Carole used to teach secondary school English & Drama before being persuaded to open a feminist bookshop in 1989. She was the Auckland Co-Ordinator of the Listener Women’s Festival throughout the nineties and helped to set up the Auckland Writers Festival in the early 2000’s. She was a Trustee of that festival for 17 years and still chairs festival sessions. She was also on the Board of Booksellers NZ for many years and one of her passions, when she is not reading, is organising author events. She reviews regularly on RNZ.
In 2019 Carole was awarded MNZM for her services to the literary industry and the LGBTQIA+ community. She is Nana to two delightful school-age grandchildren
One of Tanya’s earliest favourites was Ursula le Guin.She’s been at The Women’s Bookshop for ages but before that was a gardener and designer. She loves talking books with customers, and finding a great book for a particular person. Tanya and Rachel went to the same high school in Hong Kong but never met until they both worked at the bookshop.
Rachel helped to price the opening stock for the Women’s Bookshop in 1989 and has never quite managed to escape. She’s worked in sales for various publishers and ran her own shop for while, before returning in 2020. She reads pretty much everything, from kids books to science, but has a particular love of history and feminism. She has two awesome daughters.
Pepper’s love for books is intrinsic; growing up in a children’s bookshop meant that she was never short of a stack of brilliant books by her side. Her palate has since matured from children’s books to a more eclectic (and perhaps acquired) taste for fiction, poetry and prose exploring darker themes of the human condition.
Erin is a passionate reader who is currently working on a PhD in Media Studies. She has always loved books and is cat-mother to BumbleBeans and Jeff. When she's not reading she's knitting up a storm or working at Media Design School.
Our newest team member is Isabelle, who is is currently studying a Bachelor of Arts and Diploma in Languages at Auckland University. An avid bookworm and aspiring writer, she has a particular love for poetry and modernist literature.