New Zealand playwright Renée Gertrude Taylor, known as Renée, was BOTD in 1929. Born in Napier, to a white father and a Māori (Ngāti Kahungunu) mother, her father committed suicide when she was four, and she was raised by her mother. She left school at 12 to work in a woollen mill, and was married at 19, raising three sons while writing for newspapers and directing amateur plays in her spare time. In 1969, aged 40, she began studying for an English degree by correspondence, supporting herself by working as an English teacher at Wairoa College. She completed her degree a decade later at the University of Auckland, where she became involved in the women’s movement and lesbian feminist politics. Her debut play Setting the Table, focusing on four lesbian characters, was first performed in 1981, becoming one of the first open portrayals of homosexuality in New Zealand theatre. She is best known for her Wednesday to Come play trilogy, written between 1984 and 1991, following three generations of women in one family from the Great Depression into the 1950s, with a prequel set in the 19th century. It became a landmark in New Zealand theatre, notably for its depiction of working class experience and foregrounding of female, lesbian and Māori characters. Her other work includes the 1987 short story collection Finding Ruth and ten novels exploring non-traditional family relationships. Openly lesbian since the 1970s, she was a prominent supporter of the campaign to decriminalise homosexuality in New Zealand (eventually achieved in 1986). One of New Zealand’s most beloved literary figures, her work inspired younger generations of playwrights including Lorae Parry, Michelanne Forster and Hone Kouka. Her memoir These Two Hands was published in 2017. The following year, she was awarded the Prime Minister’s Award for Literary Achievement in Fiction. She died in 2023, aged 94.