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Lani Wendt Young
Lani Wendt Young is a Samoan–New Zealand writer, editor, publisher and journalist. She is the author of 15 books including the bestselling young adult series Telesa.
Wendt Young was born and raised in Apia, Samoa. Her father was Samoan from the villages of Lefaga, Vaiala, Sapapalii, and Malie. Her mother is New Zealand Māori of the Ngāti Kahungunu tribe.
"I wrote the first book because it was the kind of thing I wanted to read as a 14 to 16-year-old growing up in the islands. There were always so many stories set in other parts of the world but never anything I could directly connect with – never anything in Samoa."
In May 2025, Young was celebrated in the 'Resilient Spirit Project: Portraits of Women Warriors', a project by the Samoa Ministry of Women, Community and Social Development that honored thirty Samoan women who have shaped Samoa's history and continue to lead its future, at the grassroots and national levels. In February 2019, Young was the recipient of a New Zealand Society of Authors Waitangi Day Honor. In accepting the award, Young said:
As a brown woman who writes – oftentimes from the margins and smashing gates as I do so – I have seen the transformative power wrought by stories written by us, about us, and for us, as our communities the world over revel in books they can see themselves in, that they can embrace as their own. This literary honour is testament of that power, and emphasises the ever present need for more of us – to write, publish, and have the support we need to take our stories to an international audience.
Young was the 2018 ACP Pacific Laureate, selected by the Africa, Caribbean, Pacific Group of States. The writer prize recognises creativity, courage and entrepreneurship. The prize acknowledged her fiction writing, utilising of digital publishing to take Samoan stories to a global audience, and also her journalism.
Wendt Young was a co-founder of the online media site Samoa Planet. In May 2018 she was the recipient of the Douglas Gabb Australia Pacific Journalism Internship, hosted by ABC News and the Australian Dept of Foreign Affairs and Trade. In 2017, she was one of 10 "outstanding journalists" from the Pacific selected to report on the 2017 United Nations Climate Change Conference, held in Bonn, Germany.
She is the author of the young adult fantasy Telesa series, which has been described as the Pacific version of Twilight, and credited with helping to inspire young Pacific people around the world to read fiction from Oceania. The story is set in modern Samoa and is inspired by ancient mythology.
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Lani Wendt Young
Lani Wendt Young is a Samoan–New Zealand writer, editor, publisher and journalist. She is the author of 15 books including the bestselling young adult series Telesa.
Wendt Young was born and raised in Apia, Samoa. Her father was Samoan from the villages of Lefaga, Vaiala, Sapapalii, and Malie. Her mother is New Zealand Māori of the Ngāti Kahungunu tribe.
"I wrote the first book because it was the kind of thing I wanted to read as a 14 to 16-year-old growing up in the islands. There were always so many stories set in other parts of the world but never anything I could directly connect with – never anything in Samoa."
In May 2025, Young was celebrated in the 'Resilient Spirit Project: Portraits of Women Warriors', a project by the Samoa Ministry of Women, Community and Social Development that honored thirty Samoan women who have shaped Samoa's history and continue to lead its future, at the grassroots and national levels. In February 2019, Young was the recipient of a New Zealand Society of Authors Waitangi Day Honor. In accepting the award, Young said:
As a brown woman who writes – oftentimes from the margins and smashing gates as I do so – I have seen the transformative power wrought by stories written by us, about us, and for us, as our communities the world over revel in books they can see themselves in, that they can embrace as their own. This literary honour is testament of that power, and emphasises the ever present need for more of us – to write, publish, and have the support we need to take our stories to an international audience.
Young was the 2018 ACP Pacific Laureate, selected by the Africa, Caribbean, Pacific Group of States. The writer prize recognises creativity, courage and entrepreneurship. The prize acknowledged her fiction writing, utilising of digital publishing to take Samoan stories to a global audience, and also her journalism.
Wendt Young was a co-founder of the online media site Samoa Planet. In May 2018 she was the recipient of the Douglas Gabb Australia Pacific Journalism Internship, hosted by ABC News and the Australian Dept of Foreign Affairs and Trade. In 2017, she was one of 10 "outstanding journalists" from the Pacific selected to report on the 2017 United Nations Climate Change Conference, held in Bonn, Germany.
She is the author of the young adult fantasy Telesa series, which has been described as the Pacific version of Twilight, and credited with helping to inspire young Pacific people around the world to read fiction from Oceania. The story is set in modern Samoa and is inspired by ancient mythology.