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One of the most popular writers in New Zealand, Steve Braunias is also an in-demand public speaker. He has long practised the art of creative non-fiction and brings a quick wit from page to stage, where he is confident as either a panellist, chair, or featured speaker.

As a journalist and author, Steve has won over 40 national writing awards including best columnist, arts writer (three times), travel writer (three times), sports writer (twice), crime writer, and food writer. His other awards include Best First Book of Non-fiction (2002), Best Book of Non-fiction (2013), and most recently the Australasian College of Anaesthesia Media Award (2016).

He has also won fellowships to both Oxford and Cambridge Universities and was a recipient of the Buddle Finlay Frank Sargeson Fellowship. He has often appeared at literary festivals throughout New Zealand, as well as London and Melbourne.

His book The Scene of the Crime (HarperCollins, 2015) was described as ‘probably the best book of crime writing yet published in New Zealand’. His previous books include a savage political campaign diary Madmen: Inside the Weirdest Election Campaign Ever (Luncheon Sausage Books, 2014), and an often harrowing examination of small-town New Zealand life Civilisation: 20 Places on the Edge of the World (Awa Press, 2012). In 2016, his work included a long Q + A with London writer Andrew O’Hagan, a quest to eat at every single one of the 55 fast food joints on one street in Auckland, and a satirical diary of Prime Minister John Key which featured Key unscrewing his head and letting it float up and around the ceiling.

In 2021 Steve released two new books. Missing Persons (HarperCollins, 2021) is a collection of twelve extraordinary tales of disappearance, stories about how some New Zealanders go missing — the wrong person in the wrong place at the wrong time. Cover Story: 100 beautiful, strange, and frankly incredible NZ LP covers (Oratia Media) is based on interviews and Steve’s own experience collecting over 800 albums from op-shops around the country. He reflects on the artistic flair, fashion and occasional gaudiness these album covers represent, and what they say about our popular culture.

In his latest book The Survivors  (HarperCollins, 2024) true-crime writer Steve Braunias retells twelve mysteries of human nature – unusual stories of how people choose to survive their own lives, and their decisions, desires, impulses… and failings.

Steve is a staff writer for the NZ Herald and also serves as literary editor for the New Zealand current affairs website Newsroom.

 

Links:

 

Read NZ Te Pou Muramura writer page

Wikipedia

HarperCollins author page

Awa Press author page

Steve Braunias on Twitter

ANZRB review of Polkinghorne: Inside the Trial of the Century (July, 2025)

ANZRB review of The Survivors (September, 2024)