosen a similar path to myself. I liked that she chose to focus on a friendship rather than a romantic relationship between the main characters as a point of difference.

I also recently read The 10pm Question by Kate De Goldi. This book was recommended to me, and I am not sure how I could have missed it. It is extremely well written, and the characters have been brought to life in such a vibrant way. I stumbled across a new range of vocabulary while reading and found myself inspired by its use of words throughout.

Would you write another YA book?

I have already started playing around with ideas for another YA book. Even though young adult books can be quite a hard sell, that is where my passion lies at this stage of my life. I may decide to write fiction for adults at some point, and I like the idea of writing for children too, but those teenage years and the ones that follow after school are important (and fun) to write about and there is something wonderful about YA fiction that I want to explore more.

Most importantly, I want to write books that I love, share my passion for YA fiction as a young author, and encourage others to read literature that speaks to them. Right now I am enjoying sharing my author journey with my debut novel The People I Know Now and I can’t wait to see where my writing takes me next!

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If you’re after recommendations for Aotearoa YA, try this 2017 Book List by Sarah Forster.