Lynda Chanwai-Earle

Lynda Chanwai-Earle (born 1965) is a New Zealand writer and actor.

The daughter of a Chinese mother and a Pākehā father, she was born in London and grew up in Papua New Guinea. She studied fine arts at the Elam School of Fine Arts, drama at the University of Auckland and scriptwriting at Victoria University of Wellington. Chanwai-Earle toured with the Māori theatre company Te Rakau Hua O Te Wao Tapu as a script coordinator and drama facility, as well as a performer. She also worked as a producer and presenter for Radio New Zealand.
Her poems were included in the anthologies Sevensome (1993) and Going Solo (1997). Her poetry has appeared in literary journals in New Zealand and elsewhere including Landfall, Hecate and Antic. Lynda Chanwai-Earle co-wrote the films Chinese Whispers (with Neil Pardington and Stuart McKenzie) and After (with Simon Raby).
She has been short-listed several times for the Bruce Mason Playwriting Award.
The 2008 touring production of her play "Heat" was designed as the world's first piece of emission-neutral theatre.

• honeypants, poetry (1994), was shortlisted for the Penn Book Awards and New Zealand Book Awards
• Ka Shue (Letters home), play (1996)
• Alchemy, play (1998)
• Box/Role/Dream, play (2000)
• Foh-Sarn (Fire mountain), play (2000)
• Monkey, play (2004), was nominated for two Chapman Tripp Theatre Awards
• Heat, play (2004)

• "Chanwai Earle, Lynda". New Zealand Book Council.