Hazel Phillips is a New Zealand author, journalist and history enthusiast. She is the author of five books, including Fire & Ice: Secrets, histories, treasures and mysteries of Tongariro National Park (Massey University Press, 2025); Solo: Backcountry adventuring in Aotearoa New Zealand (Massey University Press, 2022); Wild Westie (Penguin, 2014), a biography of Sir Bob Harvey; and Sell! (Penguin, 2013), a history of the advertising industry.
Her immersive research into the history of women’s mountaineering earned her a Whiria Te Mahara New Zealand History Grant and the 2026 Friends of the Hocken Collections Award, while the project was also highly commended for the Copyright Licensing NZ / New Zealand Society of Authors Writers’ Award in 2025.
Hazel’s essays and journalism have been published throughout Australasia, including in the collection Otherhood (Massey University Press, 2024). Hazel holds a Master of Creative Writing with first-class honours and an MA in Media Studies. She is a past resident of the Michael King Writers Centre and the Robert Lord Writers Cottage, was named the inaugural Luna Foundation Writers Residency recipient in 2025, and is the 2026 recipient of the Varuna fellowship exchange with the Michael King Writers Centre.
