Elam School of Fine Arts graduate Lynley Dodd (DCNZM, DipFA) will receive a Distinguished Alumni Award 2009 from The University of Auckland.

Lynley will also present a public lecture “Going to the Dogs” the day after the DAA ceremony.

Lynley is one of New Zealand’s best known authors. Her career in children’s literature spans over 30 years and as many books, with her popular animal adventures winning multiple awards, including New Zealand Picture Book of the Year. Widely published, Lynley’s books have sold over six million copies worldwide.

Born in Rotorua and educated at Tauranga College, it was at Elam that Lynley first developed her passion for illustration, graduating with a Diploma in Fine Arts in 1962. She went on to study at Auckland Teachers’ College, spending five years as an art teacher before embarking on a career as an author and illustrator of children’s books with her 1973 illustration of Eve Sutton’s poem, My Cat Likes to Hide in Boxes. Three years later she wrote and illustrated her first solo effort, The Nickle Nackle Tree, a title which is still in print today and in 2006 won the Gaelyn Gordon Award for a Much-Loved Book.

In 1983 came the first of the series of books that brought Lynley international fame: Hairy Maclary From Donaldson’s Dairy. Many of the eighteen published books have been short-listed for the New Zealand Children’s Picture Book of the Year, which Dodd won outright in 1984, 1988 and 1992.

In 1999, Lynley received the Margaret Mahy Medal for Services to Children’s Literature and in 2002 was made a Distinguished Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for her services to children’s literature.

Lynley Dodd will present her DAA lecture “Going to the Dogs” at 10:30am on Saturday 14 March at the University’s Owen G Glenn Building (12 Grafton Rd). The lecture, which is aimed at an adult audience, is free and open to the public.

See the full DAA Speaker Series programme here. 

The University of Auckland’s National Institute of Creative Arts and Industries comprises the School of Architecture and Planning, Elam School of Fine Arts, the Centre for New Zealand Art Research and Discovery (CNZARD), the School of Music and the Dance Studies Programme.