Name: Katerina Mataira
Date of birth: 13 November, 1932
Place of birth: Tokomaru Bay
Now living in: Raglan
- What is your favourite food?
- Fish
- Do you have a nickname and if so what is it?
- Bon
- What was your most embarrassing moment?
- Receiving a patu paraoa as a gift of honour "before I died".
- How do you relax?
- Playing golf.
- Who inspired you when you were little?
- My dad - who told wonderful stories.
- What were you like at school?
- Loved every minute.
- What was your favourite/most hated subject at school?
- Found every subject fascinating.
- What was the book you most loved as a child?
- We had no books. I read the Children’s Corner in my mother’s English Women’s Weekly.
- Which person from the past would you most like to meet?
- Hine-I-paea - who allowed herself to be taken as a slave-wife by Pomare after he had killed both her husband and father. She came to love him. How was she able to transcend the violence?
- Who is your favourite author/children’s author?
- Roald Dahl.
- Why did you want to be a writer?
- To cement the ideas and stories which grew out of my personal experiences.
- Do you have a special place where you write your books?
- At my computer in the corner of my bedroom.
- What’s the best thing and worst thing about being a writer?
- Reading my own writing and enjoying it is the best thing.
Reading earlier works and wishing I could trash them is the worst thing. 
If you weren’t a writer, what would you like to be?- An artist.
- What advice would you give to aspiring writers?
- Write for your own stimulation and pleasure before all else.
- Read some books written by Katerina Mataira