Sonya is an award-winning novelist, journalist, presenter, producer and the founder and Executive Director of the children’s book-gifting charity, Kiwi Christmas Books.

Her first novel, Spark Hunter, an adventure-fantasy for middle-grade readers set in the wilds of Fiordland National Park, won a Storylines Notable Book Award and the NZSA Best First Book Award at the NZ Book Awards for Children and Young Adults, and has been optioned for film adaptation.

She was the inaugural MCW Writer in Residence at the University of Auckland in 2023, and held a Michael King Writers Centre Residency in early 2024.

Her essays, articles and reviews have appeared in a variety of publications including North and South, NZ Geographic, Newsroom and The Spinoff. She also produced and presented the podcast series Bookland Presents: How to Love, chairs and MCs at a variety of book-related festivals and public events, and teaches the odd creative writing class, too.

She was a TV reporter and presenter for many years, working for a variety of programmes including TVNZ’s One News, 20/20, Sunday and Q + A programmes, and occasionally still works as a freelance journalist, but is currently busy running her charity and writing her second novel, work that she squeezes in around her duties as P.A. and taxi driver for her two busy (and awesome) young kids.