Lia Hills was born in Wellington and now lives in Melbourne. She is a poet and novelist whose work has been published, performed and translated internationally. She has published an award-winning poetry collection, the possibility of flight (Book Group Australia, 2008), and a translation of Marie Darrieussecq’s novel, Tom is Dead (Text Publishing, 2009).

Her first young adult novel,The Beginner’s Guide to Living (Text Publishing, 2009), has been shortlisted for New Zealand Post Children's Book Award: Senior Fiction 2010.

Website:  www.liahills.com

Books 

Seventeen-year-old Will is clever but he can't find answers to any of his questions after his mother dies in a car accident. His father seems to be drifting and his older brother stays away from home. And Will just can't get past being either angry or in tears. He finds his mum's old camera and begins taking photos that help him see thing differently. When he meets sixteen-year-old Taryn he falls for her in a big way. On top of that, his mind is exploding with new questions: like so many teenagers, he's desperate for ideas by which he can live and die. Lia Hills' The Beginner's Guide to Living is a compelling novel about grief, ideas and experience, about those moments in your life that change you forever.