Writing Experience and AwardsPicture Book Manuscript: 1st Runner Up in Picture Book Manuscript Competition organised by the South Island Writers' Association
Judged by Melanie Coster - Dusky Galaxias - September 2018 Poetry: Winner of of University of Canterbury Bookstore My Quake Nightmare Poetry Competition Judged by Jeffery Paparoa Holman - My Life - July 2012 Poetry: Winner of Haiku Competition organised by Catalyst Literary Arts Journal via Facebook - March 2016 Prepared hundreds, maybe thousands, of environmental technical reports over the past 29 years. Numerous projects of fiction and non-fiction are in the works... |
Helen Mongillo's Bio |
ActivitiesSouth Island Writer's Association (SIWA) - Christchurch (2018 - present)
Coordinator Storylines Christchurch Family Day - 2016 New Zealand Society of Authors (NZSA) - Canterbury Branch - Former Committee Member and Web Editor (2013-2015) - Former key founder and organiser of bi-monthly BOOK BUZZ - Former key organiser of annual NZSA Writers' Workshops _ NZSA Children's Literature Hub - Christchurch (2015 - present) Founder and Coordinator Canterbury Writers Meetup Group - Organiser (2014 - present) Christchurch Writers' Guild - Member (2013 - present) Participated in Critique Groups Margie Lawson Writers Academy Multi-Grad - Triple Threat Behind Writing a Scene - Story Structure Safari - Fab30 - Critiquing course x 2 Joanna Preston Poetry Classes (generally 5 weeks, one 3-hr class/wk) - Reading for Writing - 10 New Zealand Men - July 2018 - Flash Fiction with Heather McQuillan - June 2018 - Reading for Writing – Five American Women - Oct 2017 - Reading for Writing – One Book, One Poet, One Session - Aug 2017 - Poetry Editing 101 - April 2017 - Reading for Writing Around the World - Nov 2016 - Poetic Turns - May 2016 - Jump Start the Muse - April 2016 Get-Away Writers Retreat - Canterbury Organiser - Glen Tui Retreat Centre - 2015 Organiser - Hanmer Springs - 2016 |
The name is pronounced mon-jill'-o, like Jack and Jill, emphasis on the Jill. Husband is half Italian. Heritage is English, German, Irish, and Dutch, born and lived in North America (upstate New York and went to university in Missouri), and now a South Island Kiwi. My mountains are the Adirondacks and my river, the Hudson.
World traveler. Technical writer by day, creative writer in the in-betweens. Nearly thirty years of environmental consulting experience with government and industry (land developers, mining, petroleum), providing technical advice on contaminated land, water and sediment issues. My husband and I run Sephira Environmental Ltd. Writer of middle-grade fiction, poetry, non-fiction, websites, technical reports, emails, promotional materials, educational materials, personal notes, songs, etc., etc., etc. Long-term meditator and investigator of our inner realities (emotions, mind, consciousness, subconsciousness, Spirit). Curious scientist and long-term investigator of our outer realities (physics, geology, health, mathematics, aesthetics). Mother of two awesome children. I love to organise things. I've adapted to spelling organise with an 's,' the New Zealand way. To adapt is to not suffer. |