Philip Temple is an award-winning author of fiction and non-fiction for both adults and children, often on the subjects of New Zealand history and the natural world. His anthropomorphic novels, such as Beak of the Moon - using the mountain parrot keas as characters - are unique in New Zealand literature. Philip was the recipient of the 2003 Creative New Zealand Berlin Writers’ Residency and, earlier, held both the Menton Katherine Mansfield Fellowship and the Robert Burns Fellowship. He received a Prime Minister’s Award for Literary Achievement in 2005. In an earlier life, Philip was a leading mountain climber and made the first ascent of one of the seven summits of the seven continents, the Carstensz Pyramid. This experience informs his novel The Mantis, short-listed for the 2014 Banff Mountain Book Awards.