Joan Druett
1939
Jason Druett is a novelist and historian from New Zealand that writes historical fiction novels. Druett was born in the small town of Nelson but as a sixteen-year-old, the family moved to Wellington the capital of New Zealand. She went to Victoria University in Wellington, from where she graduated with a degree in English literature. Druett then went on to work as a teacher of English literature and biology for several years. She traveled extensively in her twenties and has been to many countries including Britain, Canada and several countries in the Middle East. In 1986, she got a Fulbright Scholarship and went to study in the US. In 1992, she became a writer/historian for “The Sailing Circle,” a museum exhibit in New York. During this time, she was also an artist in residence alongside her maritime artist husband at the William Steeple Davis Trust studio and house. While her husband exhibited and painted at major New York galleries, she wrote and researched maritime history for her historical novels. They would move back home to New Zealand in 1996 and lived in Wellington. In 2001, she won the John David Stout Fellowship and is now an associate at Victoria University.