Rachel Stedman was an award-winning author even before she was published. In 2012 she was shortlisted for the Tom Fitzgibbon Award, and won the Tessa Duder Award for Young Adult Fiction. Her first novel, A Necklace of Souls, won a Storylines Notable Book Award and was awarded Best First Book at the 2014 New Zealand Post Book Awards. Rachel has published short stories in Semaphore, Moon-Drenched Fables and The School Journal.  She lives in Otago with her husband and two sons.