Stuart Corlett

I’m a New Zealand writer, photographer and public speaker. I lived in Thailand from 2000 to 2015, and my writing draws on more than twenty years of work in international aid and development, including work in Shan State, Myanmar.

My Christian faith is an important root of that work and of my writing. It keeps bringing me back to the practical questions of love: how we listen, how we respond to suffering, and how we help while respecting another person’s freedom. I write for readers with many beliefs and backgrounds, and I hope the books make room for curiosity and honest conversation.

Living and working across cultures has given me plenty of reasons to question my assumptions. Those questions find their way into stories about belonging, power and compassion, and into nonfiction about belief, loss and the choices we make together. There is room for humour too; I’m still learning how to be better with people.

I’m co-founder of Circuit International, a charity that is, frankly, quite different. Our work focuses on sustainable development in Shan State, Myanmar, helping reduce poverty and the vulnerability that can lead to human trafficking. That work continues to shape the questions I bring to my books.

Different stories.
Connected questions.

In the MARKED series, unusual gifts bring difficult responsibilities. A Distant Light follows the ties between a family and its home. The four novels in the Maksym Kovalenko series move from war in Ukraine to the work of peace and reconstruction. Begin with The Unbroken Sky, then read The Second Horizon, The Silent Horizon and The Common Sky.

My nonfiction moves from the ethics of faith and development to the everyday work of being better with people. I also explore belief, uncertainty and responsibility in How to Become Luckier and its alternative edition, How to Get Lucky.

Read my essay Why I Explore Science Through Fiction for a closer look at the questions behind the novels.