Award-winning author Tania Roxborogh (Ngāti Porou, Ngāti Mutunga o Wharekauri), who writes as T K Roxborogh, has achieved a remarkable milestone for Māori literature on the international stage.
She is the first author from Aotearoa — and the first Māori author — to be shortlisted for the prestigious French literary award Étoiles Bleues, recognising stories centred on the ocean and environment, according to Huia Publishers.
Roxborogh said she was “delighted” to see the novel recognised internationally and spoke of the deep connection between te ao Māori and the moana.
“For me, being in the ocean is like being cared for by a magnificent grandmother who can sometimes be scary, so I’d better behave.”
Young readers from across France and Mā’ohi Nui (French Polynesia) will help decide whether Roxborogh takes out the award through a public vote, with readers invited to engage with the shortlisted books from April through September 2026.
“It’s thrilling to think that a story grounded in the moana, the land, and the atua of Aotearoa will now be read by so many young readers on the other side of the world.”
The French edition of her novel Charlie Tangaroa and the Creature from the Sea, published as Charlie Tangaroa et la Créature des Abysses, is one of three titles shortlisted in the teen category.
Blending Māori mythology with contemporary storytelling, the novel follows a one-legged teenage boy, descended from Tangaroa and Tāne Māhuta, who must prevent a looming conflict between powerful forces.
Finalists were selected by experts in children’s literature before the final public vote.
The book was also included in the selection process for France’s largest children’s literary prize, the 38th Prix des Incorruptibles.
Roxborogh was scheduled to attend the Paris Book Festival earlier this month. She is set to present at the Rochefort Pacifique Cinema & Littérature festival in France from 23–26 April.
Charlie Tangaroa and the Creature from the Sea won the Margaret Mahy Book of the Year Award in 2021.
Roxborogh, who lives in Canterbury, is a veteran educator and author of more than 35 fiction and non-fiction works.
The headline on this story was updated to clarify that T K Roxborogh is the first New Zealand and Māori author shortlisted for the Étoiles Bleues literary award.
