About the author:
Lani Young is a Samoan/Maori author and columnist. In 2018, she was named the ACP Pacific Laureate, selected by the African, Caribbean, Pacific Group of States as they paid tribute to her ‘creativity, courage and entrepreneurship’. The ACP acknowledged her fiction writing, utilizing of digital publishing to take Samoan stories to a global audience, and also her journalism.
 
She’s the author of ten books including the international bestselling Young Adult TELESA series, and PACIFIC TSUNAMI GALU AFI which tells the story of the 2009 disaster. She’s worked as a scriptwriter for Disney, and her stories for children are published by the NZ School Journal. 
 
She was the 2018 recipient of the Douglas Gabb Australia-Pacific Journalism internship and in 2017 her reporting on climate change issues in the Pacific won her a coveted fellowship award covering the UN Climate Conference in Bonn, Germany. In 2012 she won the USP Press Prize with her collection of short fiction, Afakasi Woman. 
 
Lani writes columns about feminism, religion, culture, parenting, LGBTI in Pasifika, climate justice and everything in between. Her essay on A Samoan Woman’s Perspective on Ordain Women features in the Oxford Univ Press 2015 collection Mormon Feminism:Essential Writings.  Her writing on child sexual abuse and domestic violence in Pasifika communities has generated dialogue in many forums worldwide. 
 
Her recent novel in the Telesa series, I am Daniel Tahi was published by OneTree House Press in August 2019.