Honour award for city author

Palmerston North could be creating a name for itself as a hub for successful creative writers.

Author Diana Neild has received an honour award in the 2009 New Zealand Post Book Awards.

She received $500 for her children's book Piggity-Wiggity Jiggity Jig, illustrated by Philip Webb.

The honour award recognises particular features in a book. This year the focus was picture books.

Meanwhile, Michelle MacKinnon has been named a finalist in the 2009 Next Generation Indie Book Awards in the United States for her book Escape from Eden.

MacKinnon tells the story of how two young people, growing up in an exclusive religious community, question their faith and turn their backs on everything they know.