Damien Wilkins

Terrific gifts for Teens

The Sapling is dedicated to bringing you the best books from Aotearoa for gifting this holidays. It’s our final batch of recommendations for the holiday season, and we’re finishing with a bang! Check out these top-notch titles for the teens…

Book Awards: The Young Adult Fiction Finalists

As part of our coverage of this year’s NZ Book Awards for Children and Young Adults, we’ve asked the authors of the young adult fiction finalists to explain the story behind their respective stories, and why they had to be…

Book Reviews: New YA from Mountains to Coasts

There are all manner of different YA titles hitting Aotearoa’s shelves this autumn, with a focus on real life storytelling and issues relevant to teen readers. Librarian Dave Tucker shares his take on four new books, including three authors already…

Damien Wilkins: The Books that formed me

Damien Wilkins has written over a dozen books for adults, including novels, short story collections, and poetry, and this month he releases his first novel for young adults, Aspiring (Annual Ink). Aspiring is set in a town in Central Otago…