About / Bio

About Me / Author Bio

Kia ora — I’m Jessica Harvey. I’m a writer, artist, and high school English teacher from Aotearoa New Zealand. I grew up in the Bay of Plenty, spent a good chunk of my adult life living and working in Fukushima, Japan, and I’ve always been drawn to stories with humour, heart, and a touch of the supernatural.

I create both fiction and art, and I’m currently revising a series of colouring books I published a few years ago — they’ll be back, but better.

I love learning new things, making strange ideas collide, and telling stories that make people feel something — whether that’s laughter, wonder, or the odd electric jolt of the unexpected.

Find out more about me, my creative journey, and projects I’ve been involved in, below.

My Creative Journey

My creative journey started out like many others, I imagine.

I’ve always loved playing with words. As a kid, I wrote rhyming verses constantly — terrible, hilarious, earnest little poems that usually involved magical creatures, strange food, or both. I still adore rhyme, and one day I fully intend to write a rhyming picture book. Possibly for children. Possibly for adults (who are really just unsupervised children, let's be honest).

I also loved to draw, and I coloured every page I could get my hands on. Art and imagination were portals — doorways into worlds where anything could happen, and often did, usually wearing too many colours.

Like many children who love stories, I assumed writing novels would simply be “a slightly longer version of what I already do.” Spoiler: it’s not. Stories longer than two or three pages turned out to be… complicated. I’d start them with fizz and excitement, only to watch them trail off into chaos, self-doubt, or snacks.

I spent years starting things — glorious beginnings! — then abandoning them. I talked endlessly about ideas (everyone in my life deserves a medal), but I didn’t finish the writing.

So I did something completely sensible — the epitome of reasonableness and sobriety — I became a high school English teacher. Spending all day with teenagers and trying to get them to learn the difference between a verb and a noun - what could possibly go wrong? 

Oh, the stories I could tell. One day I probably will.

I’ve lived in a few places, including a long stretch in Fukushima, Japan — a second home for me in many ways. I’ve taught English in both Japan and New Zealand (which has given me enough material to write for the rest of my life). Along the way I also co-edited two creative writing anthologies and had a short story published in Grim Tales, a fundraising anthology for Tauranga Women’s Refuge. These projects helped me see stories from multiple angles — creator, collaborator, and editor — and pushed me to keep developing my craft.

Eventually, I hit a moment where I realised that if I wanted to be a writer, I needed to stop waiting for perfect conditions and actually do the thing: write, finish, commit, learn, repeat. So I made the choice to take myself seriously — not in a heavy, joyless way, but in a steady, curious, “right, let’s actually do this” way.

I still feel as dotty as a polka-dot dress at times, but I’m making progress — and that matters. I’m still learning (I think I always will be) — but I’m finally finishing things.

And that feels like magic in its own right. 

Fun Facts About Me

• My mum trained as a pilot when I was little, and I often flew with her in small planes.

• I held the controls of an aircraft before I ever got behind the wheel of a car.

• I once worked as an administrator for the New Zealand Police — one of the most fascinating jobs I’ve ever had.

• I love dinosaurs.

• I once won the Foreigners’ Division in the World Kimono Dressing Championship.

• If reincarnation is a thing, I’d probably choose to come back as a mermaid.